Press release me, let me go

Yesterday I tore myself away from the Lib Dems tapes story and updates on "weather chaos" and people's last-minute Christmas shopping long enough to post the first five of my top ten human rights stories of 2010. Here are the next five...

Blimey, what a year. And here’s my take on it. In this two-part post – one today, one tomorrow – I’m giving you my top ten human rights stories from 2010. In no particular order – only rough chronology – here then are the first five...

With the UN calling for reinforcements to support its troops in Ivory Coast while saying there’s a “real risk” of civil war , and as France tells its citizens to get out of the country as soon as possible, it looks increasingly...

After that mightily big Assange interview on the Today programme this morning they rounded off the programme with one of those “light” items at 8.55 where a couple of semi-regular guests chat about something topical. Today it was The...

There’s no such thing as bad weather, the Russians say , just bad clothing. I take the point. Wear leaky leather-soled shoes (like me!) and you’ll slither around in the snow with freezing cold feet. We Brits cling on to our skimpy...

The unrest across the Ivory Coast following the elections shows no sign of abating. As Amnesty reported at least nine unarmed protestors were shot dead by security forces. The Guardian reports how Alassane Ouattara’s supporters intend...

Back in the days before England were thrashed by Germany and dumped out of the World Cup – and obviously back before Sepp Blatter was making “jokes” about abstinent gay football fans in Qatar in 2022 – I remember being in a pub in east...

Here in the Amnesty press team we posted our greetings cards yesterday. Just in time to arrive just before Christmas I think. Yet as I was signing them, I realised just how little I’d done so far to prepare for the festive season. As...

As even the occasional reader of my posts may have noticed, I like to slip in the odd musical reference. It’s a foible of mine. Anyway, here it is. When I was young (long, long ago) I always seemed to be hearing so-called “novelty...

A confusing night last night for those of us following the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman still facing execution by stoning (or hanging) in Iran for the ‘crime’ of adultery. Reports first said that she may have been...

Revelation, exposition, naming and shaming, turfing up the past- this is the stuff that has dominated the news over the last weeks since WikiLeaks started to gradually and systematically haemorrhage its latest haul of content. Yet...

At first it sounds like the sort of administrative disaster that most party hosts dread. Having elected to give an award to someone, as the day approaches it transpires that they can’t come, and neither can any member of their...

Here’s a question for you. What were you doing on 7 December 2009? Come on, I’ll have to hurry you. (Have a think about it and let me know later). OK, silly question, but I’m asking because exactly one year ago the UK-Iraqi dual...

How can anyone anywhere justify torture? It just absolutely baffles me. This morning, we launched a report into caning in Malaysia with an accompanying video. Caning may be a legacy of British rule, but the UK ditched the practice...

I have been known to complain bitterly to my colleagues when we look at what’s in the media each day about the prominence of what I describe as “sport purporting to be news”. The one that really got to me was Pakistan cricket in the...

On a busy news day yesterday (snow chaos, more WikiLeaks bombshells, mounting anticipation over the Fifa world cup decision: congrats Russia, by the way) the government slipped out a very important item on the procedures for issuing...

I must confess I never got to see the sensational ITV series Footballers’ Wives and therefore I missed out on the story of “ordinary women, struggling to keep their marriages intact while their husbands dazzle the crowds on the pitch”...

If a week is a long time in politics, then six months must be close to an eternity. It should (one would think) be enough time for Israel’s much-trumpeted “easing” of its blockade on Gaza to have brought some real improvements to the...

I’ve just seen this news report saying that the UK government has decided to put export controls in place on sodium thiopental, a drug that is used in executions by lethal injection in the United States. About time too: up until now...

The other day a volunteer in the Amnesty media office where I work said “there’s always violence” in Egypt when they have elections. She was in the country for the 2005 elections, she said, and “We didn’t go out of the house. It was...