Category: Civil Liberties
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Let’s Give The Government Access To All Our Personal Data
I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Sign up to the Open Rights Group’s “Stop the Snooper’s Charter” now.
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Science on Trial
If you’re quick, there’s still a chance to hear last week’s Radio 4 programme Science on Trial. With enormous topicality, it examined some of the very concerning legal cases that have been brought in British courts surrounding use of libel laws to restrict scientific debate, and effectively silence some of those who otherwise promote remedies…
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I’m A Photographer – Not A Terrorist
At midday today, I went to Trafalgar Square along with what must have been a couple of thousand of other photographers to protest that “I’m A Photographer, Not A Terrorist!” This is an event that will surely have hundreds of photos coming out of it. There were no speeches per se, but lots of group…
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CCTV Is Everywhere
Last night BBC Two aired the first in a three part series – Who’s Watching You. It examines the surveillance state that we’ve been walking headlong into over the last few years. Despite a very annoying production technique of sending everything in and out of focus like a small child was operating the camera, it…
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The Convention on Modern Liberty
On Saturday I attended what I genuinely believe was an important event – The Convention on Modern Liberty in London. Satellite events were taking place all over the country, with the plenary sessions and keynote addresses. It was a great day with a vast array of speakers. We had to pick and choose which sessions…
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Photography Is Not A Crime
Following on from Stephen Colbert’s humourous take on public photography in the, there’s slightly more distrurbing news in the British Journal of Photography (via Boing Boing). There are far too many cases of law enforcement officials wrongly stopping members of the public from taking photographs. We don’t yet live in a police state.
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Colbert Report on the Evil that is Photography
The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Nailed ‘Em – Amtrak Photographer Colbert Report Full EpisodesPaul McCartney Appearance Funny Political VideosMore Funny Videos Via Thomas Hawk / Jack Schofield on the Twitters / and, er, watching The Colbert Report on FX in the UK.
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To Publish Or Not To Publish?
A simple one first of all. It seems that the names of the people allegedly responsible for the death of Baby P are being passed around quite freely via electronic media. But for legal reasons, they’ve not been named publicly in the mainstream media. It can obviously lead to a lynch-mob mentality that says that…
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CCTV Cameras OK – Microphones a Step Too Far
Oh the irony. Earlier this week Henry Porter presented a fine programme on More 4 (should have been on Channel 4) called Suspect Nation, examining not just ID cards, but the rash of CCTV cameras and other monitoring that’s going on. In particular, there’s the “function creep” where data’s captured and used more and more…