Press release me, let me go

"Shameful”, “inhumane”, “oppressive”, “indefensible”, “adversarial”, “wholly unjustified”, a “blemish” on Britain’s reputation, and treatment that falls "seriously below the standards to be expected of a humane and civilised society”...

Elections in Zimbabwe are never uneventful. Just three days to go now and the country’s opposition party supporters and members are definitely feeling the heat. Amnesty’s Zimbabwe researcher has just returned from mission where he has...

It’s an old media trick (and Rageh Omaar’s already done it on ITV earlier this week ), but it works – so today I’m starting off with ‘Iraq In Numbers’. To quote Amnesty’s (well-titled) ‘Carnage and despair’ report, the figures tell a...

I was thinking about this the other day – surely Iraq has been the most reported-on war in the entire history of the world. Well, ok, the Second World War got a lot of coverage (books, television programmes) but my theory is that it...

One of the parallels between events in Tibet and those in Burma last year – apart from the obvious involvement of monks and the use of military might to crush them – is the way in which footage is finding its way out of the country...

The countdown is on. This Thursday marks five years since the invasion of Iraq. To mark the anniversary, Amnesty International has put out a briefing document today detailing the wide range of human rights violations that have been...

Most people are counting the pennies after the Government has increased taxes on a bottle of wine by 14 pence, and set higher taxes for car drivers in yesterday’s Budget. But is the Government counting the cost on the amount needed to...

OK so who cares about the budget? For us in the media team, it means but one thing: the issues that matter in the world of human rights get pushed aside with a few notable exceptions. So congrats to The Independent for leading on...

To coin a phrase that may become rather common in the run-up to 8 August, there’s a lot of news about China at the moment. First there was the ‘terrorist plot’ by ‘Uighur terrorists’ that the authorities ‘foiled’. Why the plague of...

Waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques have been saved! On Saturday – in a move anticipated and feared by many observers – outgoing US President George W Bush bravely stepped in to preserve the CIA’s right to use...

His life read like a Hollywood movie script and, inevitably I suppose, it eventually inspired one. Indeed, even today’s coverage of the arrest of arms dealer Victor Bout – upon whom Nicholas Cage’s character in the film Lord of War was...

Wheres the biggest prison in the world? China? The USA? Russia? No? Any other thoughts? Okay, its a trick question (of a kind), because effectively the worlds biggest prison is the entire Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory occupied...

This blog is from our very own Bibi, who asked me to post it, so... ...another week in the media, and another week with China under the international spotlight in the lead-up to the Games. Now China has reportedly increased its...

The film legend Sylvester Stallone has added another string to his bow. Clearly unhappy at being stereotyped as an all-action hero, he has now turned his sights firmly on becoming a human rights activist. In his latest film, Rambo IV...

We dont always say enough about photos in journalism in this blog - so today I will! First of all, the Guardians got an appalling one on its front page . Its of a massive crowd in Gaza carrying the dead body of a 21-month-old girl...

Youd have to search hard for it among all todays headlines about Prince Harry (including the Dailys Stars When Harry met Tali) but theres a story around today that we should all add to our lists of things to celebrate this weekend...

Theres a sporting theme to todays blog and all tied into Asia. In Thailand, the Manchester City owner stepped off a plane this morning and was immediately whisked away by the authorities and charged and not for crimes against football...

Heres a contender for Understatement Of The Week: "The international community clearly needs to do a lot more," said Laurens Jolles, the UNHCR's representative in Syria, whose office continues to receive about 1,000 Iraqi refugees each...

I was gripped last night by Panoramas exposition of the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by some members of the British Army in Iraq. For a pre-watershed documentary, some of the footage and the reconstructions were pretty chilling...

Hes a judo black belt and likes to be photographed doing manly things like shooting and fishing, but has outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin been a force for good? In a big BBC World Service opinion poll out today opinions are...