Afghan journalism student faces execution

This morning, faced with the less than stellar 'below 50% ' pass rate in my NCTJ class, and having just a tad inkling that I was one of the majority, I hated law.

I hated it anyway: it was clunky, it was massively inconvenient, and while there are blatant examples of newspapers taking the charlie with what they write, every now and then the law is a bit too much of a shackle around the leg of a reporter. That said, I was seriously considering not only burning my copy of McNae's but blowing up Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and putting the framed thing in prominant position on my wall.

I jest...grimly.

But then I spotted this article in the Independent... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html

and the debate about media freedom in the UK suddenly becomes trivial in relation to such a miscarriage of justice. As a woman, the piece is doubly infuriating when you take into account the material which the sentence pertains to.

I have so much more to say on the subject, none of which is remotely coherent, so I'll simply say this:

Please, *please*, sign the Independent's petition, and put some pressure on our government to help Kambaksh.

Happy New Year?

2008 welcomes you with:

* The questionable re-election of President Mwai Kibaki and subsequent bloody civil unrest in Kenya...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7170600.stm

* Commuter chaos as Network Rail engineering work runs over (just in time for a major back-to-work headache)...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3127596.ece

* A hotly contested nomination primary as Iowa goes to the vote tonight...but which Democrat is going to trail in third?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7219.html

* The stomach bug Nororvirus, sweeping the UK and striking more than 100,000 people a week...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/03/health

plus! Two police officers stabbed in Swindon, three youths dead after New Years Eve car crash, rising fuel prices, global warming, snow flurries, freezing temperatures and Tony Blair as our Middle East peace representative.


I think I'm moving to Hawai'i.