Campaigning for human rights in the age of the internet

Twitter has suspended accounts used by the Chinese government to spread its propaganda about Tibet. This follows an investigation by Free Tibet working with the New York Times .

What do you do if you have too many guns and if they are fuelling violence? Pedro Reyes, a young Mexican artist, found a creative answer; turn the guns into something useful or beautiful! See the article by Marguerite Ward: From Guns...

I wrote back in November 2010 about the annual convergence of thousands from around the USA and Latin America at Fort Benning in Georgia, USA. I wrote then that they were converging yet again and that was years back. They gather to...

David Cameron wants a trading relationship with China not spoiled by arguments about human rights; the Dalai Lama issue has been put behind us according to a spokesperson from Downing Street. Every so often diplomats or ministers can...

I had a visit to Birmingham and found some Polish culture in Bordesley Street. There was a restaurant so Polish that the waiter spoke Polish until I asked if I might order in English, then next door I saw Polish Millennium House and on...

No, I have to say that I have not seen it yet, this film called No . Have you? Gael García Bernal (who I remember in the Motorcycle Diaries, about a journey by a young Che Guevara) stars as an advertising executive in Pablo Larraín’s...

Unreported World is back with a new series of reports starting this evening, 2 Nov. 2012 on Channel 4 at 7:30 pm. Here is a preview clip for Talk Show Nation , with Krishnan Guru-Murthy meeting talk radio hosts in the USA as the...

Andrew Marr interviews both the Dalai Lama and the International Development Secretary in the UK government, Andrew Mitchell, on BBC 1 on Sunday 24 June 2012 from 9 am. Last Sunday he interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese...

Senegalese musician, Baaba Maal, has written in the Guardian about food shortages in west and central Africa and has started a petition on Avaaz . When the petition reaches 1 million it will be presented to world leaders in a joint...

I heard an interview with Elif Shafak on BBC Radio 4 and she has also been featured in Meet the Author in the Observer. Her book, Honour , deals with the subject of honour killings and in the radio interview she said that it is about...

Channel 4 shows Unreported World on Friday 13 April 2012. The report this time comes from Sudan and may show why George Clooney was willing to get arrested to draw attention to what is happening there. You can get an idea from this...

A tiny Mexican newspaper is leading the fight for truth in the face of the drugs war, says this article only just published on the Guardian website. Meanwhile Latin American leaders admit that the war against drugs has failed.

Newsnight on 3 April 2012 included a report by Sue Lloyd Roberts from Kachin in Burma. How pleased with the election result should we be or is there still a long way to go before Burma is democratic? You can read Sue Lloyd Robert's...

This Guardian article tells how one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp . For more insights go to Liberty in North Korea or Link.

George Clooney has been arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington. He and others are protesting about the tactics that were used in Darfur and are now being used in southern Sudan, with the likely result of many thousands of...

In Tibet some people have been killing themselves by fire . How bad must life be like under Chinese rule for some people to turn to such desperate protests? The funeral of one recently has led to a protest .

Sorry, where have I been, what excuses can I offer? I have not written anything on my blog for ages. Here I am again and my New Year's Resolution is to update my blog regularly. Notice that I am not saying how often. What is my blog...

I have just watched a film in the Channel 4 series, Unreported World, about the attacks on civilians in north-eastern Congo by the LRA from Uganda. It was a report from 2009 that was repeated late last night on More 4. When the LRA...

In Uganda there could be a vote on bringing in the death penalty for homosexuality. Avaaz has an urgent petition to the government of Uganda and aims to get one million people to sign.

"Both the present Government and its predecessor misjudged the risk that arms approved for export to certain authoritarian countries in North Africa and the Middle East might be used for internal repression." Just what you might expect...