WATCHING YOU...WATCHING ME

#Facebook Shocking #Deception : How Did Facebook Get Away With This ???

2012-02-25T13:26:00.005-08:00

http://spudgunsspoutings.blogspot.com/2011/12/mccanns-temple-of-influence-another.html

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/01/facebook-sues-alleged-clickjacking.html

#ChrisGrayling :UK Government falsify document to make it appear as if Chris Grayling hadn't lied

2012-02-25T00:07:00.003-08:00

It’s rare that something comes along which can be described as truly Orwellian, but this government hasn’t disappointed. The sheer desperation of Chris Grayling can be revealed in this document, which is the providers guidance for the Work Programme workfare scheme. As mentioned recently, this document contains the pronouncement that:
“Where you are providing support for JSA participants, which is work experience you must mandate participants to this activity. This is to avoid the National Minimum Wage Regulations, which will apply if JSA participants are not mandated.”
Which can be seen in this screenshot:...read more

http://bit.ly/wSnmxo

#ChrisTappin Betrayed By #Cameron The Poodle Of America

2012-02-24T23:58:00.003-08:00

A Briton being extradited to the US for allegedly selling batteries for Iranian missiles described his treatment as "a disgrace" as he arrived at Heathrow.

Retired businessman Christopher Tappin had said he was leaving the UK feeling he had fewer rights than a terrorist.

Mr Tappin, 65, from London, is being flown from Heathrow Airport to El Paso, Texas, escorted by US marshals.

Dan Cogdell, Mr Tappin's lawyer in the US, said he would "vigorously argue" for his client to be released on bail.

"There is no reasonable basis to believe that he is a flight risk or a danger. He is a 66-year-old respected businessman with no criminal record whatsoever," Mr Cogdell told BBC News.

Mr Tappin, of Orpington, south-east London, has fought against extradition through the British courts after being charged in the US with conspiring to export batteries which could be used in Hawk air defence missiles.

He faces a trial in El Paso and a possible 35-year jail sentence - but says that he is the victim of entrapment.

British judges say the extradition is lawful and the European Court of Human Rights has refused to intervene.

Mr Tappin's lawyer, Karen Todner, said it was "very likely" her client would now enter into a plea agreement to reduce any sentence that may be imposed.

Lawyer Karen Todner: "He will be wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs"

"If Mr Tappin does not enter into a plea agreement and is found guilty he will have to serve the whole sentence in America, which may actually effectively be the rest of his life, rather than serving a sentence in the UK, therefore I think it's very, very likely that he will enter into a plea agreement," she said.

Last week the European Court of Human Rights refused to intervene in his case. Mr Tappin, a former president of the Kent Golf Society, was ordered to present himself to Heathrow Airport to be taken to the US for trial.

He was seen departing from his house around 08:00 GMT and arrived at Heathrow police station accompanied by his wife Elaine.

Shortly after 10.30am, Mr Tappin's lawyer said British extradition officers had taken Mr Tappin to a plane where he was being handed over to US marshals. The flight was due to land in Texas around 16:00 local time (23:00 GMT).....read more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17146487

#ACTA : Ed Vaizey has confirmed to Parliament ACTA will not be included in the Communications Review Green Paper

2012-02-24T07:06:00.001-08:00

#ACTA

#Censored: The #Establishment Cover-up - Read The Shocking True Story

2012-02-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

http://maddiemccannmilliondollarbaby.blogspot.com/

#RyanGiggs : Humiliating surrender in Court admits there was no attempt to blackmail him and finally gives up attempts to maintain pricacy injunction

2012-02-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

More to follow.....

http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/05/imogen-thomas.html

Imogen Thomas

#Valencia : Police Brutality As Students Ask For Electricty To Heat Their Class

2012-02-20T12:08:00.000-08:00

Valencia are broke and it will only get worse with 5.4 million unemployed. Pharmacists have not been paid by the Goverment for more than five months , over the christmas period all chemists were closed for three days in a united protest.

http://www.publico.es/espana/423041/la-policia-vuelve-a-cargar-contra-estudiantes-en-valencia

John Michuki - Still No Credible Sauce - Internet Rumour Michuki Died In A UK Hospital

2012-02-20T08:35:00.001-08:00

http://kenyastockholm.com/category/breaking-news/

Environment Minister, John Michuki, Has Died ? Waiting for credible source

2012-02-20T06:31:00.002-08:00

Rumours still circulate about the death of Mr. Michuki on the internet but I can find no credible sauce and if it is a hoax it is in very poor taste.

If I hear anything I will post here but for the moment let us hope John Michuki is alive and well. Take care.

Environment Minister,

John Michuki,

#ChrisTappin #Extradition : Stop This EVIL Extradition And Sign The Petition

2012-02-20T01:51:00.006-08:00

http://www.freegary.britishintelligence.co.uk/tappin/

Stop The Extradition of Christopher Tappin

#Censored : #Cameron #Censor's #NHS Meet With The Media !

2012-02-19T11:42:00.001-08:00

The full story of Cameron's visit to NHS Hospital, with new confirmation from a visitor, patient & journalist.

As many of you reading this will know, I published various details of the Prime Minister's Wednesday visit to the Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary on this site over the last couple of days. What I now intend to do is talk you through a chronology of what happened that day. (all links appear in red writing)

News of the Prime Minister's Wednesday visit emerged the night before, when Conservative Central Office announced that the PM would be making a high profile visit to a hospital in the NE to a) bolster support for his NHS reforms & b) raise the importance of the damage binge drinking is doing. It was heavily trailed by the Murdoch press (see here for example). Two of my sources, privately, tell me that the staff were not informed of the PM's intended visit. Publicly, a governor of a Foundation Trust @RichardBlogger confirmed that this has happened before, where visits by the PM to his hospital were not even confirmed or cleared with the Board of Governors. In addition, @Adrian_Pearson, who is a chief correspondent at several North East newspapers, confirmed through a series of tweets in advance of the PM's visit that it was all very top secret because the last time the PM had visited there were protests (I do not recall those protests being reported do you?)....read much much more

http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2012/02/full-story-of-camerons-visit-to-nhs.html

#Kroll : Operation #BOHAN - Police Corruption

2012-02-19T07:04:00.001-08:00

IAN PUDDICK WEBSITE
http://www.ianpuddick.com/

#netrootsNW - Protect Your Rights To Free Speech

2012-02-19T02:13:00.004-08:00

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/join

Goverment New Spy Plan - They ARE Watching You !

2012-02-19T02:00:00.004-08:00

Phone and email records to be stored in new spy plan

Details of every phone call and text message, email traffic and websites visited online are to be stored in a series of vast databases under new Government anti-terror plans.

The databases would not record the contents of calls, texts or emails but the numbers or email addresses of who they are sent and received by Photo: ALAMY

Landline and mobile phone companies and broadband providers will be ordered to store the data for a year and make it available to the security services under the scheme.

The databases would not record the contents of calls, texts or emails but the numbers or email addresses of who they are sent and received by.

For the first time, the security services will have widespread access to information about who has been communicating with each other on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Direct messages between subscribers to websites such as Twitter would also be stored, as well as communications between players in online video games.

The Home Office is understood to have begun negotiations with internet companies in the last two months over the plan, which could be officially announced as early as May.

It is certain to cause controversy over civil liberties - but also raise concerns over the security of the records.

Access to such information would be highly prized by hackers and could be exploited to send spam email and texts. Details of which websites people visit could also be exploited for commercial gain.

The plan has been drawn up on the advice of MI5, the home security service, MI6, which operates abroad, and GCHQ, the Government’s “listening post” responsible for monitoring communications.

Rather than the Government holding the information centrally, companies including BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone and O2 would have to keep the records themselves.

Under the scheme the security services would be granted “real time” access to phone and internet records of people they want to put under surveillance, as well as the ability to reconstruct their movements through the information stored in the databases.

The system would track “who, when and where” of each message, allowing extremely close surveillance.

Mobile phone records of calls and texts show within yards where a call was made or a message was sent, while emails and internet browsing histories can be matched to a computer’s “IP address”, which can be used to locate where it was sent.

The scheme is a revised version of a plan drawn up by the Labour government which would have created a central database of all the information.

The idea of a central database was later dropped in favour of a scheme requiring communications providers to store the details at the taxpayers’ expense.

But the whole idea was cancelled amid severe criticisms of the number of public bodies which could access the data, which as well as the security services, included local councils and quangos, totalling 653 public sector organisations.

Labour shelved the project - known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme - in November 2009 after a consultation showed it had little public support.

Only one third of respondents backed the plan and half said they feared the scheme lacked safeguards and technical rigour to protect highly sensitive information.

At the same time the Conservatives criticised Labour’s “reckless” record on privacy.

A called Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State by Dominic Grieve, then shadow home secretary and now Attorney General, published in 2009, said a Tory government would collect fewer personal details which would be held by “specific authorities on a need-to-know basis only”.

But the security services have now won a battle to have the scheme revived because of their concern over the ability of terrorists to avoid conventional surveillance through modern technology.

They can make use of phone tapping but their ability to monitor email traffic and text messages is limited.

They are known to have lobbied Theresa May, the Home Secretary, strongly for the scheme.

Their move comes ahead of the London Olympics, which they fear will be a major target for terror attacks, and amid a climate of concern about terrorists’ use of the internet.

It has been highlighted by a number of attacks carried out after radicalisation took place through websites, including the stabbing by a young Muslim woman of an MP at his constituency surgery.

Sources said ministers are planning to allocate legislative time to the new spy programme, called the Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP), in the Queen’s Speech in May.

But last night privacy campaigners warned the scheme was too open to abuse and could be used for “fishing trips” by spies.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a civil liberties campaign organisation, said: “This would be a systematic effort to spy on all of our digital communications.

“The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats started their government with a big pledge to roll back the surveillance state.

“No state in history has been able to gather the level of information proposed - it’s a way of collecting everything about who we talk to just in case something turns up.”

There were also concerns about the ability of phone and internet companies to keep the information secure.

And the huge databases could also be used by internet service providers, particularly to work out which advertising to target at users.

Broadband firms including BT came up with a scheme almost three years ago to target advertising, but it did not get off the ground.

However, if companies were able to exploit the information they will be compelled to keep for the CCDP, they would be much more capable of delivering advertising to computers and even mobile phones based on users’ past behaviour.

Gus Hosein, of Privacy International, said: “This will be ripe for hacking. Every hacker, every malicious threat, every foreign government is going to want access to this.

“And if communications providers have a government mandate to start collecting this information they will be incredibly tempted to start monitoring this data themselves so they can compete with Google and Facebook.”

He added: “The internet companies will be told to store who you are friends with and interact with. While this may appear innocuous it requires the active interception of every single communication you make, and this has never been done in a democratic society.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public.

“We meet regularly with the communications industry to ensure that capability is maintained without interfering with the public’s right to privacy.

“As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review we will legislate as soon as Parliamentary time allows to ensure that the use of communications data is compatible with the Government’s approach to civil liberties.”

Andrew Kernahan of the Internet Service Providers’ Association said: “It is important that proposals to update Government’s capabilities to intercept and retain communications data in the new communications environment are proportionate, respect freedom of expression and the privacy of users, and are widely consulted upon in an open and transparent manner.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9090617/Phone-and-email-records-to-be-stored-in-new-spy-plan.html

#Censored #Cameron Cenors The Media On NHS Issue !

2012-02-18T05:49:00.002-08:00

http://therighttodieathomewiththoseilove.blogspot.com/2012/02/nhs_18.html

#Extradition : Chris Tappin And The Appalling U.S. - U.K. Extradition Treaty!

2012-02-18T05:02:00.003-08:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/82024418/The-Times-Chris-Tappin-Extradition

#SOCA And Music Piracy by Glyn Moody

2012-02-18T04:54:00.002-08:00

SOCA's Frightening New Approach to Music Piracy

Yesterday I wrote about the unusual aspects of the Serious Organised Crime Agency's take-down of the music site RnBXclusive. As I noted then, there are still lots of questions to be answered here, but another piece of the puzzle has been given to us in the form of the following statement on SOCA's Web site.

A warning has been directed at users frequenting a music download site which was taken offline on 14 February by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The action has prompted wide-ranging responses from website users, the general public, and other sites.

The targeted SOCA activity, which lasted 32 hours, was part of an operational programme aimed at protecting UK businesses and the wider economy.

The website in question specialised in RnB and enabled access to music obtained by hacking, including some which had not yet been released. IFPI estimates losses to legitimate businesses and artists caused by the site to be £15m a year. During the week running up to arrest phase the website had 70,000 users daily, mainly males aged 18 to 25 years.

SOCA has monitored responses since 08.30 on 14 February when rnbxclusive.com was taken offline following the arrest of a man for suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. He has now been released on bail pending further enquiries....read more

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/02/socas-frightening-new-approach-to-music-piracy/index.htm

#Google Tracking #Safari Users !

2012-02-17T23:40:00.002-08:00

Google has admitted bypassing the privacy settings of Apple's Safari web browser on iPhones and computers. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/AFP/Getty Images

Google has come under attack for violating users' privacy and ignoring their wishes after admitting that it intentionally circumvented security settings in Apple's Safari browser to track users on both desktop computers and iPhones.

A number of other advertisers exploited the loophole it had created to track those users too.
"Our data suggests that millions of users may have been affected," Jonathan Mayer, the independent researcher at Stanford University who discovered the workaround by the search giant, told the Guardian.

An Apple spokesman said: "We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a pressure group for users' rights online, said that then admission was bad news for the company, coming so soon after the news that it is aiming to unite the data it keeps about people using different parts of its services such as YouTube and its main search engine.

"It's time for Google to acknowledge that it can do a better job of respecting the privacy of web users," the EFF said in a statement, in which it warned: "Google, the time has finally come. You need to make a pro-privacy offering to restore your user's trust … it's time for a new chapter in Google's policy regarding privacy. It's time to commit to giving users a voice about tracking and then respecting those wishes."...read one

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/17/google-admits-tracking-safari-users

#ACTA - Stop Internet #Censorship! Sign the urgent global petition

2012-02-17T23:32:00.000-08:00

@Avaaz urging the EU Parliament to reject #ACTA:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet_spread/?twi

#Twitter Tweaks Its Privacy Guidelines After Storing Address Book Data

2012-02-16T08:04:00.001-08:00

Twitter vows to be more transparent with its users, as Apple says that apps which collect user data violate the company's guidelines for developers

Twitter says it will make privacy guidelines more explicit. Photograph: Martin Keene/PA

Twitter says it will make privacy guidelines more explicit after it admitted copying entire address books from people's smartphones and storing the information on its servers, according to reports.

Both the micro-blogging service and Apple, whose iPhone offers the Twitter app, have come under fire following the revelation.

Reports say that two US congressmen have written to Apple asking why the firm allows the practice on its iPhone, as it contravenes app developer guidelines....read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/16/twitter-tweaks-privacy-guidelines

#Wikleaks Release :Supressed Document By Carter Ruck Allowing FRAUD To Continue. Carter Ruck Fees Paid From The McCann FUND - To Suggest The Money Is Used To Search For A Child Is A Lie !

2012-02-16T00:14:00.001-08:00

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_Madeleine_Foundation_leaflet,_2009

Suppressed Madeleine Foundation leaflet, 2009

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Unless otherwise specified, the document described here:
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Release dateOctober 14, 2009

Summary

British libel lawyers Carter-Ruck have issued a threat to Madeleine Foundation co-founder Tony Bennett to have this leaflet and all electronic copies to be destroyed. The file has never been released and was used to create the leaflet "What really happened to Madeleine McCann? 10 key reasons which suggest that she was not abducted".

Thousands of copies of this leaflet have been hand delivered to many homes in the United Kingdom. Due to the prospective financial implications of facing a libel case against arguably Britain's top libel firm, Mr. Bennett has been forced to capitulate even though his supporters say he stands by each and every allegation in the leaflet.

The methods used by Carter-Ruck while acting for Kate and Gerry McCann have been to silence anyone who challenges the abduction story they told the police and which forms their alibi in the Madeleine McCann disappearance in Portugal in May 2007.

This file is easily verifiable against the many copies of the leaflet in circulation. The Sunday Express wrote an article on the leaflet in the middle of August 2009 and the BBC interviewed Debbie Butler of the Madeleine Foundation after she had delivered this leaflet to homes in Rothley, Leicestershire, UK.
If this file is suppressed and the leaflet is destroyed, the public will not be able to read the basic facts of the case as the McCanns have sought an injunction in Portugal against the chief inspector on the case who has recently had his book injuncted pending appeal.
It should be noted that WikiLeaks does not have an opinion about the veracity of Mr. Bennett's arguments. Our interest here is to protect the hisotical record from redaction.

