A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru
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US journalist Barrett Brown arrested in the UK on incitement offences
He had been in Britain since November and intended to claim asylum on the basis that he had been persecuted in the US for his journalism
The American journalist Barrett Brown has been arrested and detained in the UK for allegedly overstaying his visa and for alleged public order and incitement offences relating to his role in holding a protest banner which said: “Kill Cops.”
Police arrested Brown on Monday at a canal boat moored in east London, where he had been living for several months with a British woman. He was interviewed and released on bail the following day, but immediately detained by immigration authorities.
Continue reading...Fears of ‘feeding frenzy’ against BBC after Diana interview backlash
Ex-chair of BBC Trust warns criticism could lead to ‘destroying something it would be impossible to recreate’
A former chair of the BBC Trust has warned against the “feeding frenzy” engulfing the corporation as ministers said they would look at how it is governed in the wake of damning findings about its 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
As the broadcaster faced further searching questions over its handling of the crisis, Sir Michael Lyons, who chaired its then governing body from 2007 until 2011, said there was a danger of destroying something that “would be impossible to recreate”.
Continue reading...Associated Newspapers pays damages for revealing Sand Van Roy as Luc Besson accuser
MailOnline published actor’s identity as complainant in rape case against French director
Associated Newspapers has paid substantial damages and apologised to actor Sand Van Roy for revealing her identity as a complainant in a rape case against the French film director Luc Besson.
In May 2018, Van Roy filed a complaint with French police alleging that she had been raped by Besson. She expected to remain anonymous, as is her right under French law, but details of her complaint were leaked and reported in the French press, breaching her right to anonymity, the high court heard.
Continue reading...Prince William as personal as the public has ever seen in Diana remarks
Analysis: usually guarded Duke of Cambridge reveals pent-up fury as he comments on BBC’s handling of Panorama interview
He delivered it to camera in a calm and measured tone. But the Duke of Cambridge’s actual words had devastating impact and betrayed a fury pent up for a quarter of a century.
He spoke of “deceit” of “lurid and false” claims, of cover-ups, woeful incompetence and his “indescribable sadness” over Lord Dyson’s findings on the BBC’s handling of the now infamous Panorama interview.
Continue reading...Government considers BBC shake-up after damning Diana report
Ministers to mull governance overhaul after inquiry condemns Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview
Damning findings about Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, means the governance of the BBC and how it operates will have to be examined, according to a senior government minister.
The comments by the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, came as the Metropolitan police said they would “assess” the contents of John Dyson’s report “to ensure there is no significant new evidence”, after previously deciding not to begin a criminal investigation.
Continue reading...Martin Bashir used ‘deceitful behaviour’ to secure Diana interview, report finds
BBC chief Tim Davie apologises after investigation identified ‘clear failings’ in tactics used by journalist to secure interview
The BBC has been forced to make a humiliating apology after an investigation found that Martin Bashir used deceitful tactics that were later covered up by senior executives to secure his sensational 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
The inquiry, conducted by the former supreme court judge John Dyson, was withering of both Bashir and the corporation’s former director general, Tony Hall, who was accused of overseeing a flawed and “woefully ineffective” internal probe into the issue.
Continue reading...Texas executes Quintin Jones by lethal injection without media witnesses
Prison agency officials didn’t notify reporters, marking first time in at least 40 years that press wasn’t present at an execution
Texas inmate Quintin Jones was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday without media witnesses present.
The press could not witness the death of the 41-year-old because prison agency officials neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment, according to the Associated Press. It was the first time in at least 40 years that media was not present at an execution.
Continue reading...Belarus blocks top news site in ‘full-scale assault’ on free press
Widely read Tut.by news site taken offline in latest attack on media freedom, say human rights groups
A leading news site in Belarus has been taken offline and its journalists interrogated by government officials in what human rights campaigners are calling a “full-scale assault” on the right to freedom of expression in the country.
Tut.by, a news site read by more than 40% of Belarusian internet users, has been blocked and its editors questioned after their offices and houses were raided by authorities.
Continue reading...Bangladeshi journalist arrested and charged over alleged document theft
Rozina Islam’s family claim reporter was assaulted and subject to ‘mental torture’ by officials
One of Bangladesh’s most prominent investigative journalists, known for her anti-corruption reporting and criticism of the government’s response to Covid-19, has been arrested and charged under the country’s Official Secrets Act.
Rozina Islam, 42, a senior investigative journalist at the Bengali daily Prothom Alo appeared before a Dhaka court on Tuesday morning charged with stealing official health ministry documents . The court turned down the police’s appeal that she be remanded in their custody to be interrogated.
Continue reading...Trailer released for Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey TV series
Footage suggests Harry will revisit trauma of his mother’s death in Apple TV+ series on mental health
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex feature in an emotional trailer for Harry’s mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey, and footage hints that he will revisit the trauma he experienced after his mother’s death.
The two-minute trailer includes archive film from the 1997 funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, showing Harry, then 12, standing with his head bowed as his mother’s coffin passes by, alongside the Prince of Wales, who then turns to speak to his son.
