Friday, 16 December 2011
evgenymorozov
Evgeny Morozov
"Control" selected China's character of the year for 2011 - Xinhua flpbd.it/2wBT Paging The Onion
"Control" selected China's character of the year for 2011 - Xinhua flpbd.it/2wBT Paging The Onion
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Punk's not dead, it's just gone to moral rehab
An Indonesian police woman cuts the hair of a detained female punk. (AFP: Chaideer Mahyuddin )
Indonesian sharia police are "morally rehabilitating"
more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island,
saying the youths are tarnishing the province's image.
Since being
arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on
Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced
to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray."We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities," Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said.
"We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent."
Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.
Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.
A girl cried as women in headscarves cut her long unruly hair into a short bob, and some of the men groaned as their heads were shaved.
"Why did they arrest us? They haven't given us any reason," said Fauzal, 20.
"We didn't steal anything, we weren't bothering anyone. It's our right to go to a concert."
A 22-year-old man from Medan city who did not want to be named said he feared he would lose his job for staying at the camp for 10 days.
"I've just started with a bank in Medan. I don't even know what to tell them because I don't know why I've been arrested."
'Deviant behaviour'
Police said the objective was to deter the youths from "deviant" behaviour.
"They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers," said Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan.
"We need to fix them so they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour."
A local rights activist, Evi Narti Zain, said the arrests breached human rights.
"What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don't break any rules or harm other people," she said.
Mr Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation program was merely an "orientation into normal Indonesian society".
Aceh, on the northern-most tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.
Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.
Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia's 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.
@'ABC'
A Massacre in Jamaica
Continue reading
Mattathias Schwartz @'The New Yorker'
dangillmor
Dan Gillmor
Great news: journalists finally are grasping threat of#SOPA. Newspaper editors group denounces it bit.ly/vWOTHY (pdf)
Great news: journalists finally are grasping threat of
News of the World ex-head of legal says he held up key email to James Murdoch
The News of the World's former head of legal has said he held up the front page of an email that suggested phone hacking went beyond a single journalist at the paper during a critical meeting with James Murdoch to discuss how best to settle a legal action.
Tom Crone told the Leveson inquiry into press standards that he went into the 10 June 2008 meeting with Murdoch, who was chairman of the paper's owner News International, armed with documents that appeared to show that hacking was not the work of a "rogue reporter".
"I think I took a copy of the 'for Neville' email," Crone told the inquiry on Wednesday. "I can't remember whether they were passed across the table to him but I'm pretty sure I held up the front page of the email. I am also pretty sure he already knew about it." Colin Myler, the paper's editor at the time, was also at the meeting.
The email in question contained transcripts of voicemails intercepted from a mobile phone belonging to Gordon Taylor, who was suing the News of the World. It was sent by one of the journalists on the title, Ross Hall, to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for the attention of "Neville", which is understood to be a reference to the paper's former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.
It emerged on Tuesday that Murdoch was sent an email by Myler ahead of the June meeting which referred to and included a message from Crone referring to the email and the existence of the transcripts. The email chain was published by the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee yesterday along with a letter from Murdoch in which he insisted he had not read the "for Neville" email.
Asked on Wednesday by inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC about the 10 June meeting, which was called to discuss how to respond to Taylor's claim, Crone told the Leveson inquiry: "I certainly took a copy and possibly spare copies of the [legal] opinion." The legal opinion was drawn up by Michael Silverleaf QC and warned there was evidence of a culture of illegal information gathering at the paper. Murdoch told parliament in October that he had been told about the email and the legal opinion but insisted he had not be shown either document.
Murdoch told MPs he had been advised by Myler and Crone to settle the Taylor case because the PFA chief executive had obtained evidence from Scotland Yard that proved his phone had been hacked by the News of the World. He denies he was told that hacking went beyond Goodman and that this was the reason he authorised a six-figure pay-off to Taylor.
At the time, News International was insisting that only one reporter, former royal editor Clive Goodman, had hacked into mobile phone messages, and that he had done so secretly with Mulcaire without the company's knowledge.
Crone said of the 10 June meeting: "What was certainly discussed was the email… the damning email and what it meant in terms of further involvement in phone hacking beyond Goodman and Mulcaire." He added: "This document clearly was direct and hard evidence of that."
Cone said: "I left that meeting knowing that Mr Murdoch was prepared to settle the case if necessary for a bit more than … £350,000."
Myler is likely to be asked about the meeting with Murdoch and Crone when he gives evidence to the inquiry this afternoon. Myler told parliament earlier this year that Murdoch was told about the contents of the "for Neville" email.
James Robinson @'The Guardian'
Tom Crone told the Leveson inquiry into press standards that he went into the 10 June 2008 meeting with Murdoch, who was chairman of the paper's owner News International, armed with documents that appeared to show that hacking was not the work of a "rogue reporter".
"I think I took a copy of the 'for Neville' email," Crone told the inquiry on Wednesday. "I can't remember whether they were passed across the table to him but I'm pretty sure I held up the front page of the email. I am also pretty sure he already knew about it." Colin Myler, the paper's editor at the time, was also at the meeting.
The email in question contained transcripts of voicemails intercepted from a mobile phone belonging to Gordon Taylor, who was suing the News of the World. It was sent by one of the journalists on the title, Ross Hall, to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for the attention of "Neville", which is understood to be a reference to the paper's former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.
It emerged on Tuesday that Murdoch was sent an email by Myler ahead of the June meeting which referred to and included a message from Crone referring to the email and the existence of the transcripts. The email chain was published by the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee yesterday along with a letter from Murdoch in which he insisted he had not read the "for Neville" email.
Asked on Wednesday by inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC about the 10 June meeting, which was called to discuss how to respond to Taylor's claim, Crone told the Leveson inquiry: "I certainly took a copy and possibly spare copies of the [legal] opinion." The legal opinion was drawn up by Michael Silverleaf QC and warned there was evidence of a culture of illegal information gathering at the paper. Murdoch told parliament in October that he had been told about the email and the legal opinion but insisted he had not be shown either document.
Murdoch told MPs he had been advised by Myler and Crone to settle the Taylor case because the PFA chief executive had obtained evidence from Scotland Yard that proved his phone had been hacked by the News of the World. He denies he was told that hacking went beyond Goodman and that this was the reason he authorised a six-figure pay-off to Taylor.
At the time, News International was insisting that only one reporter, former royal editor Clive Goodman, had hacked into mobile phone messages, and that he had done so secretly with Mulcaire without the company's knowledge.
Crone said of the 10 June meeting: "What was certainly discussed was the email… the damning email and what it meant in terms of further involvement in phone hacking beyond Goodman and Mulcaire." He added: "This document clearly was direct and hard evidence of that."
Cone said: "I left that meeting knowing that Mr Murdoch was prepared to settle the case if necessary for a bit more than … £350,000."
Myler is likely to be asked about the meeting with Murdoch and Crone when he gives evidence to the inquiry this afternoon. Myler told parliament earlier this year that Murdoch was told about the contents of the "for Neville" email.
James Robinson @'The Guardian'
New Challenge to a Murdoch Over Hacking
attackerman attackerman
Wanted: national-security wonks/musicians to record a Johnny Thunders-style LP titled AUMF.
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