Libel Law Update: Long Term Campaign?

From the desk of admin ·April 21, 2008 at 10:30 am · Filed under All WW, Campaigns, Columns, Free Speech Campaign, Human Rights / Freedom, News - Current Affairs, Political Blogging

Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads is looking at putting some time into campaiging for reform of the UK Libel Laws.

Following through on the Usmanov Affair

Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads may be taking on Libel Law Reform as his next project. He has a post there asking whether it is more important to work on the reform of British Libel Law, or alternatively to set up a project to track Rupert Murdoch’s Media Empire. Tim writes:

After the Alisher Usmanov affair, I did some poking around to see what kind of support bloggers and other web-publishers could expect from the UK hosting industry we would most likely have to abandon en masse if this kind of thing continues… and I didn’t get a nibble.

There were some fine print and television journalists batting for us here and there during the whole Usmanov thing, but challenging the status quo on something this big requires hefty editorial support. I don’t like our chances.

The short version is as follows: if bloggers want to change or challenge the UK libel laws, those of us that do choose to stand together against this kind of nonsense will on our own.

Of those two options, I would go for the Libel Law Reform. After all, if some reforms are achieved, then there is a smaller chance of being sued by Mr Murdoch later!

Also, there is a still a fairly strong coalition of support from bloggers across (and outside) the political spectrum, and I think that is a thing worth maintaining.

For me, this also ties into the whole Civil Liberties agenda - which I think is crucially important in the next 1-5 years.

Wrapping Up

I’m providing one focus for Civil Liberties material in the “Campaigns” channel on the Magazine View of the Wardman Wire . I’m also including relevant article summaries from the Our Kingdom blog.

If you publish articles in this area from time to time - and can provide a clean feed of them - I’d be interesting in including a short excerpt (linking directly back to your site) in this feed.

Tags: libel law, bloggerheads, alisher usmanov, shillings lawyers

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Polevaulting the Great Firewall of China: Human Rights Olympic Knockout

From the desk of admin ·April 11, 2008 at 10:25 pm · Filed under All WW, Campaigns, Free Speech Campaign, Hints and Tips, Internet / Technical, Media, News - Current Affairs, Wordpress Plugin

There are many ways to keep your website visible in China despite the censorship of external websites by the authorities; here is one that is quick to setup and also nimble.

Domain Mirror Plugin

There is a full mirror of The Wardman Wire at www.mattwardman.co.uk.

That is done using a plugin called Domain Mirror, which allows the copy of Wordpress installed on mattwardman.com to provide service to people viewing mattwardman.co.uk.

The Wordpress plugin

The approach is quite nimble, as I can set up a mirror viewable from China anywhere where:

• I can get a domain that can be configured to mirror this one.
• That domain is not blocked by the Great Firewall.

The advantages are:

• I only need to maintain one copy of Wordpress (my previous “UK Edition” of the blog
• I can move the whole thing to any domain that can be configured appropriately in about 24 hours for very small cost (e.g., a .uk domain would cost me around £5.00 for 2 years).

That is one way; there are several others mentioned on Wikipedia (for example) - and even more elsewhere.

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster watches them watching you…

From the desk of admin ·April 4, 2008 at 3:43 pm · Filed under All WW, Ethics - Religion, Free Speech Campaign, Humour, Humourous, Politics

Following on from Simon Barrow’s column this morning, here’s something lighter but still related to Simon’s areas of free speech, religion, secularism and the public square.

Crossville, Tennessee, has a sculpture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster outside their Courthouse in an art exhibition space.

I wonder what the reaction would be if an artist put a crucifix in the exhibition space currently occupied by the Spaghetti Monster?

Would equality and Freedom of Speech prevail then? I’m actually not sure - because, even though everyone claims that the battle is about “free speech in the public space”, many have a side agenda to exclude their opponents.

[Update 10th April. Corrected, and me hoist by my own petard on this occasion, as Free Speech DID prevail and there had already been a chainsawed sculpture of Jesus carrying his cross displayed.

