19 Feb 08 | News and features
A poster advertising a new play has been banned from Angel underground station in London after regulators decided it was “likely to offend ethnic, religious or other major groups”. The poster, for the play Fat Christ by Gavin Davis, shows the playwright wearing boxer shorts and standing in a crucifixion pose.
Reverend Stephen Coles, of St Thomas’s Church in nearby Finsbury Park criticised the move, saying: “The itch to censor is something one should resist. We’re grown-ups and Jesus can defend himself. One has to be a little wary of indulging the super-sensitive.”
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06 Feb 08 | News and features
Since October 2007, Sayed Parvez Kambaksh, a 23-year old Afghan journalist, has been in prison in Balkh province, Northern Afghanistan and sentenced to execution for blasphemy by a local Sharia court in Mazar-e-Sharif. His ‘crime’ was distributing articles downloaded from the internet that questioned the condition of women under Islam. The Afghan government has supported the Islamic court’s ruling.
On Thursday, 31 January, 200 people demonstrated for his freedom in Kabul. International public opinion and pressure must join them to save his life.
Join the demonstration in London on Friday, 8 February, 2008, 12.00 to 2.00 pm at the Afghanistan Embassy, 31 Princes Gate, London, SW7
30 Jan 08 | News and features
The Afghan Senate has issued a statement supporting the death sentence imposed on a journalist.
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24 Jan 08 | News and features
A young reporter has been found guilty of blasphemy, writes Harun Najafizada in Balkh
A primary court in the city of Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan has sentenced local journalist Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh to death.
Kambakhsh, 23, a reporter for Jahan-e Naw (New World) weekly and a student of journalism at Balkh University has been accused of blasphemy and misrepresenting the verses of the Quran.
On Tuesday afternoon, the primary court of Mazar-e Sharif convened a session behind closed doors and announced the verdict after a three-hour discussion.
The session, which was not attended by defending lawyers, journalists or human rights defenders, or even by Kambakhsh’s relatives, has been widely criticised for issuing such a strong sentence and ignoring the Afghan constitution.
Kambakhsh, who was arrested three months ago by the National Security Department (the intelligence service) and kept in prison, had downloaded an article from an Iranian website and distributed it to his friends.
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