Continue reading...‘No safe place’: Associated Press reporter describes Gaza office attack
A rush for escape as Israeli forces bombed the building that housed the US news agency and Al Jazeera
On Saturday, Israeli forces bombed the office which houses Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza, alleging that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building.
Twelve AP staffers and freelancers were working and resting in the bureau when the Israeli military telephoned a warning, giving occupants of the building one hour to evacuate. The AP journalist Fares Akram told how he escaped the building.
Continue reading...How missing CCTV footage turned a Chinese family’s tragedy into a national conspiracy
A mother’s search for the truth about her son’s death exposes the level of public distrust in China’s authorities
On Mother’s Day last Sunday, 17-year-old Lin Weiqi wished his mother – referred to only as Madame Lu in Chinese media – a good day. “Mum, enjoy your day,” he said to her that morning. He was Lu’s only child. Like most Chinese parents of the one-child generation, Lin was her pride and joy.
Late in the afternoon, before Lin had gone back to his school in the south-western city of Chengdu, Lu prepared snacks for him in case he was hungry in the evening. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until an hour later.
Continue reading...Are they having a laugh? How The Father’s posters get the film so wrong
Anthony Hopkins’ harrowing dementia drama is the sensation of this awards season. So why is it endlessly being advertised as another movie altogether?
The Father is not out in the UK until next month, but we already know plenty about it. We know that its script won an Oscar for the uncanny way it dropped the viewer into the mind of someone with dementia. We know that Anthony Hopkins gave such a harrowing, desperate performance that he also won an Oscar. Perhaps you even read the New Yorker interview with Hopkins about the role, which inspired him to recount the circumstances of his own father’s death in devastating detail. Basically, we know that The Father is quite a dark film.
Continue reading...Prince Harry appears to criticise way he was raised by his father
Duke of Sussex also speaks of ‘genetic pain and suffering’ in royal family in new interview in US
The Duke of Sussex has appeared to criticise the way he was raised by Prince Charles, discussing the “genetic pain and suffering” in the royal family and stressing that he wanted to “break the cycle” for his children.
In a wide-ranging 90-minute interview, Prince Harry, who is expecting a daughter with Meghan and is already father to Archie, two, likened life in the royal family to a mix between being in The Truman Show and being in a zoo.
Continue reading...News Corp exclusive on Chinese ‘bioweapons’ based on discredited 2015 book of conspiracy theories
Report in the Australian newspaper promoting Sharri Markson’s book on origins of Covid criticised as misleading and alarmist by China analysts
The Australian’s exclusive about a “chilling” document produced by Chinese military scientists is based on a discredited 2015 book containing conspiracy theories about biological warfare which is freely available on the internet.
Written by the paper’s investigations writer, Sharri Markson, the report last Saturday said Chinese military scientists “discussed the weaponisation of Sars coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic” and predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.
Continue reading...‘Weak’ US let Saudis jail more dissidents, says rights group
Lack of US sanctions on crown prince led to harsher sentences for critics of regime, Grant Liberty reports
The Biden administration’s failure to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has led to a increase in severe sentences for political prisoners in the kingdom, the Guardian can reveal.
The UK-based human rights organisation Grant Liberty found that twice as many harsh sentences had been meted out to Saudi prisoners of conscience in April than in the first three months of this year combined. It followed the Biden administration’s decision on 26 February to publish an intelligence report that showed the crown prince, “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi”.
Continue reading...Trading up: one woman’s quest to swap a hairpin for a house
Demi Skipper would like a new house, but she’s not buying one. Instead she’s planning a daring strategy of trades – and millions are following her journey
While many of us were still finding novelty in group Zoom calls last May, Demi Skipper decided she was going to get a house. But not using money. Instead, she was going to trade items.
Now the owner of one of only a few Chipotle celebrity cards in the world, and hoping to reach a house by the end of summer, the 29-year-old’s journey started where many voyages do: in a YouTube hole.
Continue reading...It’s not just racism and sexism. The Golden Globes have been sunk by sheer stupidity
The preposterous Hollywood Foreign Press Association gravy train might have chugged on for ever if its members had just swallowed their pride and done more for diversity
An investigative report by the Los Angeles Times into the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, that notoriously rackety organisation which administers the Golden Globes, has shown an eminently corruptible body drenched in antediluvian attitudes; this has resulted in NBC cancelling its TV coverage of next year’s ceremony and Tom Cruise handing back the three Globes he has personally won over the years.
Related: Golden Globes backlash: Tom Cruise hands back awards and NBC drops broadcast
Continue reading...‘People got nervous if a bag was left on a chair’: Paul Johnson on Northern Ireland
The Guardian’s former deputy editor recalls his time reporting from Belfast during the Troubles
Paul Johnson has a vivid memory of one of his most dispiriting moments as the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent.
It was April 1986 and he was covering a Democratic Unionist party (DUP) conference. A warmup speaker for the party leader, Ian Paisley, electrified the audience with a suggestion.
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