Another excerpt from the paper:

Another sculpture at the courthouse is of Jesus carrying the cross. Other displays include a memorial to soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Statue of Liberty, historic farm implements and fundraising totals.

Background:

On her Web site, www.itlovesyou.blogspot.com, a blog explaining the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Crossville artist Ariel Safdie states, “We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue. Here, we are all able to share the issues close to our hearts whether it is through a memorial to the soldiers killed fighting for our country, the Statue of Liberty honoring our nations welcoming promise to all, a group’s fight to stop homelessness, or powerful symbols of faith. I greatly treasure this open forum between everyone in the community.”

Although it may seem silly to some, Safdie adds, “The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a pile of noodles and meatballs, but it is meant to open up discussion and provoke thought. Being able to put up a statue is a celebration of our freedom as Americans; a freedom to be different, to express those differences, and to do it amongst neighbors — even if it is in a noodley way.”

Safdie was not available for comment at press-time.

County Mayor Brock Hill said, “We are basically operating it as a freedom of speech venue. We don’t deny the constitutional rights of anyone, but we certainly don’t endorse all the displays. I feel the Flying Spaghetti Monster is an effort on the part of non-Christians to try and minimize Christianity and the images that have been placed there. I’ll go as far as to say that I think it’s an attempt to minimize and ridicule the good intentions of Christians in Cumberland County, but I don’t deny their right.”

Hill said there have been some requests for displays which have been turned down and each request is looked at on the merit of the display.

On Good Friday a chainsaw-carved statue of Jesus carrying the cross was placed on the lawn, along with the Flying Spaghetti Monster and a play of the Stations of the Cross was acted out by the Cumberland Countians for Peace and Justice.

Pleased to make the correction]

via Raincoaster.

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Usmanov Schillings Close down Craig Murray: Marking the 6 month anniversary

From the desk of admin ·March 23, 2008 at 11:54 pm · Filed under Alisher Usmanov, Free Speech Campaign, Human Rights / Freedom, News - Current Affairs, Political Blogging

If you are following your own technorati “Authority” score you may have noticed a decline in the last few days.

It’s that time - 6 months since the Usmanov imbroglio, and all the links are dropping out of the Technorati scores. I’m down by 50 in 4 days.

The Technorati rankings don’t matter a damn, but perhaps it is a reminder - 6 months later - that it is time to pick up the Freedom of Expression cudgels once again.

The dodgy libel laws are still on the books, and Shillings Lawyers are still to be seen strutting about bullying people into self-censorship on the basis of untested and unproven allegations that material that happens to be disliked by rich clients is defamatory.

I haven’t forgotten; neither should any of us.

And I’m looking for more nominees for the Usmanov Schillings Duck-n-Cluck awards.

Tags: schillings, alisher usmanov, denial of free speech awards

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ID and DNA: I’d rather keep my freedom and be mugged more often, thank-you very much.

From the desk of admin ·February 27, 2008 at 4:00 pm · Filed under Free Speech Campaign, News - Current Affairs

Here we go again.

We have a government demanding that we let the power exist to lock people up for 42 days, and making “it won’t happen very often” an excuse, and we have a police force demanding that the crimes that have been solved because of 5 million records on the DNA database and nearly as many CCTV Cameras justify putting us under more and more control.

Signally, the Association of Chief Police Officers is calling for:

a debate on whether to expand the current database - of DNA details taken from crime suspects - to cover all people in the UK.

This is the wrong place to focus that debate. The question should be whether we scale the DNA database down so that it does not impinge on the human rights of individuals. As things stand, we have the rights of the innocent being routinely abused in DNA samples being retained.

The same goes for the guilty - it is wrong to routinely keep DNA records when the sentence for a crime has been served. There are exceptions to this, but not many.

Meanwhile we have a challenge in the European Court to the right for the police to retain the DNA of the innocent, purely because they happen to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time when an enquiry was in progress. The argument is based on how many crimes have been solved using DNA techniques.

Solve the Problem not the Symptom

However, we know that treating the symptoms of crime will not ultimately fix the problem.

