Press release me, let me go

Just some of the things we’ve blogged on this year … … the Olympics; unfolding terror and devastation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur and Zimbabwe; Obama; the Secret Policeman’s Ball 2008; the 60th anniversary of the UDHR...

Today is my last day in the office for 2008 and it’s eerily quiet. The phones have rung only once all morning, and it’s pretty obvious that much of the media has packed up for the Christmas break. But as the wheels of politics and...

The Conservative Party is all over the headlines with their row with the Met’s assistant commissioner Bob Quick – but that’s not all! The Conservatives are also making news today with their call for more funding for 15 new rape crisis...

John Lennon begins his seasonal hit Happy Christmas (War is Over) with the words : “So this is Christmas and what have you done?” Hopefully that’s not just me, or even all of us at Amnesty International, but the world. I’d feel better...

I may have mentioned this in a post before (after a while you DO begin to repeat yourself!), but if you haven’t done already – check out Lilya 4-Ever . It is, in my humble opinion, quite simply one the best films of this (or any)...

When I’m tootling about on the blogs of an evening I’m aware of the possibility of embarrassing myself – ie I could fire off a poorly thought out comment that immediately gets jumped on by other commentators. Or, when I rattle off an...

The One Shows special feature on the use of Tasers in the UK kickstarted a lively discussion both online and in the studio. Bette Midler thinks that theyre terrible and doesnt think that British police officers should be carrying them...

Having been laid low (low-ish) with illness this past fortnight I’ve been breaking a rule and forcing myself to take Paracetamol and Strepsils. (I’m a classic bad patient who won’t submit to sensible medication until I’m barking my...

Two British Christians are looking at spending Christmas behind bars in Gambian prisons. The west African state of Gambia is one of Africa’s smallest countries, with a population of only 1.7 million. It doesn’t generally have the...

Not wanting to be a “government-tethered 'goat'”, Lord Lester’s resignation as constitution reform advisor and his attack on the government’s human rights record has set the cat amongst the pigeons. In a UDHR anniversary speech...

I’m conscious that in the course of the scores of posts I’ve made on the Amnesty media blog so far this year, not a lot of them have exactly been cheerful (despite my crap jokes and strained sarcasm). You could say: so what? Amnesty’s...

What a strange story! First a Wikipedia entry about the album cover from a (mostly) forgotten 1970s German heavy rock band is, apparently out of nowhere, censored . It’s all over the national (and international) media for two days then...

Ever been to a party where one guest is determined to pour cold water on the fun and frolics? Well the Daily Mail has certainly sought to do that by attacking the Human Rights Act – on the week the world gears up to celebrate the 60th...

Flicking through the news this morning I came on this horrific report of the gang rape of a teenage girl by seven teenage boys, mostly known to her, in east London. Staggering. Sickening. I can’t believe this happened close to where I...

The closure of Guantánamo Bay will probably come not with a bang, but with a whimper. But come it will (says president-elect Barack Obama), only we don’t know when or how. The Guardian’s G2 today splashed on the “toxic legacy”...

How many ways can torturers find to hurt people? You’d maybe think that there’s a sort of limited number. Half a dozen. A dozen. Whatever. Actually, the more Amnesty stuff I read over the years the more I realise – chillingly enough –...

What complete chaos Thailand has become. The whole situation seems to increasingly resemble a south-east Asian version of a heavyweight boxing match. In the yellow corner, we have the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD...

Clearly 2008 has not been a good year for the people of Zimbabwe. Intense hunger for millions, instability, violence and serious human rights abuses have ravaged much of the country this year. And now with an outbreak of cholera...

Understandably, yesterday’s news was dominated by the appalling and sadly ongoing scenes from Mumbai, with gun battles in the streets and flames licking from the windows of luxury hotels. But an historic piece of news was somewhat...

The Mumbai attacks and Thailand’s state of emergency on its airports are definitely the stories catching today’s media glare. Meanwhile, life for thousands of people in eastern Congo remains turbulent, volatile and pretty desperate...