17 Sep 10 | Index Index, minipost
Voice of America correspondent Abdulmalik Boboyev is facing between five and eight years in prison on four charges in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, by prosecutors brought against him on 13 September. Three of the charges relate to his work as a journalist: “defamation” , “insult” and “preparing and disseminating material constituting a threat to public order and security”.
Boboyev has also been charged with “illegal entry into the country” and has been banned from going abroad.
13 Sep 10 | Index Index, minipost
The government has opted to outlaw a pro-euthanasia advert on the grounds that it promotes suicide. The advert shows an actor speaking of suffering and disease, asking the government to listen to those who want to practice assisted suicide. It has been more than ten years since a pro-euthanasia advert was broadcast in Australia.
09 Sep 10 | Uncategorized
The argument that mob censorship is what stopped Tony Blair from going ahead with his London book signing and subsequent private shindig at Tate Modern holds no water. A much larger mob of millions marched against the invasion of Iraq in 800 cities around the world. But in those days Blair ran Britain. And his mate George ran the United States.
These days Tony Blair cuts a tragicomic figure who embodies the oxymoron. He’s charged with bringing about Middle East peace when his actions fuelled fires in those deserts. He’s pulled out of public events due to “threats of protest” from a gaggle of anti-war activists yet was cloth-eared to the millions shouting against an Iraq invasion before a single shock had been awed.
The demonstrations in Dublin set a precedent but would you have expected anything less? Hundreds of thousands of war dead may have been wiped off this earth but the violence that brought those deaths have scarred the skin of our humanity. The world was screaming “stop” but the men who held the guns still shot. We’ll never forgive Blair or Bush for that.
By publishing his book, he’s exercised his right to speak. He’s sated his ego by ensuring he won’t be forgotten. The people who planned to demonstrate at Waterstone’s and Tate Modern would’ve been exercising their right to protest. Both are freedoms of expression we should fight to protect. Both are freedoms the dead do not have.
Blair is having a crisis of conscience. He’s not having second thoughts about causing the deaths of soldiers and civilians and upsetting the balance of the Middle East for generations. Ever the considerate host, he feared a thousand people with placards calling him a war criminal would “hassle” his guests. Perhaps cancelling his events is muzzling him. But it’s not censorship that stopped him. It’s cowardice.
08 Sep 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Blogger, author and founder of Bahrain’s BahrainOnline forum, Ali Abdulemam was arrested on 4 September by Bahraini authorities for allegedly spreading “false news” on the BahrainOnline.org portal. On the afternoon of 5 September, BahrainOnline was shut down for good, by the authorities. A crackdown on media began in Bahrain on 13 August.
