Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

No charge in Ian Tomlinson death

The Crown Prosecution Service has said there is no charge to answer in the case of a newspaper vendor who died during the G20 protests in London. So the police culture of impunity continues.

The police officer filmed pushing Ian Tomlinson to the ground will not face criminal charges, the Crown Prosecution Service said [...]

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Well I’ve been doing some editing…

…for the Index on Censorship.
They recently had Sir Tom Stoppard and the Belarus Free Theatre on at the Free Word Centre.
Nick Cohen wrote a smashing review in the Guardian about how to make a drama out of a crisis.
Belarus is possibly Europe’s last dictatorship where freedom of speech and expression are, to state the bleeding [...]

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Anti-terror Stop and Search Powers To Be Scrapped

Home Secretary Theresa May is to halt searches of individuals without reasonable suspicion after the European Court of Human Rights rules the power unlawful.

The controversial use of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is to be scrapped immediately, Home Secretary Theresa May has said.
In a speech to the House of [...]

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Questions Bloody Questions

The problem with filling out so many application forms for funding, placements, new livers… are the questions you have to answer. How does one eke out money for old rope – or worse, how do you feign insightful replies in approximately 200 words?
Here are a couple questions I’ve had to answer recently…along with the answers.
Which [...]

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Section 44 – Your Rights

Thousands of people across Britain have been stopped and searched illegally by police using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Office has revealed.

One of the most flagrant of these illegal uses was in London in April 2004, involving 840 people.
Fourteen police forces in the UK including the Metropolitan Police, City Police and [...]

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Wanna Buy a Tank?

For Sale. One Space Hijackers Tank. Last seen 01 April 2009 – at London’s G20 demonstrations – steaming down Bishopsgate with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries blaring from its soundsystem. 11 careful owners all registered on the DNA database. Many of us popped our arrest cherry that day.

Our mobile oppression [...]

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Inside the Doctor’s Surgery: Dr D (and them billboards what he does)

Billboard vandal and drinker of tea Dr D plies his trade in a West London warehouse nestled in a landscape of railway lines, telephone poles and refrigerator graveyards.
When we meet, he is ankle deep in cut-out letters, spraymount and a scattering of UK election campaign propaganda. He’s recently finished a two-storey high paste up [...]

Friday, May 28th, 2010

sTate Modern: Tate Makes Surveillance An Art Form

A new show called Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera opens at Tate Modern this week. It features images made surreptitiously or without the explicit permission of the subject. It is the history of spying with a lens in just over 250 photographs.
But there’s an elephant in the museum. As [...]

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

The Ad the FT Refused to Print

Why? Libel. Apparently.
Instead of redrafting the Amnesty International press release and passing the words off as my own [really? that happens in the press?], here’s a link to the press release.

UPDATE: The ad is causing a bit of a stir in the FT newsroom. Emails are circulating amongst staffers, freelancers and management. In pre-Twitter [...]

Monday, May 17th, 2010

It’s SHell Out There

Amnesty Intenational are launching a new film ahead of Shell’s AGM in London tomorrow. It’s about Shell’s human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, highlighting the issue of gas flaring. They will also be driving around the City and Barbican with some billboard advertising on their campaign.
Gas flaring contributes to just over 1% of the [...]