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An Index on Censorship event on the politicisation of climate science reflected a growing debate, highlighted by “climategate”. Padraig Reidy, right, news editor of Index on Censorship, reports on an event at the Free Word Centre hosted by Index on Censorship – “Is climate change scepticism the new Holocaust denial?”

The Copenhagen Summit will debate one of the most important public issues of the past thirty years. Many scientists and advocates predict climate change will kill potentially hundreds of millions of people worldwide over the coming decades. This begs the question: is there a special responsibility for the media to exercise restraint in reporting climate change? Or are we witnessing the rise of an unchallengeable orthodoxy?

Blogger and journalism student Emílio Moreno da Silva Neto, 33, from Brazil, was ordered by a Ceará state judge to pay R$16,000 (approx. US$9,200) in damages due to a comment posted on his blog. Another journalist, Pamela Martin, was caught in gunfire when working on a report about illegal fishing.

Amnesty International said it deeply regrets the choice of Swiss voters on Sunday to introduce a ban on the construction of minarets into the constitution. The ban, which takes immediate effect, violates the freedom of religion of Muslims living in the country.

Attack on the headquarters of The Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights was conducted following the NGO’s report on torture in Yemeni prisons. The chairperson of the Forum, Ms. Amal Al-Basha, has been terrorized by spraying a liquid in her face and subjected to serious threat as recently the security system for the rear brakes of her car was willfully damaged.

The “Kurdish question” requires debate, but it is almost impossibe to discuss it openly. Media have been allowed to use Kurdish language but still forbidden to
discuss Kurdish issues freely, says Reporters Without Borders.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is seriously concerned for the health of two detained writers in Vietnam, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy and Nguyen Van Ly. International PEN seeks immediate assurances of their well being, urges that they be given full access to all necessary medical care and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of writers on humanitarian grounds.

Film screening followed by panel discussion chaired by Malu Halasa, with anthropologist and filmmaker Ziba Mir-Hosseini and
filmmaker and editor Simon Ardizzone.

OSCE media freedom watchdog Miklos Haraszti welcomes United Kingdom’s decriminalisation of defamation, urges other states to follow. ‘This is a crucial achievement not only for the country’s own freedom of speech, but a great encouragement to many other nations,’ Haraszti said.