Download
File | Torrent | Magnet

Further information
Context United Kingdom Non-governmental organization The Madeleine Foundation Primary language

English
File size in bytes

45056
File type information

Microsoft Office Document
Cryptographic identity

SHA256 4aa23a7ced23ebda9972c81ab3d893090f3d01cec9e0820fb54df50e7087e34d

SOURCE : Missing Madeleine Forum

More #Twitter Deception...

2012-02-15T08:24:00.001-08:00

Twitter has joined the list of companies making sheepish confessions that it uploads your smartphone's address book when you install its app.

Last week Path made a similar dicslosure, which was followed by changes by photo app Instagram to give users more privacy controls. And that led to a bit of discovery by smartphone users themselves that nothing is truly free.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_is_the_latest_company_to_admit_it_uploads.php

#CarterRuck Abuse Of Power Gets You Jail Time !

2012-02-15T06:09:00.001-08:00

http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/mccann_15.html

#FOI : Request For Answer's On McCann Case

2012-02-14T12:54:00.001-08:00

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/86682/response/220159/attach/html/4/0001%2000221411%20Resp%2013MADELINE%20MCCANN%20REQUESTS%2001.DOC.doc.html

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/censored-but-only-in-england.html

#Athens Torched : Video - The People Speak About What Is Wrong In Their Country

2012-02-14T12:04:00.001-08:00

http://edition.cnn.com/video/

#CENSORED : BUT Only In England !

2012-02-14T01:24:00.004-08:00

MADELEINE McCANN The 1,100,000,000 people who can buy, read and discuss ‘The Truth About A Lie’ – and the ‘free speech’ nation which cannot

13 Feb

Discussion document issued by the Madeleine McCann Research Group, 14 February 2012

On 20 October 2010, the Portuguese Appeal Court made a historic decision in the long-running case of Dr Gerald McCann and Dr Kate McCann -v- Dr Goncalo Amaral.

After a lower Portuguese Court had banned his book for 13 months, the Appeal Court decided, having regard to the right to freedom of speech and expression, that it was not libellous for his book, once again, to be freely sold in Portugal (and other countries, such as Brazil), where Portuguese is spoken.

We reproduce relevant extracts of the judgment below.

Not only has Dr Amaral’s book on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, ‘The Truth About A Lie’, been freely available in Portuguese-speaking countries for the past 16 months, it has also, since various dates from September 2008 onwards, been available in no fewer than eight different languages, and all the countries that speak those languages.

We’ve done a calculation as to which countries have Dr Amaral’s book on sale in their main language. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Andorra
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Bolivia
Chile
Cuba
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Germany
Guatemala
Holland
Honduras
Italy
Luxemburg
Mexico
Nicaragua
Norway
Paraguay
Peru
San Marino
Spain
Surinam
Sweden
Switzerland
Uruguay
Venezuela.

We estimate that around 1,100,000,000 people live in those countries: 1.1 billion, or nearly one-sixth of the world’s population.

Madeleine McCann was a British girl, born and bred in England, a land famed the world over for its freedoms, including the right of free speech. Yet Dr Amaral’s book cannot be published and sold in this country. Indeed, not only that, former Madeleine Foundation Secretary Tony Bennett currently faces a term of imprisonment for, amongst other things, referring to that book. In July 2010, for example, the Madeleine Foundation published a leaflet about Dr Goncalo Amaral, in which this statement appeared:

“In ‘The Truth About A Lie’, Dr Amaral explains why he and his team had good grounds for believing Madeleine had died in her parents’ apartment and covered up her death”.

That was and is a true – 100% factual statement. Yet as The Madeleine Foundation reported last year, the McCanns believe that the British public should not even be able to read that sentence. Carter-Ruck told the Madeleine Foundation that that sentence in their leaflet was libellous.

The world has turned upside down. Over a billion people worldwide can read the account by the initial senior detective in the case of the history of, conclusions arrived at, in his investigation.

But the people in the land where Madeleine was born, so the McCanns say, should not be allowed to read it.

There are in fact translations of Dr Amaral’s book available on the internet. Such is the power of the McCanns’ lawyers, Carter-Ruck, however, that we are not sure if we can give you the links here. So we won’t.

But what we can and will do is reproduce those parts of the Portuguese Appeal Court’s judgment which explain just how widely in the world Dr Amaral’s book can be bought and read:

EXTRACTS FROM THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF APPEAL
IN PORTUGAL - IN THE CASE OF McCANNS -v- AMARAL

On 24 July 2008, the defendant Dr Goncalo Amaral first published his book, through publishers Guerra e Paz.

In that book, Dr Amaral put forward the following hypothesis:

·   That the child Madeleine McCann died in the Ocean Club apartment G5A in Vila da Luz, on the evening of 3 May 2007
·   That the McCanns and their friends fabricated an abduction
·   That Dr Kate Healy and Dr Gerald McCann are suspected of involvement in the concealment of their daughter’s body
·   That the death may have been the outcome of a tragic accident
·   That there are indications of neglect of the care and safety of the children.

Dr Amaral’s book was published in four editions by the end of July, a further nine by the end of August, and another 12 by end of September. Each edition was of around 10,000 copies. [Thus, in all, around 250,000 copies were printed]. At the time of our decision, the book had been sold out at practically all points of sale.

When the book was published, Dr Amaral gave an interview to the newspaper Correia da Manha, published on 24 July 2008. In that interview, he explained his analysis of the case. He also gave interviews later to all other media that asked him for an interview, each time defending the book’s thesis.

At the beginning of May 2009, Dr Amaral published his book in France, this time under the title: ‘Maddie, L’Enquete interdite: Les revelations du commissaire portugais charge de l’enquete [The revelations of the Portuguese co-ordinator of the investigation].

Dr Amaral also gave countless interviews to several media in France, including the one that was published by Le Parisien newspaper in both its paper and online editions. In those interviews, Dr Amaral continued to promote his hypothesis on the case. The book’s French edition was, and continues to be, systematically and prolifically promoted on the internet, for example on the following websites: [a long list of websites follows] .

Between the date when the Portuguese edition was published [24 July 2008] and the date of the book’s French edition [May 2009], Televisao Independente (TVI) broadcast a TV programme produced by Valentim de Carvalho for the company Filmes, Audiovisuais, SA [FASA], who hold the copyright of the documentary.

The first transmission of that programme was on 13 April 2009, the second on 12 May 2009. This programme was essentially based on the contents of Dr Amaral’s book: ‘Maddie: The Truth About A Lie’. In that documentary, Dr Amaral appears and continues to advance his theory (a) that Madeleine is no longer alive (b) that her death occurred within their Ocean Club apartment, and (c) that her parents, the McCanns, concealed their daughter’s body.

At least 2,200,000 people viewed the first screening of this programme.

At the end of April 2009, a DVD of the programme was made, with the following title and subtitle: ‘Maddie – The Truth About A Lie: A powerful documentary based on the best-seller ‘The Truth About A Lie’ by Goncalo Amaral. Already, 75,000 copies of this DVD have been distributed for sale. The DVD is published on FASA’s website.

All the actions within the investigation that Dr Amaral reports in his book are documented within the investigation file. Not only that, but the investigation documents were also made available in electronic format, not only to the national media, but to international media. These media proceeded to divulge the contents of the reports and statements from the investigation file. This publication of the electronic reports naturally enabled knowledge of the facts of the investigation to be circulated. Public comments were made and soon there was universal discussion of the contents of the investigation file. Any individual in the world can have access to these facts and to the documents of the investigation which enabled the facts of the investigation to be verified. All of this was only a click on the mouse away.

The friends of the McCanns did not make themselves available in Portugal to attend a reconstruction [of the events of 3 May 2007]. This is all documented on pages 4,636 to 4,638 of Volume XII of the ‘Investigation Processos’ files, complied by the Prosecutor’s office.

Dr Amaral’s book was published, through other editors, in several countries, as well as in France, as we referred to above.

The publications occurred as follows:

·   In Spain, September 2008, titled ‘Maddie – La verdad de la mentira’
·   This was distributed in the Spanish/Castilian language in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries
·   In Denmark, in November 200, titled ‘Maddie – Sandheden on Lognem’.
·   This Danish edition was then published in the Nordic countries of Norway and Sweden
·   In Italy, December 2008, titled ‘Maddie – La Verita della Menzonga’.
·   That edition was distributed in Italian-speaking countries all over the world
·   In Holland, April 2009, titled ‘Maddie – De Waarheide Achter de Leugen’.
·   That was distributed in Dutch-speaking countries throughout the world
·   In Germany, in June 2009, with the tile: ‘Maddie – De Wahrheit uber die Luge’
·   This was also distributed in German-speaking countries, including Austria and Switzerland.
·   There is also an English version circulating on the internet, on the web site www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/PJ/TRANSLATIONS.htm , where a Portuguese version can also be found.

Published by the Madeleine McCann Research Group, 14 February 2012

http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/httpmccannexposure_14.html

#Greece : Image - Greece Is Burning...

2012-02-12T14:11:00.001-08:00

http://twitpic.com/8j2csm

#Greece #Athens :Live-Stream: Athens Mass Protest Against Austerity

2012-02-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

http://ow.ly/1hkyhM

#Waitrose #Censorship #Monsanto .....

2012-02-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

#Waitrose is still censoring comments on its Facebook page critical of its links to #Monsanto. Please continue to post & take screenshots!

#ACTA Protests : Thousands Take To The Streets Across Europe

2012-02-11T15:53:00.001-08:00

Marchers in London gathered outside British Music House, home to several major rights holders

Thousands of people have taken part in co-ordinated protests across Europe in opposition to a controversial anti-piracy agreement.

Significant marches were held in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

Around 200 protesters gathered in central London outside the offices of several major rights holders.

Demonstrators argued that Acta will limit freedom of speech online.

However the agreement's supporters insist it will not alter existing laws, and will instead provide protection for content creators in the face of increasing levels of online piracy.

The treaty has to date been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament. A debate is due to take place in June.

On Friday, Germany delayed signing the agreement in order to, a spokesman said, "give us time to carry out further discussions".

'In secret'

Saturday's London demonstration was supported by the Open Rights Group, a vocal opponent to the treaty. The group's executive director, Jim Killock, argued that Germany's stance shows Acta negotiations were carried out "in secret" by EU "bureaucrats"....read more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16999497

Stop #ACTA : Join London Protest Facebook..

2012-02-11T15:51:00.001-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/events/170835693019760/

#GMail Hacked ?: How To Stop Your G Mail Account From Being Hacked.

2012-02-11T15:07:00.001-08:00

As has been widely reported, high profile users of Gmail - including US government officials, reporters and political activists - have had their email accounts hacked.

This wasn't a sophisticated attack against Google's systems, but rather a cleverly-crafted HTML email which pointed to a Gmail phishing page.

Victims would believe that they had been sent an attachment, click on the link, and be greeted by what appeared to be Gmail's login screen. Before you knew it, your Gmail username and password could be in the hands of unauthorised parties.

So, what steps should you take to reduce the chances of your Gmail account being hacked?..read more

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/06/02/how-to-stop-your-gmail-account-being-hacked/

#ACTA - Protests Today In London - Will The Goverment Use Chemical Agents On Those Who Protest ?

2012-02-11T04:51:00.001-08:00

http://smileyculturelies.blogspot.com/2012/02/policestae-banned-chemical-weapons-to.html

#Libel Abuse Of Power Trial : Lord Mandelson's Integrity Questioned

2012-02-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

The Russian oligarch, the Old Etonian billionaire and deeply disturbing questions about Lord Mandelson's integrity

Siberia in January is a very cold place indeed. What relief, then, for four weary travellers to be able to warm themselves in front of the furnace of an enormous smelter — all wearing hard hats bearing the corporate logo of Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer.

One of the men is Oleg Deripaska, the controversial Russian oligarch and boss of Rusal. He owns the gigantic Sayanogorsk plant near the tundra city of Abakan.
At his side is his youthful British friend and adviser, the Honourable Nat Rothschild. A billionaire financier in his own right.
A third member of the party is Peter Munk, the Canadian founder and chairman of the world’s largest gold-producing corporation. Mr Munk is a business partner of Deripaska and Rothschild.

Hard-headed businessmen (from left): Peter Munk, the Canadian founder and chairman of the world's largest gold-producing corporation, Lord Mandelson, oligarch Oleg Deripaska and financier Nat Rothschild as they visit the Siberian smelter

And the smiling man at the centre of this high-powered group?
None other than Peter (now Lord) Mandelson, architect of the New Labour project, former close adviser to Tony Blair and Business Secretary in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet.
At the time these photographs were taken, in January 2005, Mandelson was the EU Trade Commissioner.
But for all the formal poses, hard hats, heavy industrial surroundings and tycoon entourage, Mandelson was in Siberia on a very unofficial basis.

More...

Certainly, his then Brussels chef de cabinet Simon Fraser — today the Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the UK’s Diplomatic Service — was told by Mandelson that it was to be a purely ‘recreational’ trip organised by Rothschild.
That is what Mandelson believed when he spoke to Mr Fraser.
But the pictures are compelling evidence that Rothschild escorted his influential politician friend on an altogether more business-like schedule.

Visit: This picture of the group being shown round the aluminium plant was commented on by the judge and was a crucial piece of evidence. It shows the group studying a map showing exports to the EU

They show something of the extraordinary, all-expenses paid (but officially undeclared) journey, in which Mandelson was taken to within a few hundred miles of the Mongolian border.
The circumstances of, and motives behind, this trip were the focus of a £1.25 million libel trial which ended yesterday in a milestone victory for the Daily Mail. The action had been brought by Nat Rothschild.
We had said that Rothschild encouraged an inappropriately close relationship between Mandelson and Deripaska; one which exposed the then EU commissioner to allegations of conflict of interest and endangered the dignity of his office.
This was politically explosive.
Mandelson’s fondness for the generosity of the super-rich had twice before seen him have to resign from British ministerial positions.

Russian tradition: Rothschild said that he, Mandelson and Deripaska were beaten with birch twigs during the trip to Siberia (file photo)

Rothschild sued for libel. The Mail stood by our allegations and the case was brought to trial last month.
Yesterday justice was done.
In his judgment in favour of Associated Newspapers, the Honourable Mr Justice Tugendhat found that the financier ‘had not been entirely candid throughout the different stages of the case, or in evidence’.
The judge further observed: ‘Mr Rothschild states that he took Lord Mandelson on the trip as a friend and not for any business reason.
‘I cannot accept that the position was as simple as that . . . I do not accept that there is a clear line between the business and the personal sides of Mr Rothschild’s relationship with Mr Deripaska.
‘They have very extensive business relationships. When asked about this, Mr Rothschild gave what I regard as quite unrealistic answers.’
We shall address Rothschild’s grasp of reality later. But the implications of our victory are enormous.
One of Britain’s richest men has had both his conduct and his candour found wanting.
An already controversial Russian oligarch’s apparent courting of a senior British politician for his own business interests has been exposed.
And thanks to his self-confessed enjoyment of the finer things in life and according to Rothschild’s evidence, Lord Mandelson has, once again, left himself open to questions about his integrity and conflicts of interest while serving in public office.
But first let us switch the scene to the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

An already controversial Russian oligarch’s apparent courting of a senior British politician for his own business interests has been exposed

The intriguing relationship between Mandelson, Rothschild and Deripaska first came to public attention in September 2008, due to the so-called ‘Yachtgate’ affair. Mandelson, Rothschild, the then shadow chancellor George Osborne and Tory fund-raiser Andrew Feldman all holidayed on Corfu that summer.
Oleg Deripaska’s super-yacht, on which Mandelson was a guest for three nights, lay off Corfu, where the Rothschild family has a villa.
The fallout began when a newspaper reported that Mandelson had been disparaging about the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, during dinner at Villa Rothschild.
The source of the leak was widely considered to be Osborne.
Rothschild was furious that his hospitality had been abused. He retaliated by sending a letter to The Times newspaper in which he claimed that Osborne had tried to solicit a donation of £50,000 from Deripaska.
As Deripaska is a Russian citizen a personal donation would have been illegal under British electoral law.
Osborne denied this and the Tories released a statement saying: ‘The allegations made in Mr Rothschild’s letter to The Times are completely untrue.’
They claimed it was Rothschild himself who had suggested a Deripaska donation.

