Свобода SLOVA сегодня
Осень 2010 от Рождества Христова. Где-то пилят бабло, где-то готовятся к очередному пикетику с плакатиками. А в Англии , в старой доброй Англии.... Там в это время празднуют свободу слова и собраний. О, как бы сладостно было мне посмотреть на наших российских акул клавиатуры, поливающих друг друга органическими удобрениями на страницах Рунета и призывающих все кары Господни на головы локальных политиков, когда бы оказались они в Англии, в просвещенной Англии с её добрыми пэрами, лордами, бифитерами. С её судьями в красивых напудренных париках.
И попали бы под раздачу.
Punishing romance [ 11-Nov-10 9:08pm ] [ T ] [ G ] [ N ] [ L ]
When me and my then girlfriend - now wife - got together in 1994, she lived in Rochdale and I lived in Newbury. On a good day, the train journey between us took around six hours. You'll know what the flush and rush of young love feels like and can imagine how those six hours felt like six days - the two weeks between us seeing each other feeling like months.
Each and every delay on that train journey, however brief, was hard not to take personally. The forces of evil are plotting to keep me from having amazing things done to me by that sensational woman, I'd say to myself. I remember simply aching to be with her. I remember the shortness of breath, the tightness in my chest. If smartphones and Twitter had been around, who knows what things I might have broadcast in my longing and frustration.
Which brings us Paul Chambers. Paul twitter.com/#!/pauljchambersmeets Crazycolours twitter.com/#!/CRAZYCOLOURS. He lived in England. She lived in Northern Ireland. Shortly before they were supposed to get together the airport Paul was supposed to fly from was closed. In his worry that their rendezvous might be thwarted, Paul jokingly, flippantly, unseriously said on Twitter, ‘Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!'.
The next thing he knows, he's being arrested and convicted for ‘menace'. Disgracefully, he lost his appeal today. www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/11/twitter-joke-trial-appeal-verdict
Basically, Paul has been punished for expressing his worry and disappointment - in a style of speech we all use every day - at the possibility he might not get to see the woman he likes. The 23 year-old me, on that train to Rochdale, his heart hammering in almost unbearable anticipation, understands and sympathises with every thumping beat.
I was Paul Chambers once, wishing away the minutes and hours so I could be with Her. So were you, whether it was a Her or Him. Or maybe you are. Or will be. Can you feel that beating? We still break butterflies in this country. Take care, young lovers.
Призывать к убийству английских солдат, воюющих в Афганистане. можно. А вот если даже на Твиттере вы скажете что-то противоположное, пусть даже и в шутку - тюряга вам гарантирована!
LONDON | Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:04pm GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - A Conservative local politician has been arrested after he called for a female Muslim journalist to be stoned to death, a police source said on Thursday.
Birmingham councillor Gareth Compton was also suspended from the Conservative Party for saying Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist for the Independent and Evening Standard, should be stoned.
Sky News reported Compton had said in a Twitter message: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really." The message has since been deleted.
Alibhai-Brown told the Guardian she regarded Compton's comments as incitement to murder.
"If I as a Muslim woman had tweeted that it would be a blessing if Gareth Compton was stoned to death I'd be arrested immediately," she said.
Compton, in later Twitter messages, apologised for his remark, saying it had been an "ill-conceived attempt at humour."
The councillor said he had been responding to comments made by Alibhai-Brown. He said she had told BBC Radio 5 Live that no politician had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran.
"I apologise for any offence caused. It was wholly unintentional," Compton said.
West Midlands Police said they had arrested a 38-year-old man from Harborne in Birmingham under the 2003 Communications Act for sending an offensive or indecent message. They had subsequently released him on bail.
A Conservative Party spokesman said it had suspended Compton's party membership indefinitely pending further investigation. "Language of this sort is not acceptable," the spokesman said.
In September, Iranian authorities suspended the execution by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery after weeks of condemnation from around the world.
(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Karen Foster)