Anti-terrorism laws: unjust powers

Do anti-terror laws make us safer? Whom do they protect?
- define terrorism more broadly, thus blurring any distinction between anti-government protest and organized violence against civilians;
- label numerous organisations as ‘terrorist', as a basis for placing entire communities under suspicion of associating with ‘terrorism';
- use ‘intelligence' obtained by torturing detainees abroad;
- and detain and prosecute people for suspected activities which could just as well be handled under other laws. Read more

What's new
Documents obtained by Drone Wars using the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) reveal how British military officials view the UK’s next generation armed drone, known as Protector, and the types of advanced capabilities the aircraft will have.
Drone Wars, December 7th 2020
The Undercover Policing Inquiry was set up to investigate claims of police had infiltrated more than 1,000 trade unions, environmental and anti-war groups, and leftist movements, all operating legally within England and Wales. But the judge in charge refuses to permit the public to watch the hearings, a participant tells Sputnik.
Sputnik, November 27th 2020
The BBC World Service has announced the BBC Sinhala radio service will close this Monday on 30 November. The service has 833,000 listeners each week, representing around 7 per cent of the total Sinhala-speaking population of Sri Lanka.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK is urging the BBC to urgently press pause on this plan and reconsider the closure, especially given the large audience and the current clampdown on media freedoms and human rights in the country.
National Union of Journalists, November 26th 2020
he British government has been accused of running an ‘Orwellian’ unit in Michael Gove’s office that instructs Whitehall departments on how to respond to Freedom of Information requests and shares personal information about journalists, openDemocracy can reveal.
OpenDemocracy, November 23rd 2020
CAGE’s latest report, 20 Years of TACT: Justice under Threat provides an analysis of the use and impact of two decades of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2000, which passed in to law on 20th July 2000.
CAGE, October 13th 2020
Justice A. P. Shah delivered a memorial lecture in memory of late Justice Hosbet Suresh titled “The Supreme Court in Decline: Forgotten Freedoms and Eroded Rights” on 18th September, 2020. In the lecture, Justice Shah took the audience through the role of Supreme Court in different times and problematized its role in the recent times.
Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism
Julian Assange and Iraq Body Count sought to minimise harm to US government sources through a process which was "painstakingly approached by" the death toll monitoring group, "Julian Assange and his Wikileaks colleagues", Professor Sloboda told the Old Bailey.
Sputnik, September 17th 2020
The US government alleges that WikiLeaks and Assange do not follow standard journalistic practices and unreasonably jeopardised the lives of government informants, but the court heard arguments on Wednesday that in fact the opposite is true.
Sputnik, September 16th 2020