Siberian visit: Sebastian Taylor, Peter Munk, Nathaniel Rothschild, pictured centre with Oleg Deripaska, second right and Peter Mandelson, far right, during a visit to a Siberian hydro-electric plant

As public interest in Mandelson’s friendship with the oligarch grew, the Trade Commissioner’s spokesman issued a statement. It said that Mandelson had previously only met Deripaska at social events in 2006 and 2007. And they had never discussed aluminium tariffs.
However, it soon became apparent that at least the first part of this rebuttal was untrue.
Mandelson had to issue a second statement in which he admitted to having first met Deripaska in 2004.
What else then was still deliberately obscured? (Deripaska also had question marks over his own past, which led to his U.S. visa being revoked in 2006, reportedly for suspected links with Russian organised crime. Deripaska denies such links.)
In early 2010, my colleague Neil Barnett and I began to investigate a dinner that took place at the Cantinetta Antinori, a Tuscan restaurant in Moscow, in January 2005.
It had been reported already that Mandelson had met Deripaska at the Cantinetta that night.
The accounts suggested a social occasion. We learned that a meal hosted by Deripaska’s Rusal company had been held in a private room in the restaurant to celebrate a £500 million deal for two aluminium plants. Rusal was selling them to the American aluminium giant Alcoa.

Libel action: Nathaniel Rothschild, left, brought the case against the Daily Mail over an article about a meeting he arranged between Lord Mandelson, right and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Senior members of the Alcoa board were at the dinner.
What was not disputed is that Mandelson had earlier been attending the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland and had been flown to Moscow with Rothschild in the financier’s private jet.
He had, Mr Justice Tugendhat observed, ‘no official reason to do so’.
Mandelson, in the company of Rothschild, then made a brief, surprise, appearance in the room where the Alcoa dinner was under way. Deripaska was also present, as was his business partner Munk.

Of all the private rooms, in all the restaurants, in all the cities, in all the world, on that particular night, why did Mandy have to walk into that one, you might well wonder

As Mr Justice Tugendhat stated in his judgment yesterday: ‘It is agreed that before the Alcoa dinner, Lord Mandelson greeted the people at that dinner, and this was unknown to EU officials.’
As EU Trade Commissioner, Mandelson had a role in EU aluminium import tariffs. Rusal’s plants exported aluminium into the EU.
Surely his undisclosed attendance at such a gathering presented a danger of at least the appearance of conflict of interests?
Rothschild later claimed he had not then known that the Alcoa gathering was to mark what was a significant and politically sensitive deal. Mandelson did not stay for the meal itself.
But of all the private rooms, in all the restaurants, in all the cities, in all the world, on that particular night, why did Mandy have to walk into that one, you might well wonder.
Mandelson made no formal complaint about our story, which appeared in May 2010. Not so Rothschild.
He was ‘enraged’ by it, declaring that it was ‘detached from reality’. The thin-skinned and extremely rich Old Etonian sometimes appears incapable of reading anything written about him without calling his favourite libel lawyers, Schillings.

During the Corfu 'yachtgate' scandal, Deripaska found himself at the centre of a political firestorm between Lord Mandelson and shadow chancellor George Osborne. Details of private conversations between the two politicians aboard the Russian's super-yacht, the Queen K, thrust Deripaska into the limelight

And so it was a libel writ was issued. But in dismissing the reasons we had given for Mandelson’s trip to Russia, Rothschild had also to give his alternative version. Thanks to Rothschild’s own witness statement, a new and sensational element to the affair emerged.
The real reason Mandelson went with Rothschild to the Cantinetta Antinori was so he could have a private, unofficial and EU-undeclared dinner with the Russian Finance minister; a dinner also arranged, and attended briefly, by Deripaska.
Mandelson had merely ‘greeted’ the Alcoa gathering while he waited on the minister, said Rothschild.
After leaving the restaurant, Deripaska, Mandelson, Rothschild and Peter Munk boarded Deripaska’s private jet and travelled 2,100 miles further east, into deepest Siberia.
There, they stayed at Deripaska’s country house and visited several industrial sites. Afterwards, Mandelson flew back to Brussels in Rothschild’s own, otherwise empty, jet.
His allegedly recreational trip took him some 6,000 miles in 24 hours in the lap of luxury provided by a Russian oligarch with significant interests in the EU market.
This was astonishing. What I had originally described as the ‘rabbit out of the hat’ appearance of Mandelson at the Alcoa soiree was revealed to be merely the opening trick of a full Las Vegas magic show.
Some of the Mail’s original article and our defence of the libel case had focused on Rothschild’s conduct in relation to the Alcoa dinner.
Without available witness evidence we had to accept there were some inaccuracies; Rothschild did not know the dinner was connected with an aluminium deal and therefore had not rushed Mandelson across Europe for it; the deal had, in any case, been ‘effectively closed’ before the meal.

Born into privilege: Nat Rothschild, a thin-skinned and extremely rich Old Etonian, sometimes appears incapable of reading anything written about him without calling his favourite libel lawyers, Schillings

But the revelation of the, until then, unknown Siberian leg of the trip only increased the impression — and strengthened our case — that Mandelson had been put in a very compromising position by his wealthy young financier friend. Mr Justice Tugendhat allowed the Mail to change its defence and put the Siberian trip at its forefront.
In effect, we would be defending ourselves with the claimant’s statement. This was a ‘very rare’ position, Tugendhat observed.
By the start of the trial, Rothschild’s original account of the Siberian trip had undergone some significant modifications. Andrew Caldecott QC, for Associated Newspapers, suggested to Rothschild that the differences between his own first and second witness statements were because he realised he had to distance Deripaska from Mandelson.
One element of his case was maintained: Lord Mandelson’s near 6,000-mile round trip by private jet was purely ‘recreational’.
The financier often cut a puzzling figure in the witness box. At times he mumbled in a monotone, or sat hunched as the questions grew more pointed.
Then there was the startling passage of cross-examination where he spoke so enthusiastically about their ‘delightful’ birch twig flogging visit to a banya (a traditional Russian sauna heated by a wood-burning stove).

One wonders how Oleg Deripaska views the publicity which resulted from Rothschild's decision to sue

In a state of undress, Mandelson, Deripaska, Rothschild and Munk ‘were beaten by a 25-year-old Russian banya keeper, man . . . who spends his entire life perfecting the art of the banya’.
If that raised eyebrows — it certainly made headlines — so too, did Rothschild’s attempts to diminish the relevance of Mandelson’s presence at the aluminium plants.
Some might have been left with the impression Rothschild himself had become ‘detached from reality’. Or at least detached from the world in which salaries are not in the tens of millions, nor Siberian smelters ‘recreational’ day-trip destinations.
He told the court his own paid role as a financial adviser to Deripaska’s Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer, was like ‘a hobby’. Why? Because the returns were ‘dwarfed’ by the rewards from controlling his own $26 billion Atticus hedge fund.
Mandelson had only visited the Sayanogorsk smelter for a ‘nanosecond’, Rothschild snapped. In which case the photographer must have had a very fast shutter speed.
The attached Sayanal aluminium foil plant, which Mandelson also toured, was ‘a tiny, tiny business… beyond insignificant’ in relation to the parent company Rusal, according to Rothschild.
He added that it was ‘a pathetic little plant . . . producing this completely kind of useless foil . . . I highly doubt whether it ever ends up on the shelves of Sainsbury’s or Tesco’.
Yet my simple research shows that the Sayanal plant is Russia’s biggest aluminium foil maker and exported 70 per cent of its product. This was of more than passing interest to the EU. In court, Mr Caldecott, for the Mail, set out the compromising facts about the foil plant that Mandelson had visited.
He said: ‘Lord Mandelson was appointed Trade Commissioner on November 22, 2004.
‘Importantly, on November 23, the EU appoints and announced its review of undertakings given by Sayanal in order to exempt itself from anti-dumping duties.
‘On December 20, 2005, Lord Mandelson signs a Commission decision releasing Sayanal from its undertakings.’
But Rothschild insisted that at no stage during the January 2005 trip were business matters, let alone EU tariffs, discussed, adding: ‘That was the last thing on Deripaska’s mind.’
One can only puzzle on this while looking at another photograph from the trip. It shows the Rothschild-Mandelson group studying a wall map inside the smelter complex.
Multiple red arrows, pointing from Siberia into the EU, indicate where the finished product was heading.
The impression was strong enough for Judge Tugendhat to ‘find that they probably talked about aluminium. There are photos of their party wearing Rusal’s jackets and safety helmets on their visit to the smelter, and standing with a guide, to whom they appear to be listening,’ he found.
‘It is probable that on a visit to an aluminium smelter and foil plant they talked about aluminium.’
In his judgment, Mr Justice Tugendhat spoke of Rothschild being ‘clearly not comfortable’ giving evidence about the smelter visit and Deripaska’s lavish hospitality towards Mandelson.

Strong-arm tactics: Rothschild (right) indulges in some horseplay with Mandelson

Rothschild ‘didn’t recall’ whether he had told Mandelson they would visit an aluminium plant. Nor whether they would be flying on Deripaska’s jet.
Mr Caldecott put it to him: ‘The truth is, isn’t it, that Lord Mandelson was driven in Mr Deripaska’s cars . . . was shown Mr Deripaska’s plant, and the entertainment and the wining and dining was all presented by Mr Deripaska? On any ordinary person’s view, he was Mr Deripaska’s guest, wasn’t he?’ But then the Hon Nat is no ‘ordinary person’.
After Siberia, Mandelson flew back to Brussels, alone.
Meanwhile, Deripaska, Rothschild and Munk flew to Kyrgyzstan for a meeting with its president.
It might not surprise you to learn that the Siberian photographs Mandelson later showed his chef de cabinet were of snow scenes rather than smelter tours.
The latter would have raised far too many awkward questions.
Mr Justice Tugendhat felt Rothschild had initially failed to tell Mandelson about the trip’s potentially compromising details. The judge assumed that the EU trade commissioner had indeed planned it as ‘purely recreational’.

Some sources suggest Mandelson is furious at Rothschild exposing him to so many profoundly disturbing questions about his conduct

Yet the meeting Mandelson then requested with the Russian minister in Moscow was not. ‘That dinner was not recreational. Nor was it private in the sense of being part of his private life,’ said Tugendhat.
Since Lord Mandelson left politics, following Labour’s 2010 general election defeat, he has bought himself an £8 million London mansion and established a company trading on contacts he made during his years of public service, particularly in Russia.
Neither Mandelson nor Deripaska provided witness statements to support Rothschild’s case.
Andrew Feldman, now Lord Feldman and the Tory Party co-chairman, appeared to repeat his assertion it was Rothschild, not he, who tried to broker the Deripaska donation.
One wonders how Deripaska views the publicity which resulted from Rothschild’s decision to sue.
Some sources suggest Mandelson is furious at Rothschild exposing him to so many profoundly disturbing questions about his conduct.
For if Rothschild hadn’t compromised his friend by taking him to the Alcoa dinner, he certainly did so by taking him to a Siberian smelter . . . and launching a libel action that set out the whole affair in a public court.
Mr Justice Tugendhat said he accepted the Mail’s submission that ‘Mr Rothschild’s conduct was inappropriate in a number of respects’.
He added: ‘In my judgment, that conduct foreseeably brought Lord Mandelson’s public office and personal integrity into disrepute and exposed him to accusations of conflict of interest, and it gave rise to the reasonable grounds to suspect that Lord Mandelson had engaged in improper discussions with Mr Deripaska about aluminium.’
In Mr Justice Tugendhat’s judgment, there were ‘at the very least, reasonable grounds’ to believe that Deripaska had cultivated Mandelson for his own business interests and Rothschild ‘did appreciate this’.
‘By facilitating the development of a relationship between Mr Deripaska and Lord Mandelson, Mr Rothschild was, in my judgment, conferring a benefit on, and seeking to please, both Mr Deripaska and Lord Mandelson.
‘So far as Lord Mandelson was concerned, the benefit was the trip and the hospitality. So far as Mr Deripaska was concerned, it was a relationship with the EU Trade Commissioner.’
At a time of criticism of the print media, this was a landmark victory for investigative journalism and those who advocate transparency in high public office. It was also a defeat for big money’s conceit that it can shackle legitimate public interest examination of its behaviour.
The combative Mr Rothschild does not like to be challenged. One imagines his demeanour this morning will be chilly. If not Siberian.
As for Lord Mandelson, this is yet another stain on his already besmirched reputation.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099639/The-Russian-oligarch-Old-Etonian-billionaire-deeply-disturbing-questions-Lord-Mandelsons-integrity.html#ixzz1m3dHlB2j

#Libel Trial :Nat Rothschild loses libel case against Daily Mail over Mandelson trip

2012-02-10T14:11:00.001-08:00

Judge rules that conduct of multimillionare financier on Siberian trip exposed Peter Mandelson to conflict of interest claims

Nat Rothschild has lost his libel action against the Daily Mail. Photograph: Richard Young /Rex Features

It was a week-long libel case which offered an intimate, if brief, glimpse into the lives of the politically powerful and super-rich: impulse trips to Russia in a pair of private jets, birch-leaf beatings in a communal sauna, and an impromptu game of ice hockey, with staff members roped in to make up the numbers.

It was resolved by multimillionare financier Nat Rothschild failing to win damages over the Daily Mail's claims he was a "puppet master". The paper said Rothschild took Lord Mandelson on a trip to Moscow and Siberia to impress a key business contact, exposing Mandelson, the then-EU trade commissioner, to allegations of a conflict of interest.

Sitting at the high court in London, Mr Justice Tugendhat agreed on Friday that some elements were incorrect in the Mail article from May 2010, which recounted how Mandelson had flown in Rothschild's private jet from Switzerland to Moscow, and then on to Siberia as a guest of Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian industrialist....read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/10/nat-rothschild-loses-libel-daily-mail

#Walthamstow : Noel Doyle Distances Himself From The Olympic Campsite Truth !

2012-02-10T04:05:00.000-08:00

Why when someone is caught out, must they always lie and claim ignorance, Noel Doyle is a fool and has lost ALL resepct.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/9521327.WALTHAM_FOREST__Olympic_campsites_deals_expected__soon_/

#LibelReform : Have You Signed The Petition So You May Speak Your Thoughts WITHOUT Carter Ruck Taking Your Home Away From You ?

2012-02-10T03:39:00.001-08:00

The draft Bill is to protect NGOs, scientists, bloggers and authors writing in the public interest; to introduce a strict test to ensure that bullying libel claims get thrown out early; to tackle the problem of corporations using the laws to silence criticism and to bring the law up to date for the internet age. If the Government’s report doesn’t go far enough on these issues, we will have to take action.

http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/mccann_10.html

#TwitterJokeTrial by Carl Gardner....'Paul Chambers is unlikely to win his appeal on any other point – but'.....

2012-02-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

http://www.headoflegal.com/2012/02/08/todays-twitter-joke-appeal-hearing/

#TwitterJokeTrial :Judgment Reserved In Twitter Airport Threat Appeal

2012-02-08T08:44:00.001-08:00

High court judges consider whether Paul Chambers' tweet about blowing up Robin Hood airport was a joke or a real threat

Paul Chambers, who was convicted under the Communications Act 2003 for a message on Twitter threatening to blow up Robin Hood airport, is having his case heard by appeal judges at the high court. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Two senior judges have retired to consider whether a Twitter message threatening to blow up a snowbound Doncaster airport was a joke or a menace to society.

In a landmark high court appeal, Sir Peter Gross and Mr Justice Irwin heard it would take "a halfwit" to treat as a real threat the tweet posted by Paul Chambers in January 2010.

The 28-year-old trainee accountant was preparing to fly to see his new girlfriend in Northern Ireland when snow closed Robin Hood airport and he tweeted to his 690 followers: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

A week later he was arrested by five police officers, questioned for eight hours, had his computers and phones seized and was subsequently charged and convicted of causing a menace under the Communications Act 2003.

"The preponderance of evidence was that this was a joke. This was a steamroller to crack a nut," said Ben Emmerson QC, appearing for Chambers, who was in court with his now fiancee, Sarah Tonner.

The case has attracted huge interest among Twitter users, not least among celebrities including Stephen Fry who have supported fundraising efforts for Chambers' legal costs. The hearing was attended by comedian Al Murray and Graham Linehan, the writer of Father Ted.

