Press release me, let me go

Lord Ahmed has a piece on the Telegraph website today, setting out the reasons why he's going to vote against 42 days pre-charge detention when the Lords debate it tomorrow. Good for him. But he's getting a bit of a barracking from...

Sometimes you’ve got to love living in the UK – and Saturday was one of those times. I’ll freely admit that I was not feeling all that well when I headed up into London for Pride London – the annual celebration of sexual diversity –...

I went to the Guardian/Observer’s debate at Westminster last night, “Liberty in Peril?” starring David Aaronovitch (in a dazzling pink shirt), Denis McShane, Henry Porter and (headlining) David Davis. DD will have been pleased to look...

The next few days will see Amnesty’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender campaign go into overdrive. This Saturday is Pride London , where our float will once again be on the streets of the capital highlighting the problems of...

Say what you like about the “odd couple” journalistic brothers Peter and Christoper Hitchens – they are “up for it”. Peter, for example, renowned mauler of all things liberal, will always go on the radio to debate, for example, why the...

Phew, that’s that out of the way then! The football. Now it’s just the tennis, the cricket (remainder of), the Olympics, the start of the new football season …. Your non-sport-loving correspondent didn’t watch any football these past...

We released the second of our viral animations on the China Olympics today, highlighting the repression of peaceful protesters (using the medium of cute animated animals). You can see and download the films, and get the code to embed...

Just bought a car recently. (I’ve already mentioned my car in an earlier post – apologies bike-lovers!). Anyway, we’re getting rid of the clapped out left-hand drive Italian one (pictured) that we’ve been knocking about in for the last...

The Maori people have had a bit of good news recently as the New Zealand government agreed to an historic land deal that would give the Maoris almost £161 million in forestry assets. This deal comes after a long-running history of...

So what exactly does Heinz meanz these days? Gone it appears are the halcyon days of simple messages about warming cups of soup and the beauty of Tomato Ketchup. Instead the global brand has gone and got itself embroiled in a saucy row...

You wait ages for one … and then two come together. There’s overnight news that a US appeals court has ruled that an “enemy combatant” at Guantánamo is wrongly held and should be either freed, transferred or brought before a court to...

Once again the turbulence in Zimbabwe is making agenda-topping news. What a weekend it’s been. The violence that broke out between Zanu-PF and MDC supporters at yesterday’s rally was enough for Morgan Tsvangirai to declare that he...

For weeks now Amnesty has been saying that the state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe is reaching crisis point. Last night’s news that 12 people had been found tortured to death has taken this situation to a whole new level. As we’ve...

I saw a fantastic play last night at the Young Vic, 'The Good Soul of Sichuan’ by Bertold Brecht, starring Jane Horrocks (she of Little Voice and Ab Fab fame). Go and see it if you can. It’s set in Sichuan (of earthquake fame, entirely...

It’s early afternoon and I’m still suffering from the “I’m really sleepy after going out on a school night” effect. Thankfully, I’m not the only one in the office feeling that way as we were all at Amnesty’s Annual Media Awards...

Last night the BBC lit up the central London sky with a tower of light as a tribute to journalists killed doing their job. Your trusty blog correspondent was in the area (Portland Place) armed with his projector pencil and canny Canon...

Following some great coverage of our report yesterday on the situation for Iraqi refugees – most of whom are in Syria and Jordan, forced into increasingly-desperate measures from poverty – it’s good to see that the Times is carrying a...

Blimey! Yesterday’s high political drama has left me shakin all over. The David Davis bombshell! The Guantánamo court ruling shocker! Well, while the Davis resignation is obviously the really BIG news on the UK media scene, the US...

Today the BBC has reported the unearthing of documents which detail the involvement of Zimbabwe’s military in the running of Mugabe’s re-election campaign as he fights to retain a stranglehold on the leadership. Then there’s the arrest...

Bit of breaking (bad) news – the government's proposal to increase the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days – six weeks – has scraped through parliament by a majority of nine. Not that the politics is important to Amnesty, but it...