Privacy and Censorship.

There are a couple of interesting new stories on Index on Censorship online - and a moral dilemma or two.

The new information commissioner Christopher Graham has told MPs that privacy breaches are not being taken seriously enough. He cites the case of the former BNP member who was fined £200 after leaking membership details. It's hard to have sympathy for BNP members who have their membership revealed and you could say that if people are in the BNP we need to know about it but then you could say the same about communists etc.

Graham wants people banged up. He accuses MPs of being “seduced by the siren song of Fleet Street” into not pushing for a tougher approach to privacy breaches. On this point, he's probably right. The tabloid press have made it very hard for politicians to take action on breaches of privacy and if they try they will no doubt be accused of self-interest.

Index also has a piece by Lal Wickrematunge on the horrific 20 year sentence with hard labour handed out to fellow Sri Lankan journalist JS Tissainayagam for writing the wrong kind of article. He says this has not sunk in with the journalistic fraternity yet. But, he says " the message to the journalistic fraternity in Sri Lanka is loud and clear."

A challenge for Chilcot

In a new piece for Index on Censorship online, I describe how my latest freedom of information request has unearthed still more unpublished documents on the Iraq dossier, including some from the intelligence services that are outright exempt under FOI. The new Chilcot Inquiry must see the documents, take note of them and publish them, whatever their origin.

Free to tell the truth?

Index on Censorship has posted online a petition to Iran's justice minister, calling for the release of journalist Maziar Bahari, who has been held without charge in an Iranian jail for over three weeks.

Meanwhile, as the BBC and Guardian report,

A group of soldiers who took part in Israel's assault in Gaza say widespread abuses were committed against civilians under "permissive" rules of engagement.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has dismissed the report as hearsay as the soldiers were anonymous:

"The IDF expects every soldier to turn to the appropriate authorities with any allegation,"

There would of course be no repercussions...

Utter farce

Last night I posted a new story for Index on Censorship online about how ministers and officials at the DfT lied to conceal a letter about BAA's lobbying for a third Heathrow runway. I also did a piece for Comment is Free.

A watershed?

I've done a new piece today for Index on Censorship, arguing that the expenses scandal is a watershed for freedom of information and that transparency is no longer just an obsession for journalists and freedom of information campaigners.

But then I would say that, wouldn't I?

Storing up trouble

I've just posted a piece for Index on Censorship online, arguing that Brown's secret Iraq inquiry could be storing up trouble. If the details leak, as they probably will, Brown risks being seen as the Michael Martin of the Iraq cover-up. The man who tried to stop the truth coming out.

Deeper, not wider

I've just done a new blog post for Index on Censorship in which I argue that, while Gordon Brown’s promise today to extend freedom of information is welcome, FOI needs to be deepened, not widened, if it is truly to hold power to account.

Brown’s promise that Justice Secretary Jack Straw will look at broadening the application of FOI to include new bodies that spend public money is not new and is an easy pledge to make at virtually no cost to to central government. What would be more impressive would be a commitment from ministers that they will release more information themselves.

When it suits us

I've just posted a new piece for Index on Censorship, pointing out that the government has a double standard when it comes to the disclosure of confidential information, to the point where it will censor a document that it has already published.

Censorship fails

The Guardian is today having a laugh at the expense of the judge who made it take the leaked Barclays tax evasion documents off its website. It is quoting a statement in the House of Lords, Matthew Oakeshott, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, who pointed out all the other sites on which the documents can be found. The Guardian was prevented even from telling its readers this but Oakeshott's statement is protected by parliamentary privilege:

these documents are widely available on the internet from sites such as Twitter, wikileaks.org, docstoc.com and gabbr.com

More on the dossier

As the government makes clear that it would like an Iraq inquiry to take place in private and keep a lid on further disclosures, I'm making further disclosures today.

On the Index on Censorship website, I reveal that there are more unpublished documents that show not just that the dossier was sexed-up against the wishes of the intelligence community but sexed-up to meet the wishes of Alastair Campbell and the match the claims of George Bush. The new evidence is on my Iraq dossier website.

I also got a brief mention in this afternoon's debate from Lib Dem Ed Davey.

Plane obstructive

I've just posted a new piece on the Index on Censorship website:

It’s not just Jack Straw who’s playing fast and loose with freedom of information, says Chris Ames. Heathrow campaigners are finding it impossible to get a straight answer from the Department for Transport

More on the MoD

I've just posted a piece for Index on Censorship, arguing that the case of McNally and Reid takes place in a context of a wider crackdown on military and civilian personnel talking to the media.

National security indeed!

Damian Green's intervention following this afternoon's statement by Commons speaker Michael Martin should shoot the national security fox once and for all.

"An MP endangering national security would be a disgrace. An MP exposing embarrassing facts about Home Office policy which ministers are hiding is doing a job in the public interest."

In a blog for Index on Censorship, one time Foreign Office mole Derek Pasquill points out the similarities and differences between his case and that of Green, although Pasquill's position is more like that of civil servant Christopher Galley. In either case you wonder whether it's really a matter for a criminal investigation.

New Statesman censored

Index on Censorship reports that the New Statesman has censored the blog of Martin Bright, after a threat of legal action from Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.

Wikileaks are unhappy about this and have posted the before and after versions of Bright's blog.

In the censored version, Bright removed the titles of various Guardian and Observer articles:

Here is the full list of the six:

1. "Labour blocks extradition of Iraqi tycoon" Observer, 2 February 2003
2. "Billionaire linked to Labour arrested in London" Guardian, 2 April 2003
3. "So, Norman, any regrets this time?" Observer, 6 April 2003
4. "Tycoon in quiz over ties to Labour" Observer, 6 April 2003
5. "Politics of sleaze" Observer, 16 November 2003
6. "MP questions Iraq role of Briton tainted over Elf"(this has also been titled "British fraudster to profit from Iraq contract")Observer, 16 November 2003

Banning the BNP

Index on Censorship reports that:

London local paper the Hackney Gazette has decided not to allow the British National Party to advertise in its pages.

The refusal follows the decision of the Hampstead and Highgate Express to carry a BNP add, which I mentioned here.

Some devils are better than others

Peter Wilby has an interesting blog piece on the Index on Censorship site exploring the ethics of newspapers and magazines accepting adverts from dodgy sources. Arms companies, tobacco manufacturers, but what about the BNP, as one local newpaper recently did?