Emmerson asked the judges to consider whether "a message can be menacing if it is not intended to convey a credible threat".

He said: "If the sender of a message doesn't seek to convey a threat it shouldn't be regarded a criminal offence."

It was accepted by airport officials that it was not a credible threat because Chambers had put his name to the message and was a passenger himself, he added.

"Does the history of human conduct ever have it that anyone planning to blow up an airport has gone on a public networking site and said they were going to do it?" he asked.

Emmerson argued that any conviction must have the purpose of either deterrent or punishment. He said the conviction was disproportionate and that the deterrent backfired because it had the effect of sparking a Twitter campaign, which involved 4,000 people sending retweets. If the conviction stood it would leave the law "looking silly", he said.

The appeal judges challenged Emmerson's case, with Irwin insisting: "It is not a question of intent. It is a question of whether it is objectively a menacing message."

Robert Smith QC, appearing on behalf of the director of public prosecutions, said he accepted a tweet that contained menacing terms need not be menacing under the law if it was obviously a joke, but said this was not the case with Chambers' tweet. He said it was "a simple message, with no surrounding context by which the public could judge the context in which it was posted, which constituted a threat to blow up Doncaster airport".

Smith said: "The message was posted at a time when the potential threat to airport security was high. It was capable of being read by members of the airport staff and members of the public as a threat to airport safety and public safety.

"The requirement for public confidence in aircraft and airport security is an important element of free society. A strong deterrent is required in the public interest regardless of whether [the threats] were intended … to be carried into effect or not."

He said Chambers' insistence that it was a joke to his girlfriend was "an undisclosed state of mind" at the time of the tweet.

The judges showed some sympathy for Chambers, who was described by Smith as "a young man of good character", but Irwin said: "One can't distort the law out of sympathy for his position."

Irwin added: "One does not want to have a situation where things that clearly are jokes are prosecuted as criminal offences." But he went on: "It is a menacing message which might be serious and could cause a great deal of grief. How do you get around that?"

Emmerson countered that a man might say to a woman "I'll climb any mountain to be with you"; the message was "a metaphor for [Chambers] to say I am desperately frustrated we can't see each other".

The judges said they would hand down a written judgment in the case.
After the two-and-a-half hour hearing, Al Murray, who compered a fundraising concert to cover Chambers' legal expenses, said Twitter users accept such messages as a "lingua franca" even if they are bad jokes.

"I defend everyone's right to tell rotten jokes," he said. "It is how I earn my living. The law is being pointed absurdly at the wrong thing here. In the end it means we can't say what we want on Twitter and these things are incredibly important."

Linehan, who also performed at the fundraiser, said there were thousands of messages posted on Twitter every day that could be taken as threats.
"The world has changed so completely in the last few years because of Twitter, but there was nothing here to show those changes have been taken into account," he said.

"The problem was this was a bad joke.

If we were all to be convicted because of bad jokes we'd be in terrible trouble."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/feb/08/judgment-reserved-twitter-threat-appeal?CMP=twt_gu

The #TwitterJokeTrial Appeal

2012-02-08T02:03:00.001-08:00

By David Allen Green

This case became notorious in part as a result of my “Bad Law” post here at The Lawyer back in March 2010. Now that I have now switched from being a legal blogger writing about the case to being the appellant’s solicitor (I happen to be a practising solicitor as well as a journalist) I am not able to write about the case as freely as I otherwise would do.

There are certain aspects of the case which are of interest to anyone with an interest in the relationship between social media and the criminal law. The appeal is by way of “case stated”. This means that there is no appeal of fact, and indeed the facts are agreed. Nor is this an appeal against sentence. The fine of £400 plus costs (now around £3400) - and the criminal record - will still stand unless the conviction is overturned. The appeal is entirely on points of law....read more

http://www.thelawyer.com/1011289.article

#UK To #Censor And Silence : Nerve Agents May be Used To Silence Those Who Protest !

2012-02-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

http://smileyculturelies.blogspot.com/2012/02/chemical-agents-to-be-used-on-those.html

#TwitterJokeTrial :The Case Stated By Doncaster Crown Court by Jack Of Kent

2012-02-08T00:25:00.001-08:00

Quote

Below is a copy - with some links added - of the "case stated" by Doncaster Crown Court in respect of the appeal by Paul Chambers to the High Court. This sets out the facts and law which the Crown Court believes are relevant to the conviction and the appeal. At the end of the case stated are the questions which the Crown Court wants the High Court to answer.

The document is issued by the Crown Court, but is informed by legal representations by the defence and the CPS. (Please note that I am solicitor for Paul Chambers in this appeal.)....read more
http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2011/04/twitter-joke-trial-case-stated-by.html

#Murdoch #Communism But #SkyNews Journalists Carry On Tweeting

2012-02-07T23:59:00.003-08:00

http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2012/02/sky-news-journalists-carry-on-tweeting.html

#ACTA : Can #Poland Stop ACTA ?

2012-02-07T13:14:00.003-08:00

By Ante

Update: I rewrote the text on Monday 6 February.

The EU Council and Commission have opposing opinions on whether Poland can stop ACTA.

According to ZDNet, Poland may not ratify ACTA, which could spell the end of ACTA for the entire European Union:

“Tusk’s backtracking could spell the end of ACTA for the entire European Union. If Poland or any other EU member state, or the European Parliament itself, fails to ratify the document, it becomes null and void across the union.”
ZDNet added: “The European Commission confirmed to ZDNet UK that if just one member state does not ratify ACTA, the deal will not enter into force anywhere within the EU.”

But an IP Watch article of 21 December by Monika Ermert has opposite information on the ratification process:

“A spokesperson of the EU Council told Intellectual Property Watch that while member states would ratify ACTA according to their national laws, the parts of the agreement that do not touch criminal law issues would fall under the competence of the Community – and henceforth become valid across all member states.”...read more

http://acta.ffii.org/?p=1122

#Google #Censorship #India : Google Pulls Some Content...

2012-02-07T13:08:00.001-08:00

Google Inc. removed some controversial content from its Indian services to comply with a court order in a civil lawsuit, the latest twist in the legal drama over Web censorship in the world's largest democracy.

A person familiar with the matter said Google removed content from its search service, YouTube video site and Blogger after receiving an order to do so from Judge Mukesh Kumar of a New Delhi district court.

The material, which includes images of religious figures, has been removed only on Google's localized India Web domain—it is still accessible elsewhere.

In a written statement, Google said: "This step is in accordance with Google's longstanding policy of responding to court orders." The company didn't say which specific items it removed....read more

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206283023008726.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet

#Murdoch #Communism #Skynews #Censor Twitter Use- Now You Know Why The Evil Old Man Joined Twitter!

2012-02-07T11:45:00.001-08:00

Reporters banned from reposting non-company tweets and told to check with the news desk before breaking news stories

Sky News reporters used Twitter to bring breaking news of the Arab Spring. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Sky News has told its journalists not to repost information from any Twitter users who are not an employee of the broadcaster.

An email to staff on Tuesday laid out new social media guidelines for Sky News employees, including a contentious ban on retweeting rival "journalists or people on Twitter".

The new guidelines also warn Sky News journalists to "stick to your own beat" and not to tweet about non-work subjects from their professional accounts.

Sky News has cultivated a reputation for digital innovation and has used Twitter to break news on events including the Arab Spring uprising and England riots. Journalists at the broadcaster expressed shock and dismay at the new guidelines, which they claim are a retrograde step.

The email to staff, which has been seen by MediaGuardian, said: "So, to reiterate, don't tweet when it is not a story to which you have been assigned or a beat which you work.

"Where a story has been Tweeted by a Sky News journalist who is assigned to the story it is fine, desirable in fact, that it is retweeted by other Sky News staff.

"Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter.

Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process."

The email says that the guidelines have been introduced "to ensure that our journalism is joined up across platforms, there is sufficient editorial control of stories reported by Sky News journalists and that the news desks remain the central hub for information going out on all our stories".

The email said: "1. Don't tweet when it's someone else [sic] story. Stick to your own beat. 2. Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks."

It added that "on a number of occasions" those guidelines have been flouted "resulting in us running different information on Twitter other Sky platforms or the news desks learning from Twitter details that should have been first passed on to them".

The guidelines on checking tweets with Sky News news desk do not apply to "verbatim reporting" on Twitter of court cases, parliament or judicial inquiries "to which you have been assigned".

A Sky News spokeswoman said: "Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/07/sky-news-twitter-clampdown

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/censorship-at-skynews-email-warning-to.html

#Censorship at #SkyNews - E.Mail Warning To Journalists

2012-02-07T10:47:00.001-08:00

Dan Sabbagh @dansabbagh

Sky News, presumably believes in freedom of expression. Interesting, then, that Sky News hacks are banned from RT'ing other journos.

Josh Halliday @JoshHalliday

Told the Sky News email also warns staff not to tweet about stories that aren't on a journalist's beat

Josh Halliday @JoshHalliday

Sky News email to staff: "don't tweet when it is a story to which you have not been assigned"

Josh Halliday @JoshHalliday

Sky News email to staff: "Do not re-tweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter"

Josh Halliday @JoshHalliday

Sky News social media policy. WHY?? Email: "to ensure journalism is joined up across platforms ... and sufficient editorial control"

http://smileyculturelies.blogspot.com/2012/02/met-englands-cesspit-of-police-and.html

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/skynews-censor-twitter-murdoch-comunism.html

#Censorship : Uri Geller Used #Copyright Abuse Of Power When EXPOSED As A Fraud (2007)

2012-02-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Editors' note, 3:40 p.m. PDT Wednesday: It turns out that Geller has filed his own lawsuit. Here's our follow-up story.

We've all heard about wacky attempts to misuse the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "takedown" sections recently. There's been the Digg.com flap over a certain hex number beginning with "09 F9," the spat over a parody of the Colbert Report, and even one about a fake ID.

The latest attempt involves Uri Geller, the purported spoon-bending "psychic" who is trying to suppress a video on YouTube that claims Geller is a fraud and demonstrates sleight-of-hand tricks he could have used. The video was posted by the Rational Response Squad, a group of skeptics who take a scientific approach toward evaluating supernatural claims, and rely in part on YouTube to get the word out. ...read more

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9717464-7.html

#Wikileaks : #Trafigura AND #CarterRuck - Versus Freedom of Speech (March 2010)

2012-02-07T07:04:00.001-08:00

The video below presents the censored by a super-injunction BBC Newsnight report 'Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in the Ivory Coast'. Trafigura and Carter-Ruck have mounted a desperate campaign to stop the media from reporting on the illegal dumping, which is said to have caused vomiting, choking and skin eruptions in some 100,000 people and killed at least 12 Ivorians. ...read more
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2010/03/video-below-presents-censored-by-super.html

#Censorship #Art And #Wikileaks ...

2012-02-07T03:48:00.001-08:00

Quote

Censorship is not just about forbidding discussion of certain facts or limiting the freedom of thought. Our very patterns of thought, emotions, and beliefs can be molded in ways beyond our control, both directly and indirectly. Censorship is indirectly imposed through instilling feelings of guilt and fear through the media and institutions of society. For these reasons, censorship is a violation of human rights. Political discourse and artwork have been subjected to censorship in the same ways for thousands of years.

There are many examples of censorship imposed on artworks of all kinds including books, movies and plays. Sharing a few here will show how censorship can become irrational.

My experience with censorship came with my novel “Stop Hurting My Flesh”, which is set in Turkey. – Meltem Arikan

http://www.meltemarikan.com/articles-%c2%b7-makaleler/on-censorship-art-and-wikileaks/

#Censorship #MediaBlackout #British #Goverment - Protecting The Whereabouts Of A Missing 3 Year Old ?

2012-02-07T03:20:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, if the McCanns fart it is headline news. Therefore one must surley be curious as to why the British Goverment's suppressed media are unable to report the fact that it has taken an American Criminal Profiler by the name of Pat Brown to go in search of Madeleine McCann using her OWN money. Truly Bizarre !

PRESS RELEASE THAT REMANS UNRELEASED

http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/02/mccann-cease-and-desist-letter-to.html

#Facebook #Twitter #CENSOR : Fathers 4 Justice !!!!

2012-02-06T13:21:00.001-08:00

Nadine O'Connor

BREAKING NEWS - The Fathers 4 Justice Facebook page has been taken down following the taking down of the Twitter account. We believe this is part of widespread plan to silence F4J.

http://www.facebook.com/Nadine.C.OConnor/posts/313696658683265

http://www.fathers-4-justice.org/

#ACTA : #Poland puts ACTA On Ice.....

2012-02-03T13:11:00.001-08:00

Poland's prime minister said Friday that Warsaw would put on ice plans to ratify a controversial international online anti-piracy accord after massive off-and-online protests in his country.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.700849e3f913fe85bcfa4ab200e6f620.01&show_article=1
"I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified," Donald Tusk told reporters.

"The issue of signing of the ACTA accord did not involve sufficient consultation with everyone who is part of the process," Tusk said, adding that he would hold broad talks on what to do next.

"The ACTA ratification process will be frozen as long as we haven't overcome all the doubts. This will probably require a review of Polish law. We can't rule out that, at the end of the day, this accord will not be approved."

#Twitter : British Tourist's On Terrorist Watch List Over A Twitter Joke !

2012-02-03T12:36:00.001-08:00

Police State - A Reality for Americans

UK Media reported that a young British tourist couple has been arrested by DHS and barred from entering the U.S. after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'.

Boycott Google, Try Gibiru.com: Uncensored Anonymous Search
NDAA Attacks Constitutional Rights

Leigh Van Bryan, 26 yrs old, was put in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after his landing in the city of Angeles with his girlfriend Emily Bunting.

The DHS flagged them as a potential terrorist threat when he posted a thrilled tweet to his friends about the trip he envisaged to undertake to Hollywood, which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?'

Regardless of the fact that they were explaining to the DHS agents that the term 'destroy' was a British-English slang for 'party', the couple was detained on suspicion of planning to 'commit crimes', their names were put on the terrorist watch list and their passports confiscated.

Read Full Story: British Tourists on Terrorist Watch List over a Twitter Joke

Read more at Coup Media Group-National Security

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1716/424/British_Tourists_on_Terrorist_Watch_List_over_a_Twitter_Joke.html

#ACTA = Global Internet #Censorship – Now Even Foreign Governments Will Be Able To Have Your Website Shut Down

2012-02-03T10:49:00.001-08:00

Michael Synder ~ The American Dream

Global Internet censorship is here.

SOPA and PIPA have been stopped (at least for now) in the United States, but a treaty known as ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is far worse than either of them.

ACTA was quietly signed by Barack Obama back on October 1st, 2011 and most Americans have never even heard of it. But it could mean the end of the Internet as we know it. This new treaty gives foreign governments and copyright owners incredibly broad powers.

If you are alleged to have violated a copyright, your website can be shut down without a trial and police may even show up at your door to take you to prison. It doesn't even have to be someone in the United States that is accusing you. It could just be a foreign government or a copyright owner halfway across the world that alleges that you have violated a copyright.

It doesn't matter.

So far, the U.S., the EU and seven other nations have signed on to ACTA, and the number of participants is expected to continue to grow. The "powers that be" are obsessed with getting Internet censorship one way or another. The open and free Internet that you and I have been enjoying for all these years is about to change, and not for the better.

So how come the U.S. Senate never voted on ACTA?

Doesn't the U.S. Constitution mandate that all treaties must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the Senate?

Of course it does.

But Barack Obama has gotten around this by calling ACTA an "executive agreement", which is a load of crap.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of nonsense we are getting out of Obama on a regular basis now. He has shown endless disdain for the U.S. Constitution.

Some members of Congress are expressing deep alarm over ACTA. For example, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa is calling ACTA "more dangerous than SOPA".

There are some members of Congress that are even demanding that ACTA be submitted to the U.S. Senate for a vote. Unfortunately, their voices are very few so far, and ACTA is getting next to no coverage in the mainstream media.

But this new treaty is very, very serious.

It basically mandates that all Internet communications be constantly monitored for copyright infringement. Sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter will have to monitor accounts for copyright infringement 24 hours a day.

If you are alleged to have committed a violation, you might not just lose your social media account or your website.

You could potentially be sent to prison.

Yes, seriously.

What we are talking about is Chinese-style Internet censorship for the entire globe.

continue at The American Dream:

endoftheamericandream.com/archives/acta-global-internet-censorship-now-even-foreign-governments-will-be-able-to-have-your-website-shut-down

http://ow.ly/1h8b4H

UK #Libel Laws Must Change...