It did not fix it when Michael Howard told us “prison works”, and it has not worked for the 2 N million extra fixed penalty notices handed out to increase the safety of drivers who were not trained properly originally.

We must address the causes, and that requires members of our society to take decisions not to commit crime in the first place.

So where does that leave us?

In short, at present we are on a helter-skelter to greater and greater state control of the individual - in a rush to be seen to address a panicky fear of crime in ways that are unlikely to fix the root cause anyway.

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Usmanov Schillings “Duck ‘n’ Cluck” Awards for Internet Intimidation I

From the desk of admin ·February 23, 2008 at 7:12 am · Filed under Free Speech Awards, Free Speech Campaign, News - Current Affairs

I’m delighted to announce two new Internet Awards for services beyond the call of duty in the area of suppression of Free Expression on the Internet in the UK.

The inaugural Bear-Faced Usmanov for internet bullying is awarded to Joseph Chikelue Obi, while the first Double Headed Schilling for being a soft-touch goes to Netcetera - The Occasional Internet Host.

The Bear-Faced Usmanov is for extreme efforts in closing down websites which are criticising you by threat without evidence.

Meanwhile The Double Headed Schilling is awarded to webhosts who roll over before such threats.

The first awards are in connection with the case of Joseph Chikelue Obi and the Quackometer, with internet hosting (sometimes) company Netcetera.

The whole thing was documented by the Register, from where the text extracts below are quoted.

Quack! Quack! Quackety-Quack!

The Citation for Joseph Chikelue Obi

“A discredited doctor has forced an ISP to silence a website that aimed to debunk claims made by his “Royal College of Alternative Medicine” (RCAM).

The website, Quackometer, run by Oxfordshire IT worker Andy Lewis, was shuttered by ISP Netcetera on Monday following threats to sue for defamation from Joseph Chikelue Obi.

Lewis recently targeted self-proclaimed professor, “Eminent Black British Human Rights Crusader” and “Undisputed Doyen of Medical Politics”, Joseph Chikelue Obi. Quackometer featured a series of articles lampooning claims made by RCAM in its blog section.

Obi describes himself as the provost of RCAM, a Dublin-based “empowerment body for advanced wellness consultants”.

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Freedom of Expression, an Egyptian Sandmonkey and the Motoons

From the desk of admin ·February 22, 2008 at 2:28 pm · Filed under Cartoon, Ethics - Religion, Free Speech Campaign, News - Current Affairs

I have just spotted that the Egyptian Sandmonkey blog has been back for some time (since August - and may have gone again). Blogrolled, regardless.

It was the Sandmonkey who provided a key piece of evidence that the “Motoons” controversy (which has just resurfaced) was - basically - a put up job, and the resulting demonstrations, deaths, embassy burnings and general outrage was essentially down to troublemaking.

The Sandmonkey, whose blog is summarised like this:

The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off.

Support the Neo-con American Right-wing Zionist Christian Imperialist Conspiracy in the Middle-east!

provided photographs of seven of the Mohammed Cartoons appearing in an Egyptian Newspaper (El Fagr) fully six weeks before the first delegation of Danish Imams visited the Middle East to stir up protest - with very little reaction by comparison. It is notable that there was no campaign mounted to boycott Egypt at the time !

I have been wondering whether to take part in the move to republish the cartoon (of Mohammed with a Bomb in his turban) as a statement of solidarity with the cartoonist who had been the subject of a murder plot.

Some may call that statement of solidarity provocative; in my opinion the best way to protect freedom of debate is to debate freely.

And it struck me - the picture has been on this blog since last June, as part of an article which was my paean for the Sandmonkey blog when it closed down then.

So, if you’re going to be offended by a photograph of a cartoon of Mohammed with a Bomb in his Turban (which I take to refer to the image of Islam projected by terror movements), appearing in a popular Arabic Newspaper in the largest Arab country in the world as an illustration for an article criticizing the cartoons which caused no widespread protests (before various people started fomenting trouble six weeks later) - then don’t click the link; otherwise do.

This is the link to the article about the Sandmonkey blog.

Tags: egyptian sandmonkey, el fagr, motoons, mohammed cartoons

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