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UPDATE on Vanunu+free speech attacked in USA
eileen fleming
[Irvine, California, October 13, 2007 ] I arrived at the Irvine Marriott last Friday evening because I was scheduled to speak the next day at "The No More Wars for Israel Conference" which had been dedicated to Mordecahi Vanunu. I learned then that the event had been canceled. I had traveled from Florida to speak about how freedom of speech had been denied in Israel to Mordechai Vanunu, and was aghast to learn it also had been squelched in Irvine. On April 30, 2007 , in Jerusalem, Vanunu was convicted on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a court order which denied his right to speak to foreign journalists in 2004 after his release from 18 years in jail for telling the world the truth that Israel was already nuclear in 1986. Vanunu was also convicted for traveling the few miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary] on April 21, 2004. Vanunu has spent the last three years under house arrest in Jerusalem forbidden to speak to the likes of me, and in 2006 he told me, "This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity." Article 19 of the UN Universal declaration of Human Rights asserts that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." In that spirit, I videotaped Vanunu in 2005 and 2006 and some of what he says in the "30 Minutes with Vanunu" which is FREELY STREAMING on my website: "The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have...Twenty years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now. "The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years... "It's very sad that Hilary Clinton went to the Jewish Wailing Wall and forgot the real crying wall is the Palestinian wall...the apartheid wall... the wall is not for defense, but to keep this conflict permanent... "Israel is only a democracy if you are a Jew." On July 2, 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six more months in jail denied of the inalienable right to speak in the ethnocracy of Israel and that his appeal will be heard on November 13, 2007. "Israel is a not a democracy but is an Ethnocracy, meaning a country run and controlled by a national group with some democratic elements but set up with Jews in control and structured to keep them in control."-Jeff Halper, Founder and Coordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions to this reporter 2006. "30 Minutes with Vanunu" taped in 2006 is a fund raising vehicle for his Defense Fund: http://www.wearewideawake.org/
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Previous free speech & censorship stories
Murdoch takeover of WSJ 'is bad news'
Vanunu faces further prison sentence
Campaigners win official secrets case concession
Police attempt raid of Camp for Climate Action
Only slightly Kafkaesque
Signs of cabinet u-turn on FOI
Swiss trio cleared by military court
The battle goes on
State interest v public interest
Review: The Truth is Out There
A very British coup
50 years of censorship
Trial Exposes Bush-Blair Secrets
FoI rethink
Downing St will throw aide to the wolves
Galloway accuses BBC over Blair disc 'ban'
Secrets, lies and diplomats
MPs seek special exemption from FoI laws
Fighting back for freedom
Access all areas?
Secrets trial to be secret
Libel ruling is victory for British journalism
Memoirs and Whistleblowers
Shayler Silenced
Official Secrets Act: Where are we now?
The Price of Freedom
Another success for British justice
MI5 whistleblower back in court
The Danish cartoon controversy and World Press Freedom Day
Improving Cultural Communication
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Free Speech & Censorship
Murdoch takeover of WSJ 'is bad news'
Vanunu faces further prison sentence
Campaigners win official secrets case concession
Police attempt raid of Camp for Climate Action
Only slightly Kafkaesque
Signs of cabinet u-turn on FOI
Swiss trio cleared by military court
The battle goes on
State interest v public interest
Review: The Truth is Out There
A very British coup
50 years of censorship
Trial Exposes Bush-Blair Secrets
FoI rethink
Downing St will throw aide to the wolves
Galloway accuses BBC over Blair disc 'ban'
Secrets, lies and diplomats
MPs seek special exemption from FoI laws
Fighting back for freedom
Access all areas?
Secrets trial to be secret
Libel ruling is victory for British journalism
Memoirs and Whistleblowers
Shayler Silenced
Official Secrets Act: Where are we now?
The Price of Freedom
Another success for British justice
MI5 whistleblower back in court
The Danish cartoon controversy and World Press Freedom Day
Improving Cultural Communication