2012-02-02T02:11:00.001-08:00

Since 2007 my eyes have slowly opened to the corruption going on in the world, the manipulation behind closed doors, been introduced to the workings behind companies (such as Monsanto) and the hidden poisons in our food. In fact, I would not have set off down the road to truth if it hadn’t been for the gate latch being lifted by various areas of the McCann case, least of all Carter-Ruck gagging the press from reporting on the allegations that Trafigura dumped toxic waste in the Ivory Coast in 2006. It was a shock for me to learn that law firms are able to instigate something like that. But it was the string of libel actions by the McCann couple that flung the gate open. If not for those events taking place I would probably still be picking daisies and thinking how wonderfully fluffy the world is.

I am now learning just how dangerous the UK libel laws are for anyone who may disagree with those who may have money to burn. With a huge push from ‘Anonymous’ who left some links on Little Morsals last night I’m on my way to the motorway of eye popping (and worrying) stories regarding libel.

Sally Morgan (an apparent psychic – who obviously didn’t see this one coming) is to sue Paul Zenon over his Daily Mail article “What a load of crystal balls” for daring to detail some of the tricks of the trade, in effect saying he’s sceptical of her ‘abilities’. But Sally is also demanding damages of £150,000 from Associated Newspapers over the Daily Mail article.

The Disclosure Project has some videos which people may like to view....read more
http://littlemorsals.blogspot.com/2012/02/uk-libel-laws-must-change.html

Daily Mail : Thieves When It Comes To Copyright

2012-02-01T17:43:00.003-08:00

http://jezebel.com/5831790/daily-mail-steals-womans-photos

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/17/fun-with-fair-use-daily-mail-steals-bloggers-image-refuses-to-pay-up/

Daily Mail steals Bloggers Images then refuses to pay up.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2102388/daily-mail-accused-photo-theft

Daily Mail accused of photo theft

http://www.butireaditinthepaper.co.uk/2011/08/17/daily-mail-still-stealing-online-content/

Daily Mail still stealing online content

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2043264/daily-mail-accused-lifting-flickr-image

Daily mail Accused of lifting Flickr Images

So, yesterday the Daily Mail shuts down istyosty.com for copyright infringement whilst claiming that they were entitled to recover all of the - in the words of the lawyers representing Associated Newspapers - ’ill-gotten profits’ made by istyosty.com as a result of caching Mail Online articles.

As usual, the Daily Mail is being deeply hypocritical and relying – once more – on simply bullying the opposition with expensive lawyers because the Daily Mail have a deserved reputation for stealing online content without any attempt at payment or attribution.

You see, the Daily Mail can always find money for expensive lawyers, but they cannot find money to pay others for the use of their content; in the same way that they can moan that istyosty.com have stolen precious web hits yet when they steal stories from websites they don’t even have the courtesy to provide a weblink.

The Mail is happy to apply the dark arts to steal online content, but is not prepared to engage in any form of standard web etiquette.

http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/2011/11/14/us-photo-agency-files-copyright-suit-against-daily-mail/

The Daily Mail have, allegedly, been nicking photos again. And the owner of the photos is not happy. Really, they are in fact $1.5 million not happy…

Florida based celebrity photo agency Mavrix have filed suit against the British newspaper for multiple copyright infringements, and are seeking statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement. With up to 10 images involved the total sought comes to $1.5m plus attorney’s fees and “any such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and appropriate”.

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/01/06/daily-mail-using-my-photo-of-cock-lane/....

There is an informal badge of honour that exists amongst bloggers that marks you out as someone who has caught the eye of the mass market media, but are deemed to be too small to be of consequence.

It’s the moment a newspaper nicks a photo or other content from a blog and hopes you wont notice.

It turns out that I have been inducted into this dubious hall of fame, after serial copyright infringers, the Daily Mail decided to write an article, and use my photos to illustrate it.

The blog post in question is the one the other day about the anniversary of the Cock Lane ghost.

To be honest, not one of my best, as there wasn’t anything new I could add to the story other than marking an otherwise probably overlooked anniversary.

It is, to historians at least, very well documented, and the Wikipedia page is unusually detailed for something that took place 250 years ago.

I trawled through my own collection of vintage newspapers and engravings to see if I could add much more to the story – but ended up with a summary of the facts.

I did however visit Cock Lane to take a photo of it as it is today, and got copies of a couple of contemporary newspaper reports.

You can imagine my surprise then when one of the newspaper scans, and my photo of Cock Lane appeared in the Daily Mail.

#Wikileaks :WATCH LIVE Coverage Of Julian Assange Extradition Appeal

2012-02-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

http://news.sky.com/home/supreme-court

Anyone hoping for a quick final decision on Assange, do note: case is to last for two days. Judges' decision is expected in matter of weeks

#FBI #America : AGAINST Pro Palestinian Peaceful Protests By A Simple House Wife - Big Brother And The ZIONIST Movement Are Upon Us Folks!

2012-01-29T09:38:00.001-08:00

Play video

YET AGAIN The FBI complained to YouTube about the second reupload of the original upload which had gone viral. So I have reuploaded for a third time with the Agents ID card and car number plate…

00:09:58

Added on 6/30/2010

92,529 views

#ACTA : Stop Internet #Censorship - Please Sign The Petition

2012-01-29T00:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet_spread/

#Facebook Sues Alleged Clickjacking Spammer Sparking Row

2012-01-28T02:04:00.001-08:00

Facebook suing a company HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16755434 for using techniques THEY used on behalf of #McCanns HERE:- http://spudgunsspoutings.blogspot.com/2011/12/mccanns-temple-of-influence-another.html

H/T Spudgun

#TwitterBlackout #Twitter Buckle To Censorship - No Tweets Saturday Jan 28th

2012-01-27T19:26:00.000-08:00

#TwitterBlackout

#TwitterCensored #j28

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/01/twitter-censorship-twitter-begins-slow.html

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/01/twitter-censorship-raises-concerns.html

#Twitter #Censorship Raises Concerns With press Freedom Group

2012-01-27T09:58:00.001-08:00

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is preparing an open letter to the chief executive of Twitter, to raise concerns about an announcement that the social media platform now has the power to "reactively withhold" tweets from users to meet country-based restrictions.
In a blog post on Thursday (26 January), Twitter said previously it would deal with the different restrictions on freedom of expression in countries by taking content down "globally", but that it now has "the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country".

Such content would remain available to "the rest of the world", the company adds, highlighting that it is "also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why".

In response to this decision, widely reported in the media as a move which would effectively "censor" tweets, Reporters Without Borders said there could be "real consequences" for journalists and freedom of information, and is preparing an open letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, asking for more details on the way this "ability" will be carried out.

Head of the new media desk at RSF Lucie Morillon said the organisation is "very concerned" but is still trying to "grasp the extent" of the consequences.

"Clearly if Twitter is ready to abide by repressive countries then there are real consequences for journalists, bloggers ... It's not only about cyberdissidents from Syria getting information out, but about journalists being able to get information and help circulate it. Then the chain of information is broken."

She also told Journalism.co.uk that such a move would "go completely against recent events in the Arab world".

"Twitter had taken a good decision back then in Egypt with its 'Speak to Tweet' telephone service with Google", which was set up amid the internet blackout last year.

Morillon added that the impact of this move by Twitter is "a different story" when applied in democratic countries where "you can see the rule of law should be more or less OK", although she said there is still a "need to stay vigilant"....read more
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/-withholding-tweets-could-have-real-consequences-for-journalists/s2/a547646/

#CQC #NHS : Gagging Orders Commissioned By Care Quality On Six Employees

2012-01-27T02:25:00.001-08:00

MP discloses news of gagging orders on the day that Cynthia Bowers, the CQC boss, faces Commons select committee

The department launched an inquiry into the CQC last November. Six CQC employees have been put under gagging orders. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

A health watchdog with responsibility for protecting NHS whistleblowers has asked at least six employees to sign confidentiality agreements that stop them from criticising the organisation publicly.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) asked the six, who have received "special severance payments" since 2009, to sign a contract. The contracts contain a promise that they would not "make or repeat any statement which disparages or is intended to disparage the goodwill or reputation of the CQC or any Specified Person".

The disclosure has alarmed one member of the House of Commons' public accounts committee, which will question Cynthia Bower, the CQC boss on Wednesday.

Stephen Barclay, the Conservative MP for Cambridge North East, said: "It is odd that a body that is supposed to be helping whistleblowers should be seeking to impose gagging orders. The CQC has been riven with problems and a more open attitude towards its employees may help to improve it. The organisation that should be encouraging openness in the NHS should not be using gagging clauses to silence its own employees from making points in the public interest."

The news emerged in a parliamentary question put down by Barclay. The Department of Health confirmed that two people received special severance payments in 2011, three in 2010 and one in 2009, payments that totalled around £100,000. The department launched an inquiry into the CQC last November over alleged failures that could have risked patient care. It coincided with inquiries from the National Audit Office and the public accounts committee.

Bower was appointed chief executive in July 2008 and has been involved in controversy since. She was previously chief executive of NHS West Midlands and was criticised following the publication of the report of the investigation into high mortality figures at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in March 2009.

One of the first acts at the commission under Bower's leadership was the disbanding of the investigations team. The decision caused consternation among NHS officials, who feared that failing to expose and publicise examples of poor care would encourage complacency.

A CQC spokeswoman said that the confidentiality agreements for the six employees were put forward because staff were often privy to confidential information about patients and providers.

"The terms of CQC's severance agreements are not intended to and do not in fact prohibit former employees from talking about the CQC and their work for it in general terms or participating in public inquiries connected to their work for CQC.

"It should also be noted that compromise agreements are widespread and commonly used in both the public and private sectors where contentious issues arise in respect of employment issues. Any suggestion that CQC's compromise agreements could prevent whistle-blowing would be a dramatic misrepresentation of the facts," she said

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/24/care-quality-commission-gagging-orders

STOP #GOOGLE From Tracking Your Internet Activity

2012-01-27T01:16:00.001-08:00

Quote

After yesterday’s article on Google I received some concerned e-mails from readers who wanted to know what steps they could take to stop Google tracking so I decided to write up this brief guide.

First, why should anyone care about this if they don’t have anything to hide?
Well a lot of people don’t like the idea of a corporation keeping tabs on most of your internet activity which they can tie to your identity and sell or hand over to a governmental agency. You don’t need to be doing something wrong to enjoy your privacy.

I think of it like this: no one says “why do you have blinds on the windows of your home? Do you have something to hide?”

Since it is commonly accepted that we do not like people looking in on our private lives even when we’re just sitting around doing nothing noteworthy, the fact that most people have blinds or shades on their windows isn’t questioned.

However, it seems that the self-same concept has not been extended to the internet in a lot of peoples’ minds. This is mirrored in the calls across Europe for even less internet privacy in the wake of the Norwegian terrorist attacks.
For those, like myself, who don’t like people infringing on my right to keep my private life private in both the physical and digital realms, there are a few methods to avoid the extensive Google tracking network.

As I briefly explained in yesterday’s article, Google Analytics and Google AdWords/AdSense operate on much of the websites commonly visited. If you want to find out if your favorite website is using either of these you can use a website analysis tool like this in order to see all of the scripts the site calls back to. You can also just look at the status bar in your browser....read more

More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2011/07/28/a-quick-foolproof-guide-to-hinder-google-from-tracking-your-internet-activity/#ixzz1keGyszBW

#ISPs To Become Internet Cops?

2012-01-27T00:41:00.001-08:00

A new anti-piracy law would allow internet service providers to inspect content users are sending and disconnect them when a copyright holder “alleges” there were violations, computer analyst Shelly Roche told RT.

Last week saw many of the world's largest economies meet behind closed doors in the South Korean capital of Seoul to consider a global agreement on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Battling commercial fraud seems like a good idea, but what arouses suspicion is the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, ACTA.

According to information that leaked from the meeting, there have been proposals for the control of the internet, namely a three-strikes law. It would make the internet service providers (ISP) disconnect users who have illegally shared copyrighted material at least three times.

The first concern is that the negotiations have been kept secret, Roche said. Second, “there is a clause about liability for ISPs that would allow them to monitor our traffic more closely than they do now” – in other words, “to inspect what content we are sending.”

If they do not do that, she said, they could face lawsuits from copyright holders.

A way for ISPs to avoid liability would be to use the three-strike rule “by immediately taking down the content when the copyright holder alleges that there’s been a violation.”

So, Roche said, “they won’t actually have to prove that there has been a violation,” they would just have to say so. “And then the burden of proof is on you to prove that you were not using something unlawfully.”

http://rt.com/news/isps-become-internet-cops/

#ACTA #Poland : Thousands Will Protest Again Today Against Copyright Agreement

2012-01-27T00:35:00.001-08:00

Poland is bracing for a new day of protests against a copyright agreement signed by Warsaw on Thursday. Opponents staging demos and hacker attacks say the ACTA treaty amounts to internet censorship and gross violation of human rights.

In order to become law, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement must first be voted in by parliament. In a bid to stop this from happening, the hacktivist group Anonymous has targeted official websites in the countries that have already signed it. They struck the Polish, French and Czech government websites, as well as the sites of the Irish ministries of justice and finance, the European Parliament, Ireland’s Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In Poland, the cyber-offensive has sparked massive protests since Tuesday. On Thursday, tens of thousands flooded onto the streets, with demonstrators clashing with police in Kielche. With public anger still high, the demos are expected to continue.

Anti-ACTA sentiment reached the Polish parliament, too, where some opposition MPs put on Guy Fawkes masks to signal that they won’t vote for an agreement that has drawn so much criticism from citizens.

Anonymous is threatening that it will reveal sensitive information on officials, should Poland proceed with adopting ACTA. Prime Minister Tusk called the demos and hacker attacks “blackmail”.

