Press release me, let me go

One of the big stories of the day has been the revelation that the UK government plans to return Afghan child asylum-seekers to Kabul , via a £4m “rehabilitation centre” that it plans to build. It’s a worrying idea. You only have to...

Last December we were told that President Obama had phoned his counterpart the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to congratulate him on the country’s military offensive against rebels in and around al-Ma'jalah, in the Abyan area of...

As the heated debate (including on this blog ) over Israel’s interdiction of the Gaza aid convoy has shown, there are two sides to every story. (Or in some cases about 38). With claim and counter-claim over the nature of Israel’s...

At noon today I’ll be standing outside the Azerbaijan embassy (in glorious sunshine thankfully), together with other free speech campaigners, demanding the release of jailed journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. It’s a joint demo between...

“I am not a humble man by nature,” so began Henry Bonsu, co-founding presenter of Colourful Radio and an Amnesty Media Awards judge. It seemed somewhat out of keeping with last night’s ceremony, but he went on, “every year when I come...

Yet again the Israel-Palestinian conflict has thrown out a challenge to the world. How to respond to what appears to have been a heavy-handed storming of the Gaza aid convoy by Israeli commandos? Not for the first time, the UN has...

It’s been nearly a week since the violence in the beautifully-named Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica escalated, and still the situation is not under control . The Voice of America reports that the death toll has now reached 73 and hundreds of...

I’m not sure it’s entirely fashionable to say so these days, but I’m a big fan of reading. Reading books . When I’m not “building networks on social media”, in my spare time I like to plough through off-puttingly large novels, the...

Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was released from Iran’s Evin prison yesterday on bail of £140,000, following a campaign from such luminaries as Juliette Binoche – holding up a sign with his name as she collected the Cannes’ Best...

After a long period of being neglected in the UK press, Jamaica is on the front pages . It is easy to see why. The story is a fascinating and compelling one. Residents of the poorest community in Kingston, have barricaded the streets...

The Guardian broke the news last night of Foreign Secretary William Hague’s announcement that there would be a judicial inquiry into UK complicity in torture. Quite right, too, that it should be journalist Ian Cobain who got the scoop...

Malawian couple sentenced to 14 years of hard labour. This Monday, 17 May, was the annual International Day Against Homophobia. A designated day for the world to reflect on the treatment of LGBT people. In a country like Britain...

Lots of discussion today of UK civil liberties, following Nick Clegg’s speech, Theresa May on the Today Programme and of course the decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) yesterday not to deport two Pakistani...

You go to all the hard work and then at the last moment it all goes a bit ‘Pete Tong’. Welcome to the world of Amnesty’s press office. Yesterday we were utterly convinced that our ad highlighting Shell’s behaviour in the Niger Delta...

The Barbican. The big oil company. And us. The battleground: pollution and corporate responsibility. The collateral: a global brand, multi-millionaire shareholders and hard-nosed PR executives against hundreds of activists, an ad and...

… and like “Mr Smith” in the Capra film classic , he takes on the vested interests of the Washington political machinery and undergoes a personal transformation in the process. He comes back home a wiser, sadder man, but one who has...

OK I’ll own up. I’m a big sports fan. And today I’ll have to admit that I’ve got half an eye on events in St Lucia. At 4.30 this afternoon England take on Sri Lanka for a place in the final of the Twenty20 World Cup. Can the England...

The Cannes Film Festival opens today, but come Friday one seat on the prestigious Cannes jury panel will be empty. Acclaimed film director Ja’far Panahi was due to join the jury panel, chaired this year by Tim Burton, but he is...

Hundreds of prisoners held without charge or trial by the United States on “security” grounds in a remote and inaccessible military camp without access to lawyers or the courts. Where have we heard that before? Guantánamo, right? No...

A number of oil-related stories popped up today in the media. Firstly there’s a new Greenpeace report out that warns that British motorists are unwitting users of diesel and petrol derived from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, which...