http://rt.com/news/poland-acta-protest-anonymous-823/

http://rt.com/news/acta-internet-censor-treaty-591/

Press Freedom Index - Reporters Without Borders

2012-01-26T23:57:00.001-08:00

Home page - Press Freedom Index

Press Freedom Index 2011-2012

1043

Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle-East/North Africa

Africa

Gap widens between good and bad performers in Africa

Dramatic falls by countries that cracked down on mass unrest
The 2011 Arab Spring did not spill over into sub-Saharan Africa to the point of bringing down any governments, but some regimes had to face forceful political and social demands, and journalists covering demonstrations were often the victims of indiscriminate police repression or were targeted by police who did not want them covering the crackdown.
This was the case in Angola (132nd), where many journalists were arrested during protests in September, and in Uganda (139th), which fell 43 places in the index after a year that will not be forgotten by its media. They were the targets of violence and surveillance during the presidential election in February and were targeted again during the brutal crackdown on the “Walk to Work” protests later in the year, when dozens of journalists were arrested.
It was even worse in Malawi (146th), which plunged 67 places in the index, the biggest fall of any country in the world. Malawi’s journalists were treated like demonstrators during the crackdown on protests in the summer. Many were arrested and mistreated, and equipment was broken. A student and blogger, Robert Chasowa, who was found dead in September, was almost certainly murdered. Media that wanted to investigate the case were threatened. Before all this, Malawi’s media legislation had been toughened so much at the start of the year that some European partners suspended part of their aid.
Closed and authoritarian countries near bottom of index
Reporters Without Borders regards the situation in Rwanda (156th) and Equatorial Guinea (161st) as very grave because of the control that their governments exercise over the media and freedom of expression in general. They have been joined by Djibouti (159th), which fell 49 places. Its president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, was returned to office at the start of 2011 in an election that was decided in advance and gave the opposition no possibility of expressing itself in the media. There is no free press, six people who provide an exile radio station with information were jailed for four months, and social networks are closely monitored to ensure that there are no protests.
The presence of Côte d’Ivoire in this same group of countries (sharing 159th position with Djibouti) could be misleading. Côte d’Ivoire has real media, unlike Guelleh’s Djibouti or Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s Equatorial Guinea, and they say what they think, unlike the media in Paul Kagame’s Rwanda, which have little freedom of expression. Côte d’Ivoire’s poor ranking reflects the dramatic impact that the post-election crisis had on the media in the first half of 2011, including harassment of all kinds, acts of violence and the murders of a journalist and a media worker. During the battle of Abidjan at the start of April, it was impossible for a journalist venture out into the city.
Violence, censorship and prison give East Africa three worst rankings
The three worst sub-Saharan rankings are all to be found in East Africa. Year after year, journalists continue to be exposed to the chaos and anarchy in Somalia (164th), a country embroiled in civil war and without a stable government since 1991. Four journalists were killed in Mogadishu in 2011. The bad ranking assigned to Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan (170th) was due to prior censorship, closures of newspapers, and arrests, prolonged detention and mistreatment of journalists.
Finally, Eritrea (179th) came last in the index for the fifth year running. Freedom of opinion, like all the other freedoms, does not exist under the totalitarian dictatorship that President Issaias Afeworki has imposed on this Horn of Africa country. At least 30 journalists are currently detained in appalling conditions. Some have been held for more than 10 years.
At the other end of the index, several African countries made significant progress or showed that respect for freedom of information has taken a firm hold in their societies.
Good countries group gets bigger
The number of African countries that are in the top 50 of the index has risen from seven last year to nine this year, while the number that are in top 100 has risen from 24 to 27. The highest non-European country in the index is an African one and in fact it is in the top 10. It is Cape Verde (9th), a healthy democracy and model of good governance, where governments can be changed through the ballot box, as last summer’s presidential election again showed. Journalists there are completely free and all the political parties have access to the state media. Namibia (20th) also has an excellent ranking, better than Japan or the United Kingdom, for example.
Botswana (42nd), which rose 20 places, and Comoros (45th), which rose 25 places, are now jostling Mali (25th) and Ghana (41st), Africa’s traditional leaders in respect for journalists.
A spectacular jump and other notable improvements
Niger (29th) rose 75 places in the index, the biggest leap by any country in the world this year. The economic environment for Niger’s media is very precarious but they are free and benefit from favourable legislation. Media freedom violations have virtually disappeared. The improvement has been seen in both concrete and symbolic measures. At the end of 2011, Mahamadou Issoufou, who was elected president in the spring, became the first African head of state to sign the Declaration of Table Mountain, thereby undertaking to promote media freedom.
Other African leaders could follow suit, such as Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the president of Mauritania (67th), which rose 28 places thanks to the adoption of a law on the electronic media, the opening up of the broadcasting sector, and other developments. Its progress needs to be confirmed.
Cameroon (97th) fell sharply in 2010 because of the journalist Bibi Ngota’s death in detention but recovered a respectable ranking in 2011 although light has yet to be shed on all aspects of his death and on the death in November of this year of Reporters Without Borders correspondent Jules Koum Koum, a journalist who wrote about corruption. Cameroon also badly needs to decriminalize media offences and modernize its communication law. Madagascar (84th) continued to improve for the second year running after plummeting in 2009 because of that year’s political crisis but, 2012, as an election year, will pose challenges.
Soft underbelly
The absence of major incidents involving the media allowed Senegal (75th) to rise 18 places but the situation is fragile one month ahead of a presidential election that is likely to be tense. Like their Cameroonian counterparts, the Senegalese authorities are still not ready to protect journalists from prison sentences by decriminalizing media offences. Aside from abusive lawsuits, Liberia (110th) usually allows its media a great deal of freedom but it fell 26 places this year because journalists were attacked and media were closed during the presidential election in October and November, when challenger Winston Tubman boycotted the run-off against the incumbent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
South Sudan (111th), which became independent on 9 July, entered the index with a respectable ranking. The challenge for this country is to build a solid and viable state in a very unstable region while guaranteeing freedom of expression. It must make every effort to avoid sinking to the level of its neighbours.
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Americas

United States and Chile affected by protests, Brazil crippled by insecurity

The worldwide wave of protests in 2011 also swept through the New World. It dragged the United States (47th) and Chile (80th) down the index, costing them 27 and 47 places respectively. The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation
In Chile, where student protesters questioned the over-concentration of media ownership, violence against journalists included beatings, cyber-attacks and attacks on editorial staffs. Many of these assaults, often accompanied by heavy-handed arrests and destruction of equipment, were carried out by abusive armed police who were rarely called to account.
Neighbouring Argentina (47th) barely moved in the index but two other southern countries registered a marked decline – Brazil (99th, down 41) and Paraguay (80th, down 26). Violence was the dominant factor in these changes. In Brazil’s north and north-east and in Paraguay’s border regions, local corruption, organized crime and environmental damage proved to be dangerous topics for journalists and bloggers alike to tackle. Three were killed in Brazil in 2011. Although the vast country showed it was making efforts to combat impunity, justice was applied unevenly across regions and states and was subjected to powerful political pressures.
This was also the case in Paraguay, where one journalist was killed. Paraguay’s media workers bemoaned the lack of a law giving access to public information like the one passed recently in Brazil.
The physical danger in Brazil was comparable to that in Peru (115th), where three journalists were also murdered. Peru, notorious for the frequency of attacks on the press, also stood out because of its large number of legal proceedings for defamation. The radio and television journalist Paul Garay Ramírez spent six months in prison, from April until October, for allegedly defaming a prosecutor.
In Ecuador (104th) and Bolivia (108th), whose positions changed little, the climate was still characterized by judicial harassment, issues of balance and pluralism, polarization and repeated attacks on the press. This was even more the case in Venezuela (117th), which nonetheless rose 16 places.
Colombia (143rd), where one journalist was killed as a direct result of his work, remained far down the list because journalists were repeatedly threatened, forced to stop working or forced to flee abroad (or to another region), particularly journalists operating in areas where there is fighting. Despite improvements in the judicial system, the country has not yet put its years of civil war behind it, nor the grim practices of the former DAS security service such as espionage, sabotage and smear campaigns.
Contrasting fortunes in Central America
Panama fell 32 places to 113th in the index because of a radio station owner’s murder and the expulsion of two Spanish journalists who supported indigenous groups resisting the mining industry’s attempts to take their land. A bad atmosphere, marked by smear campaigns against individual journalists, prevailed between the government of President Ricardo Martinelli and much of the media.
In Guatemala (97th, down 20 places), already ranked low because of violent crime, habitual self-censorship and a lack of pluralism, a journalist was detained without proof in 2011. In the Dominican Republic (95th), a journalist was murdered several weeks after spending six days in detention on a defamation charge . Frequent instances of police abuse were reported.
In neighbouring Haiti (52nd), on the slow road to recovery after the 2010 earthquake, rising political tension in the run-up to the swearing-in of President Michel Martelly on 14 May did not reach the point where it affected the safety of journalists.
Similarly in Nicaragua (72nd, up 11 places), the political polarization during the run-up to Daniel Ortega’s re-election as president in November turned out to have little effect on the work of journalists or their freedom of movement. Despite instances of serious threats, the country moved up several places, as did El Salvador (37th, up 14) thanks to a fall in the number of assaults.
Costa Rica (19th) topped the list of Latin American countries in 2011, a position for which it traditionally vies with Uruguay (32nd). Its ranking is in marked contrast to that of its Central American neighbour, Honduras (135th), which has languished at the bottom of the list since the coup in June 2009. The deaths of five journalists in 2011, two as a direct result of their work, as well as the regular persecution of opposition media and community radio stations, confirmed its notoriety as the hemisphere’s second most dangerous country for the press after Mexico (149th, down 13 places).
Mexico continued its decline against the grim backdrop of the federal government’s offensive against drug trafficking, which has cost 50,000 lives in five years. As well as journalists, five of whom were murdered in 2011, netizens who take a stand against the prevailing violence are now also becoming the targets for killings and reprisals.
Bringing up the rear in the hemisphere, Cuba (167th) released the last of its jailed dissident journalists on 8 March, the only one still held of those detained during the “Black Spring” of 2003. However, it did not fulfil the hopes this raised of an improvement in civil liberties and human rights. Crackdowns and short-term detentions continued to be a threat for journalists and bloggers outside state control.
As well as Canada (10th, up 11 places), which recovered the hemisphere’s top ranking, Jamaica (16th), Surinam (22nd, up 13) and the seven-member Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (25th, up 32) also improved their position in the index thanks to an almost total lack of acts of violence or serious breaches of freedom of information.
There was a surprise of a different kind in Trinidad and Tobago (50th, down 20 places) as a result of a scandal involving spying on journalists, as well as moves to boycott radio and television stations and procedural abuses.
Conditions in Guyana (58th), where radio broadcasting is still a state monopoly, were similar and its ranking was unchanged.
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Asia

Violence and censorship on the rise in Asia

Violence and impunity persist in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Philippines, more repression in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and China
In Afghanistan (150th) and Pakistan (151st), violence remained the main concern for journalists, who were under constant threat from the Taliban, religious extremists, separatist movements and political groups. With 10 deaths in 2011, Pakistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the second year in a row.
In the Philippines (140th), which rose again in the index after falling in 2010 as a result of the massacre of 32 journalists in Ampatuan in November 2009, paramilitary groups and private militias continued to attack media workers. The judicial investigation into the Ampatuan massacre made it clear that the response of the authorities was seriously inadequate.
Journalists continued to be exposed to violence in Bangladesh (129th) and Nepal (106th), although less than in the past. In Nepal, journalists were regularly subjected to threats from rival political groups and their supporters. In Bangladesh, opposition groups and the ruling Awami League took turns to attack and obstruct the press. Despite genuine media pluralism, the law allows the government to maintain excessive control over the media and the Internet.
In Nepal, a decline in attacks by Maoist groups in the south and greater efficiency on the part of the justice system account for the modest improvement in the country’s ranking. However, press freedom was marred by threats and attacks by politicians and armed groups throughout the year.
Authoritarianism and ambivalence at the bottom of the index
Freedom of information worsened considerably in two Asian countries under authoritarian rule.
China, which has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country, stepped up its censorship and propaganda in 2011 and tightened its control of the Internet, particularly the blogosphere. The first protest movements in Arab countries and the ensuing calls for democracy in China’s main cities set off a wave of arrests with no end yet in sight.
In the autonomous regions of Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, protests by minorities regularly gave rise to a harsh crackdown by the authorities. In Beijing and Shanghai, international correspondents were particular targets of the security forces and had to work under the continual threat of expulsion or having their visas withdrawn. Journalists were prevented from covering most of the events that threatened China’s stability or might have given it a negative image.
Vietnam (172nd) appeared to follow China’s repressive lead and fell seven places. Politically committed journalists and pro-democracy bloggers were harassed by the authorities while the courts continued to invoke state security to hand out prison sentences ranging from two to seven years. The blogger Pham Minh Hoang, for example, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years under house arrest on 10 August on a charge of trying to overthrow the government.
In Sri Lanka (163rd), the stranglehold of the Rajapakse clan forced the last few opposition journalists to flee the country. Any that stayed behind were regularly subjected to harassment and threats. Attacks were less common but impunity and official censorship of independent news sites put an end to pluralism and contributed more than ever to self-censorship by almost all media outlets.
Burma (169th) showed signs of beginning to carry out reforms including partial amnesties and a reduction in prior censorship, but it remained largely under the control of an authoritarian government run by former members of the military junta reinvented as civilian politicians. Less than 10 of its journalists remain in prison at the start of 2012.
In North Korea (178th), although news and information was able to move across its borders to a greater extent, no one knows whether this will continue under Kim Jong-un, the son and heir of Kim Jong-il. The dynastic succession, the dominance of the military machine and the government’s desire for power give no grounds for optimism.
At the top, the good boys turn bad
Those who are traditionally good performers did not shine in 2011. With New Zealand’s fall to 13th position, no country in the Asia-Pacific region figured among the top 10 in the index. Hong Kong (54th) saw a sharp deterioration in press freedom in 2011 and its ranking fell sharply. Arrests, assaults and harassment worsened working conditions for journalists to an extent not seen previously, a sign of a worrying change in government policy.
In Australia (30th), the media were subjected to investigations and criticism by the authorities, and were denied access to information, while in Japan (22nd) coverage of the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident gave rise to excessive restrictions and exposed the limits of the pluralism of the country’s press.
Causes for concern
In India (131st), journalists were exposed to violence stemming from the persistent conflicts in the states of Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir. The threat from mafia groups operating in the main cities of the coutnry also contributed to self-censorship. However, the authorities were no better. In May, they unveiled the “Information Technology Rules 2011,” which have dangerous implications for online freedom of expression. Foreign reporters saw their visa requests turned down or were pressured to provide positive coverage.
In Indonesia, an army crackdown in West Papua province, where at least two journalists were killed, five kidnapped and 18 assaulted in 2011, was the main reason for the country’s fall to 146th position in the index. A corrupt judiciary that is too easily influenced by politicians and pressure groups and government attempts to control the media and Internet have prevented the development of a freer press.
Illegal detention and intimidation in Mongolia (100th) and the Maldives (73rd) showed up the weakness of press freedom there. A climate of religious intolerance prevailed in the Maldives, where media organizations were subjected to threats by the authorities and had to deal with an Islamic affairs ministry bent on imposing the Sharia to the detriment of free expression.
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Europe

Differences increase in Europe

Читать по-русски European Union more heterogeneous, Balkans facing EU entry challenge
While Finland and Norway again share first place, Bulgaria (80th) and Greece (70th) have kept their status as the European Union’s bad performers. Targeted attacks and death threats against journalists marked the past year in Bulgaria, where concerns about print media pluralism grew. In Greece, the economic crisis highlighted the fragility of its media while photographers and cameramen covering demonstrations were exposed to conditions resembling war zones. Hungary fell 17 rungs to 40th place after adopting a law giving the ruling party direct control over the media and amending its constitution in December. The precedent set by this legislation, adopted with little comment from other EU member states, has further dented the European model’s credibility.
France is still in a disappointing position (38th), as concern continues about protection of the confidentiality of sources and the ability of investigative journalists to cover influential figures close to the government. Italy (61st), which still has a dozen or so journalists under police protection, has turned the page on several years of conflict of interest with Silvio Berlusconi’s departure. But this year’s ranking still bears his mark, especially another attempt to introduce a gag law and an attempt to introduce Internet filtering without reference to the courts, both narrowly rejected.
Against the extraordinary backdrop of the News of the World affair, the United Kingdom (28th) caused concern with its approach to the protection of privacy and its response to the London riots. Despite universal condemnation, the UK also clings to a surreal law that allows the entire world to come and sue news media before its courts.
The contrast among the three Baltic countries sharpened. Estonia (3rd) stayed at the top of the index but Lithuania and Latvia fell to 30th and 50th respectively as a result of grotesque court rulings and increased interference by the security services. Relations between the government and media have improved somewhat in Slovakia (25th) since Robert Fico, who was heavy-handed in his methods and crude in his language with journalists, ceased to be prime minister.
The economic crisis accentuated the Balkan media’s problems – use of the media for private or criminal interests, unfair competition in very small markets, and self-censorship by a growing number of badly paid journalists. Judicial officials – many of them poorly trained, allied with the government and often corrupt – seem more interested in harassing the media than ending impunity for those who threaten or physically attack journalists. This was the case, for example in Bosnia-Herzegovina (58th), Montenegro (107th), Albania (96th) and Macedonia (94th), which lost 40 per cent of its media with the closure of Plus Produkcija, a company that owned three dailies and the leading privately-owned TV station.
Turkey back to old habits, Azerbaijan and Belarus locked into repression
Turkey continued its descent, this time falling 10 places to 148th. Despite the diversity and energy of its media, 2011 saw a dramatic escalation in the judicial harassment of journalists. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, dozens were jailed before being tried, above all in the investigations into the Ergenekon conspiracy and the KCK, an alleged political offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. The unprecedented extension of the range of arrests, the massive phone taps and the contempt shown for the confidentiality of journalists’ sources have helped to reintroduce a climate of intimidation in the media.
In Russia (142nd), the media freedom panorama continues to be gloomy. The conviction of a couple for the double murder of Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov raised hopes but aspects of the case remained unclarified and impunity is still the rule for those who murder or attack journalists. Tougher sentences for such crimes and the decriminalization of media offences were both good news but the impact of these reforms remains to be determined, especially in the absence of an overhaul of anti-terrorist legislation. The unprecedented demonstrations in December 2011 augur a period of uncertainty – while some newsrooms seem to be becoming more outspoken, the state’s repressive apparatus has so far been able to cope with the unrest.
After cracking down violently on pro-democracy protests, both Belarus (168th) and Azerbaijan (162nd) have fallen sharply and are approaching the bottom of the index. Their leaders, Alexander Lukashenko and Ilham Aliyev, are both predators of press freedom and both made the media pay for the way their authority was challenged on the streets – in Belarus, more than 100 journalists and bloggers arrested (and around 30 of them given jail sentences), increased harassment of independent media and deportation of foreign journalists.
Not content with this indiscriminate repression, Belarus’ self-styled “Batka” (Father) went on to turn the media into the scapegoat for all of his country’s problems. Similar methods were used in Azerbaijan, where special emphasis was put on surveillance of social networks and where netizens were jailed just for issuing online calls for demonstrations. Violence is back in a big way there, with threats, beatings, and abduction of opposition journalists and, for the first time in five years, an Azerbaijani journalist murdered.
No longer the leader in the southern Caucasus, Georgia (104th) is paying the price for the violent dispersal of an opposition demonstration in May and the persistent harassment of journalists and bloggers suspected of sympathizing with Russia. Armenia’s 24-place rise in the index seems spectacular, but in fact it has just gone back to where it was three years ago, before the brutal crackdown after the disputed 2008 elections. The media are nonetheless subject to constant judicial harassment and the size of the damages demanded in lawsuits is intimidating. Self-regulation is a major challenge that still needs to be tackled.
In Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan turned the page on a 2010 marked by a cruel dictatorship’s violent death throes and inter-ethnic massacres in the south and achieved the region’s best ranking (108th). The media freedom situation nonetheless continues to be very fragile, with physical attacks on journalists and repressive initiatives by parliament. It was a bad year in neighbouring Tajikistan (122nd), where the authorities continue to brandish the spectre of civil war and radical Islamism to try to gag the independent media.
Kazakhstan’s ranking (154th) improved only because so many other countries plunged on the index this year. In reality, in a bid to maintain a facade of stability at all costs, the Kazakh authorities have stepped up their persecution of the few independent voices and are trying to gain control of the Internet. Online content also focused the attention of the dictatorships in Uzbekistan (157th) and Turkmenistan (177th), which made no progress. The Turkmen public have access only to a highly-censored national Intranet, but the war of information 2.0 has now begun with the few Turkmen online resources based abroad.
Ukraine (116th) rose a few rungs after its all-time low in 2010, marked by journalist Vasyl Klymentyev’s disappearance, but the negative’s tendencies seen since Viktor Yanukovych’s installation as president in February 2010 – return of censorship and many physical attacks on journalists that have gone unpunished – have continued.
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Middle-East/North Africa

Arab uprisings and their impact on the press freedom index

The Arab uprisings and the measures taken by governments to control news and information in response to the uprisings had a major impact on the ranking of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa. From Morocco to Bahrain and Yemen, few countries were spared by this wave of pro-democracy uprisings, which prompted major crackdowns.
Some predators of press freedom fell from power, but others remain in place. The transitions that have begun are not necessarily leading towards more pluralism and most of the changes in the rankings have been downward ones. The freedoms that have been won are fragile and could easily be swept away.
Countries where revolts led to political change
Tunisia rose in the index, from 164th to 134th, because of the end of the harassment of journalists by the Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali regime, the emergence of real pluralism of opinion in the print media and, albeit possibly only for the time being, the end of massive and systematic Internet filtering. The recent appointments of persons with links to the old regime to run the state-owned media underscored the danger of a return to the past.
Libya has also risen in the index, but to a lesser degree, going from 160th to 154th. After the Libyan uprising began in February, there was an explosion in the number of media, above all in the east of the country. The new pluralist enthusiasm spread to the west after the liberation of Tripoli at the end of August. Newspapers and radio and TV stations have sprouted like mushrooms. But Libya’s ranking reflects the many abuses against journalists during the civil war. If democratization continues and if media pluralism and independence take a lasting hold, Libya’s ranking will improve over the next few years.
Countries where repression continues and changes are just cosmetic
Most of the region’s countries have fallen in the index because of the measures taken in a bid to impose a news blackout on a crackdown. Egypt plummeted 39 places (from 127th last year to 166th this year) because of the attempts by Hosni Mubarak’s government and then the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to rein in the revolution’s successive phases. The hounding of foreign journalists for three days at the start of February, the interrogations, arrests and convictions of journalists and bloggers by military courts, and the searches without warrants all contributed to Egypt’s dramatic fall in the index.
The Kingdom of Bahrain (173rd) plunged 29 places to become one of the world’s 10 most repressive countries. Bahraini and foreign journalists were systematically hounded from February onwards. An entire arsenal of measures were taken to prevent information circulating about the evolving situation in the country. At the same time, the authorities made extensive use of the media to put out pro-government propaganda. The creation of an independent commission of enquiry did not end the abuses against journalists. It just helped to ensure that, as a result of the undertakings given by the authorites, the rest of the world stopped talking about Bahrain.
Yemen fell just one place (from 170th to 171st) despite all the violence used by the security forces against demonstrators and journalists covering the demonstrations. But the media freedom situation was already very worrying and Yemen had already fallen 16 places since 2008, when a sharp deterioration began. A Gulf Cooperation Council plan under which President Ali Abdallah Saleh was supposed to stand down, which he signed on 23 November, did not change the internal situation, far from it.
Syria, which had already attained a very low ranking in recent years, fell a bit more, from 173rd to 176th place, on the brink of become one of the bottom three. The situation in Syria had an impact on neighbouring Lebanon, where the government provided the Syrian authorities with a degree of cooperation in their attempts to track down dissident Syrian journalists and bloggers who had fled to Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia fell only one place (from 157th to 158th) although the government organized a news blackout on the demonstrations and ensuing crackdown in the eastern regions with a Shiite majority. But Saudi Arabia had already been very low in the index because of the lack of pluralism and high level of self-censorship.
Countries that relapsed
After rising in the index for several years in a row, Iraq fell 22 places this year, from 130th to 152nd (almost to the position it held in 2008, when it was 158th). There were various reasons. The first was an increase in murders of journalists. Hadi Al-Mahdi’s murder on 8 September marked a clear turning point. Another reason was the fact that journalists are very often the target of violence by the security forces, whether at demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, or in Iraqi Kurdistan, a region that had for many years offered a refuge for journalists.
As regards its internal situation, Israel fell six places (from 86th to 92nd) for two reasons. Firstly, Haaretz reporter Uri Blau is facing a possible seven-year jail sentence for possessing classified documents and his source, Anat Kam, was sentenced to three years in prison on 31 October. Secondly, on 21 November, parliament approved a media bill on first reading that would drastically increase the amount of damages that can be awarded in defamation cases. In general, although Israel enjoys real media pluralism, it is not in the top 50 countries in the Reporters Without Borders index because the media are subject to prior military censorship.
The Palestinian Territories fell three places because of attacks on journalists during demonstrations by Palestinians calling for an end to the war between Fatah and Hamas, and because of an illegal takeover by Hamas supporters of the journalists’ union in Gaza City.
Countries that fell again
The United Arab Emirates fell again, this time from 87th to 112th, above all because of its Internet filtering policy and the imprisonment of Ahmed Mansoor, a blogger who administers the online pro-democracy forum Al-Hewar (“The Dialogue”), from 8 April to 28 November along with four other activists, known collectively as “The UAE 5.” He was reportedly mistreated while detained and his family was repeatedly threatened.
The media freedom situation has not changed intrinsically in Jordan but police violence against journalists and repeated deliberate attacks on the Agence France-Presse bureau in Amman caused it to fall eight places in the index, from 120th to 128th.
Morocco fell again, this time from 135th to 138th, as a result of Al-Massae editor Rachid Nini’s imprisonment. He is still detained. Algeria, on the other hand, rose again, this time 11 places, from 133rd to 122nd, above all because of a fall in the number of trials of journalists.
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Arabic version

Press Freedom Index 2011/2012

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Syria, Bahrain and Yemen get worst ever rankings

“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world,” Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index. “Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

#Twitter #Censorship : Twitter Begins The Slow Decline Into The World Of Censorship !

2012-01-26T14:19:00.001-08:00

Tweets still must flow

One year ago, we posted "The Tweets Must Flow," in which we said,

“The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact … almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits.”

As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.

Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.

We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld. As part of that transparency, we’ve expanded our partnership with Chilling Effects to share this new page, http://chillingeffects.org/twitter, which makes it easier to find notices related to Twitter.

There’s more information in our Help pages, both on our Policy and about Your Account Settings.

One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The Tweets must continue to flow.

http://blog.twitter.com/2012/01/tweets-still-must-flow.html?m=1

#ACTA : #Poland Signs Up To Censorship As 20.000 Rage

2012-01-26T04:26:00.001-08:00

After days of protests and hacker attacks, Poland has signed the controversial ACTA copyright protection treaty. Opponents call it an assault on online freedom, since it demands that internet service providers police user activity.

Warsaw’s Ambasador to Tokyo Jadwiga Rodowicz-Czechowska signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Japan on Tuesday. The treaty aims to harmonize international copyright protection standards in a number of industries from pharmaceutics to fashion.

The agreement now has to be ratified by the parliament, which is unlikely to oppose it, reports RT’s Aleksey Yaroshevsky.

The news came amid mass protests in Poland, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets, while many more joined online action against ACTA. Some 15,000 activists marched in Krakow, 5,000 in Wroclaw, and several thousand in other Polish cities.

A number of websites, including that of Prime Minister Donald Tusk were attacked by hackers demanding that the country boycott the treaty. This however didn’t stop the authorities from proceeding with their plan.

The agreement, which has already been signed by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, has been criticized by human rights groups for the secrecy, in which it has been developed, and the potential for abuse it poses.

The deal has been compared to the SOPA/PIPA bills, which drew worldwide opposition and an internet strike, once the danger the posed became widely publicized. In the case of ACTA, the public remained mostly unaware of its nature, before the hacktivist group Anonymous spread the message.

Under ACTA, internet service providers are virtually obliged to monitor all user activity for possible copyright violations. It also gives trademark owners and officers of the law great authority to violate privacy while investigating suspected infringements.

Apart from affecting internet use, the agreement puts great restrictions on other areas involving patents, like the production of generic drugs.

http://rt.com/news/acta-poland-internet-government-745/

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/

Stop #ACTA - Why The Big Brother Of The Internet Censorship Must be Crushed

2012-01-24T08:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/175737/stop-acta-why-the-global-big-brother-of-internet-censorship-must-be-crushed/

#IRAN - Britain Censors TV Channel In Preparation For Yet Another Illegal War ?

2012-01-22T02:40:00.001-08:00

From the comments section

Specky4eyes | January 22, 2012 at 10:28 am |

Got to agree that the ban is more about the coming war in the Middle East than anything else. You don’t have to watch the BBC for long and compare it to the news available on the internet to understand that there is no real freedom of speech in the UK. The elite own the press and that is why they are so aggressively targeting the internet. The dumb sheeple are starting to wake up and that’s just not allowed. Where would Ron Paul’s campaign be if it were not for the internet?

http://maxkeiser.com/2012/01/21/viewers-in-britain-will-no-longer-be-able-to-watch-my-show-on-the-edge-due-to-this-ban/

#ACTA : With #SOPA Dead What is ACTA?

2012-01-22T02:25:00.001-08:00

In October 2007, the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan simultaneously announced that they would negotiate a new intellectual property enforcement treaty the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA. Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada have joined the negotiations. Although the proposed treaty’s title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines) what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope and in particular will deal with new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology”.

In recent years major U.S. and EU copyright industry rightsholder groups have sought stronger powers to enforce their intellectual property rights across the world to preserve their business models. These efforts have been underway in a number of international fora including at the World Trade Organization the World Customs Organization at the G8 summit at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement and at the Intellectual Property Experts’ Group at the Asia Pacific Economic Coalition.

Since the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Issues of Intellectual Property in 1994 (TRIPS) most new intellectual property enforcement powers have been created outside of the traditional multilateral venues through bilateral and regional free trade agreements entered into by the United States and the European Community with their respective key trading partners. ACTA is the new frontline in the global IP enforcement agenda.

To date, disturbingly little information has been released about the actual content of the agreement. However despite that it is clearly on a fast track, treaty proponents wanted it tabled at the G8 summit in July and completed by the end of 2008. ...read more

https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

#SOPA Is Dead - Smith Pulls Bill

2012-01-20T23:40:00.000-08:00

Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) said. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”
Smith also released the following statement on Friday:

“We need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60% of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.
“The online theft of American intellectual property is no different than the theft of products from a store. It is illegal and the law should be enforced both in the store and online.
“The Committee will continue work with copyright owners, Internet companies, financial institutions to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property. We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem. The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”...read more

SEE ALSO: Who Did the Most to Bury SOPA? [POLL]

http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-smith-pulls-bill/

#Stalker #IainDale #LBC Radio Presenter With More Than 25,000 Followers Takes Image Of Young Girl And Calls Her A DRUNK And A SLAPPER On Twitter

2012-01-20T15:17:00.001-08:00

#SOPA 101 : Tour Guide To The Internet Blackout

2012-01-20T04:08:00.001-08:00

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/sopa-internet-blackout/

Read The #Mega #Indictment...

2012-01-19T15:29:00.001-08:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78786408/Mega-Indictment

BREAKING: Read the 72-page #Megaupload indictment: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78786408/Mega-Indictment

#Images : Anti #SOPA #Pipa From Yesterdays Events- Stunning !

2012-01-19T00:25:00.001-08:00

http://cryptome.org/2012-info/anti-sopa-pipa/0043.htm

#SOPA #Internet Goes On Strike

2012-01-18T00:15:00.001-08:00

Today, we are striking against censorship.
Join the largest online protest in history:
tell Congress to stop this bill now!

http://wlcentral.org/node/2432

#SOPA - #Wikipedia Surviving The Blackout - Mirrors - Caches - Aternatives

2012-01-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t heard the news yet, the English-language version of Wikipedia — all 3.8 million articles — will be blacked out from 10pm ET tonight until 10pm on Wednesday night. During this 24-hour window en.wikipedia.org will be inaccessible; instead, a plaintive message will appear, asking for you to contact your local Representative or Senator to protest against SOPA, PIPA, or any of their similarly nasty offspring.

But what if you need to access Wikipedia? What if you use the English-language Wikipedia, but you’re not American? I don’t want to turn this into political or philosophical rant, but it does seem a little brash to shut down an invaluable service that’s visited by millions of people every day based on the votes of just a few hundred contributors.

Anyway, if you want to access Wikipedia, here’s how.

Use a mirror

The content of Wikipedia articles and most of its images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, which means that other sites are free to set up a mirror of Wikipedia. Unfortunately, due to the size of English Wikipedia, only one full mirror seems to exist: The Free Dictionary Encyclopedia. It’s a little bit out of date, however, so be careful.

The other option is making your own mirror of Wikipedia — an option that we’ll be detailing in another article later today.

Use the Google Cache

Google maintains a full cache of every Wikipedia page. To view the cache, click the double right arrow next to a search result and then click “Cached.” Except for a gray banner across the top, Google’s cache looks exactly like the real thing — but don’t try clicking any links, as they link back to en.wikipedia.org, rather than Google’s cache; darn! read more

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/114233-surviving-the-wikipedia-blackout-mirrors-caches-alternatives-apps-and-more

#Wikipedia - Why #SOPA Is Dangerous

2012-01-17T23:53:00.000-08:00

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that SOPA is bad and would ruin the Internet, but have you actually read the bill? If not, it’s worth reading, for two reasons. First, if you are going to oppose a bill, you should know exactly what you’re opposing, not just the vague principle behind it. Second, it’ll provide you with a valuable insight: that these bills are written in an attempt to obscure the truth.

First off, I’m going to qualify that I’m not a lawyer. However, I am a programmer, and that’s made me pretty good at unraveling spaghetti code. If ever a bill was spaghetti, this is it. If a programmer on my team wrote code as convoluted as this bill, I would fire him on the spot. That being said, there may be provisions I’m wrong about; if there are, please do correct me. My intent is to communicate the truth of this bill as cleanly as possible.

Here is the full text of the bill, as of Jan. 15, 2012. Open a copy, because I’ll be referring to it. It helps to click the “Printer Friendly” link to access a single-page view of the bill.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Tyrant Rupert #Murdoch Wants Complete Internet Domination AND Censorship !

2012-01-16T12:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVUUOCKJ8o

#SOPA Plans Set To Be Shelved As Obama Comes Out Against Piracy Legislation

2012-01-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

Congress ready to drop Sopa vote after White House says it would not support legislation that threatens openness of internet

Sopa and e-Parasite aim to tackle online piracy by preventing Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen material. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Congressional leaders are preparing to shelve controversial legislation aimed at tackling online piracy after president Barack Obama said he would not support it.

California congressman Darrell Issa, an opponent of Sopa, the Stop Online Piracy Act, said he had been told by House majority leader Eric Cantor that there would be no vote "unless there is consensus on the bill."

The news is a major blow for Sopa's backers in Hollywood, who had enjoyed broad support in Congress. But the Motion Pictures Association of America, one of the bill's biggest sponsors, said it would continue to press for new laws. "The failure to pass meaningful legislation will result in overseas websites continuing to be a safe haven for criminals stealing and profiting from America," the MPAA said in a blogpost.

The White House came out firmly against Sopa at the weekend.

"Let us be clear – online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle-class workers and hurts some of our nation's most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs," the White House said in its first official comment on Sopa and a rival bill, Protect IP, now known as the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act, or the e-Parasite act.

But the White House said it would not support legislation that "reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."

The two bills aim to tackle online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen materials. The bills would also allow people and companies to sue if their copyright was being infringed.

The White House expressed concern about both these elements and about passing legislation that threatened the openness of the internet. In the online statement it said any new legislation must be "narrowly targeted".
"Any provision covering internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing," said the White House.

The Obama administration also came out firmly against any plans to target the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of internet security, in order to tackle sites accused of piracy. Any proposed legislation "must not tamper with the technical architecture of the internet," said the White House.

The move effectively scuppers Sopa for now, and puts pressure on legislators ahead of a Senate vote on the e-Parasite act scheduled for January 24.

In a statement, Issa said: "While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House."

The tech community has fought hard to stop Sopa. Websites including Reddit and possibly Wikipedia had been planning to "go dark" on Wednesday in protest of the proposals. And the White House move will be a major blow for the bills' supporters.

This weekend Rupert Murdoch – whose News Corporation includes the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox, took to Twitter to attack the Obama administration for its criticism of Sopa.

"So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy. Plain thievery," Murdoch wrote in a series of tweets that accused Google of hosting pirated material and selling advertising against it. Google dismissed his claims as "nonsense".

Art Brodsky, director for Public Knowledge, a Washington-based public interest group that has campaigned against Sopa, said: "You can't view this bill in isolation; it's part of a continuum. They will try to muddle through with something."

But he said the White House statement was "very helpful" and it was clear that any legislation that tried to make wide-ranging changed to the internet would now face tougher opposition.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/16/sopa-shelved-obama-piracy-legislation

#Dalefarm :

2012-01-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

http://londonphotographers.org/2011/12/why-im-resisting-the-dale-farm-production-order/

#SOPA #PIPA : Opposition To Anti-Piracy Laws Heats Up In The U.S.

2012-01-15T14:21:00.001-08:00

Online piracy legislation has caused such an outcry that the White House is now weighing in.

There's no doubt that online piracy bills debated in Congress within the last couple of months -- namely SOPA and PIPA -- have been highly controversial. Now the Obama administration has addressed the contentious issue.

On Saturday, the administration responded to petitions signed by tens of thousands of people opposing the legislation by releasing a statement indicating what it would, and would not support.

"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," reads the statement written by the president's chief technology officials.

The bills under consideration in Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate—were intended to combat the theft of copyrighted materials by preventing search engines from sending users to sites where stolen materials are distributed. They also would allow people and companies to sue to stop what they believed to be theft of protected content. Such provisions have been opposed by free speech advocates who have said the legislation far exceeds its intended scope, and threatens the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens...read more
http://trap.it/#!traps/id/f9850dff-efd8-410f-9a9c-43edd8091ccd/articles/64ifsb7ae002q6JFNsPA

#Censored : Watching You Watching Me....The Internet Is Not Free

2012-01-15T12:29:00.001-08:00

http://open.youyuxi.com/

#SOPA: Richard O'Dwyer EXTRADITION Guinea Pig

2012-01-15T12:21:00.001-08:00

Seized: The message from the authorities now displayed at O'Dwyer's TVShack web address

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086310/Richard-ODwyer-extradition-Student-faces-10-years-US-jail-echo-Gary-McKinnon.html

#SOPA : The Music Industry Is Suing Ireland!

2012-01-15T08:59:00.001-08:00

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY is suing Ireland over its alleged failure to adopt legislation in support of aspects of EU copyright law that would protect its content.
The music cartel is overly fond of suing people, and when it isn't reissuing classic albums, compilations, and autotune showcases, it brandishes lawyers like porcupines rattle their quills.
According to the Activepolitic web site Ireland is its latest target. Ireland is being sued by EMI Records Ireland, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Music, apparently because it has been slow to implement European rules that prohibit filesharing.
According to a very brief note on the Irish High Courts filing page, the plaintiffs filed a complaint on 10 January in a case entitled EMI RECORDS [IRELAND] LTD & ORS -V- IRELAND & ANOR 2012/146.

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15cH1)

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2137237/music-industry-suing-ireland

#SOPA : Raspberry Pi website to go dark on Jan 18 to protest against SOPA

2012-01-15T08:27:00.001-08:00

Posted on January 15, 2012 by liz

On January 18, Raspberry Pi, alongside many other websites, is going dark for a day to protest against the proposed introduction of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the USA. SOPA will not just affect those in the USA; its knock-on effects would touch every website in the world. Under the proposed legislation, it would be illegal for us (or you) to link to any website – any website at all, including community-driven behemoths like YouTube, Flickr, Blogspot or WordPress – without checking first that nothing on that site infringes copyright. And we’d have to review those sites continually after a link was made...read more

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/533?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Guardian Lies : Millie Dowler ' Clanger' Proved The Guardian Are Not Quite What They Seem - Their AGENDA ? To Destroy Murdoch !

2012-01-14T00:30:00.001-08:00

http://guardianlies.com/

Copyright : David Bowie On The Future Of Copyright And The Challenges Of A Utility Model For The Arts

2012-01-14T00:17:00.000-08:00

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/01/13/401917/david-bowie-copyright/?mobile=nc

Sue Carrol : Death Of A Journalist

2012-01-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

Beautiful poignant memories of a dear friend by Mark Borkowski. Sue Carrol who lost her battle with cancer. R.I.P. Sue.

http://www.markborkowski.co.uk/death-of-a-journalist-and-a-new-era-for-her-profession/

Richard O'Dwyer To Face U.S. Trial Over Copyright Infringement

2012-01-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

A student who created a website which helped people watch films and TV shows for free can be extradited to the US to face copyright infringement allegations, a court ruled today.

Sheffield Hallam University undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer, 23, allegedly earned thousands of pounds through advertising on the TVShack website before it was closed down by the US authorities.

He faces jail if convicted of the allegations, which were brought following a crackdown by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
His lawyer Ben Cooper has argued that the site did not store copyright material itself and merely pointed users to other sites, in the same way that Google and Yahoo operate.

Mr Cooper also claimed his client would be the first British citizen to be extradited for such an offence and would effectively become a "guinea pig" for copyright law in the US.

His mother Julia O'Dwyer, from Chesterfield, has described the action as "beyond belief" and the UK's extradition treaty with the US as "rotten".
But District Judge Quentin Purdy ruled today at Westminster Magistrates' Court that the extradition could go ahead.

Mr Cooper indicated he would appeal against the ruling.

O'Dwyer, who wore a grey shirt and blue jeans, showed no emotion as the ruling was made.

His mother Julia criticised Britain's extradition treaty with the US.

She said after the hearing: "If they want to prosecute something they will.
"There's no safeguards here for British citizens."

She also claimed the District Judge did not have the "technical brains to know about the whole thing".

She added: "That guy just lives and breathes extradition."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/student-to-face-us-trial-over-tvshack-website-6289235.html

LIVE : Joran Van Der Sloot Sentencing Hearing - Sloot Sentenced To 28 Years In Prison For The Murder Of Stephany Flores

2012-01-13T07:43:00.001-08:00

http://video.foxnews.com/video-live-streaming.html?video_id=1155606982001

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-11/americas/world_americas_peru-van-der-sloot_1_sloot-stephany-flores-lima-hotel-room?_s=PM:AMERICAS

#Kolar :Video - Double Murder Investigation

2012-01-12T10:55:00.001-08:00

During a media conference this afternoon, two of the couple's children paid tribute to their parents describing them as the "sweetest, kindest people". Michelle Kirwan and Avtar Kolar talked about their heart break and shock and joined police in appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

The bodies of married couple, Avtar Kolar, aged 62, and Carole Kolar, aged 58, were found at their home in Friary Road, Handsworth Wood yesterday morning, Wednesday 11 January.

The couple had been married for 40 years and have four grown-up children and eight grandchildren.

Anyone with information that could assist the enquiry is asked to call Force CID in Birmingham by calling the new non-emergency telephone number, 101, and asking for officers working on Operation Tiler, or by calling the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Royal Sandringham Mystery -

2012-01-09T01:13:00.001-08:00

Missing Person Update 2 - Alisa Dmitrijeva

POLICE investigating the disappearance of a Wisbech teenager have released details of a car they want to trace.

Alisa Dmitrijeva, 17, has not been seen since shortly after midnight in Friars Street, King's Lynn, on August 31. She was reported missing by a family member on September 6.

Now police want to trace the movements of a P-registered green Lexus GS300.

Detective Chief Inspector George Barr said: "Alisa's family are very concerned about her as they have not seen or heard from her in more than two weeks.

"Alisa was seen in a green Lexus GS300 in King's Lynn, but we don't know where she went after that.

"I would urge anyone who saw this vehicle in the King's Lynn or Heacham area in the early hours of August 31, or since, to call police.”

Police are trawling through CCTV to see if they can trace Alisa who also has links to Lincoln and Peterborough.

She is described as 5'6'', with collar length dark brown hair with blonde highlights. However her hair may now be darker with a fringe.

Anyone with any information should call police on 0345 456 456 4.
Notes to editors:

A picture of Alisa is available via the Cambridgeshire force website
Missing Person Update - Alisa Dmitrijeva

POLICE trying to trace a missing Wisbech teenager have received new information about a sighting of her.

Officers previously believed Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva, 17, was last seen leaving the College of West Anglia on September 1. Further checks have now established the last sighting of Alisa was on the evening of August 30 and the following day in Friars Street, Kings Lynn.

Officers continue to carry out enquiries, checking CCTV and speaking to those who know Alisa.

Posters are being distributed in and around the Wisbech area.

Police are keen to speak to anyone who has seen Alisa or has any information as to her whereabouts.

DI Jon McAdam said: "We now know that Alisa was last seen in King’s Lynn but we need to trace her whereabouts over the past couple of weeks.

"It is unlike Alisa not to keep in touch with her family and we are concerned for her welfare.

"I would urge anyone who saw her in King’s Lynn or has seen her since to contact police.”

Anyone with information should call DI McAdam on 0345 456 456 4 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Original Appeal - Missing Person - Alisa Dmitrijeva

Cambridgeshire Police are appealing for the public’s help in tracing a missing Wisbech teenager.

Alisa Dmitrijeva, 17, born in Latvia, was last seen at going to college at 3pm on Thursday, September 1, where she was due to register for this year.

She was reported missing by a family member on September 6.

She is 5’6”, with collar length dark brown hair with blonde highlights.

Police have been checking CCTV and house-to-house enquiries continue in and around the Wisbech area.

Police are keen to speak to anyone who has seen Alisa or has any information as to her whereabouts.

Alisa also has links to the Lincolnshire and King Lynn areas.

Detective Inspector Jon McAdam said: "It is not unusual for Alisa to stay away from home for several days but she always stays in touch with her family.

"We are concerned for her welfare and I would urge anyone who saw her on the day or has seen her since to contact police.

"I would also urge Alisa to contact officers to let us know where she is.”
Anyone with information should call police on 0345 456 456 4, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Note to editors:

A photograph of Alisa is available via the force website –

www.cambs.police.uk

http://www.lincs.police.uk/News-Centre/News-Releases/15-09-2011-Cambridgeshire-Missing-Person-Appeal,-Update-2.html

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/01/nude-in-nettles.html

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/01/royal-sandringham-mystery/

'Nude In Nettles' Woman's Body To be Exhumed For DNA Test's

2012-01-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

Det Supt Lewis Raw

By Rob Preece Crime Correspondent

Published on Monday 9 January 2012 08:23

Police investigating one of Yorkshire’s most famous unsolved mysteries are to exhume the remains of an unidentified woman whose body was found at a beauty spot more than 30 years ago.

Detectives at North Yorkshire Police have been given permission to disinter a woman whose naked body was discovered at a roadside near Sutton Bank in 1981.

By removing the body from its grave at Malton Cemetery, they hope to obtain a DNA sample which could help identify the woman and provide the major breakthrough they need to find out how she died.

The case was officially recorded as an “unexplained incident” by the Home Office in 1981, but detectives are understood to be investigating the possibility that she was murdered.

The exhumation, which has been approved by a coroner, is the most significant development yet in a campaign to identify eight unnamed bodies that were found in North Yorkshire between 1981 and 2008.

All eight cases were featured in the Yorkshire Post four-part Forgotten Victims series, which was published last September.

The recent publicity is understood to have led some people to approach police to ask whether the Sutton Bank body might belong to one of their relatives.
Experts have been assessing the cemetery site since early November to determine the best way to disinter the woman’s remains.

Plans for the exhumation will be formally announced today and the exercise is expected to take place within the next two months, probably at night, and is expected to take less than 24 hours.

The Sutton Bank mystery, which became known as the “Nude in the Nettles”, began on the morning of Friday, August 28, 1981.

Police in Ripon received a call from a well-spoken man who refused to give his name for “national security” reasons but told them: “Near Scawton Moor House you will find a decomposed body.”

Officers found the woman’s remains between two small conifer plantations, to the side of an unclassified road leading from Sutton Bank to the villages of Scawton and Rievaulx.

The woman was 5ft 2in, aged between 35 and 40, and may have been a mother. She appeared to have short dark hair and there was evidence that she had broken her right ankle years before.

A Home Office pathologist estimated the body had been there for up to two years.

Police made numerous appeals in an attempt to identify the woman, and enlisted scientists and a television company’s make-up department to create a wax reconstruction of her head.

The tactic helped officers trace 164 missing women, but no-one could name the Nude in the Nettles. She was buried at Malton in 1983.

When speaking to the Yorkshire Post in September about the unidentified bodies review, the head of North Yorkshire’s major crime unit, Detective Superintendent Lewis Raw, talked about the possibility of an exhumation if a coroner would give consent.

He said: “The exhumation work itself is a very complex procedure because, clearly, we want to make sure it involves the minimum disturbance to surrounding graves.

“It also requires close co-operation and collaboration between people in very different roles, ranging from the police to the town hall. We also need to be mindful of the timing. If we are going to the graveyard, we have to be mindful of the impact it might have on other people going to the graveyard.”

The move has been welcomed by retired Detective Chief Superintendent Strickland Carter, who led the original investigation.

He said: “I think it is a great idea because DNA analysis was not available when we did our investigation. We would have done it on the spot if we could.

“It was a mysterious case and it would be a great comfort if they could establish who it was.”

Detectives are following new leads in three other cases as a result of the Forgotten Victims series.

Yorkshire Post readers came forward with suggestions about the identity of a man found dead on grouse moors close to Colsterdale in 1997; a man whose body was seen floating at Naburn Lock near Selby in 2003; and a woman whose remains were found close to Penyghent in 2004.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/nude_in_nettles_woman_s_body_to_be_exhumed_for_dna_tests_1_4118454

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2012/01/sandringham-mystery.html

#Americans #Arrested For Free Speech!

2012-01-08T01:51:00.001-08:00

U.S. Police Brutality - 75 Years In Jail If You Record The Events

2012-01-08T01:03:00.001-08:00

http://roynelson.blog.co.uk/

#ObscenityTrial : Press Release - Ground-breaking trial redefines obscenity law.

2012-01-07T14:32:00.001-08:00

The International Union of Sex Workers is delighted by the unanimous verdicts of “not guilty” on all counts in the trial of Michael Peacock that concluded at Southwark Crown Court on Friday 6th January.

Michael’s courage and determination in pursuing this case was the first challenge to the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for many years. Understandably, most people charged with offences under this Act plead guilty as an innocent plea followed by a court case that returns a guilty verdict will result in a harsher sentence. This has the effect of leaving police and CPS opinion of what is “obscene” untested...read more

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=16c70cd1453da09ada3c07a1f&id=b132ccbd74