Culture and Media

Some thirty cities in the continents of America, Africa, Europe and Oceania will celebrate the 1st International Film Festival of Active Nonviolence (FICNOVA in its Spanish acronym).  FICNOVA, promoted by the humanist organisation World without Wars and Violence is aiming…

The response to a recent horrific gang-rape and murder case has highlighted the power of media to stimulate debate and change attitudes. The gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in New Delhi last month has grabbed headlines around…

This video documentary shows the quite terrible situation in the context of how Syria was before all this chaos and death. Clearly from the Russian side and condemning the opposition (to the Government) which is reported in the documentary as…

These are times of evaluation and proposals: it seems that human beings have a need for these parties, rituals and reflections. For those of us in Pressenza it has been, without a shadow of doubt, a year of great advances…

After taking place twice in Brazil and once in Portugal and in Germany, the International Uranium Film Festival is now travelling to India. Documentary film maker from India, Shri Prakash is organizing the festival in New Delhi, Shillong, Ranchi, Pune,…

The Arabs – a history By Eugene Rogan – Published by Basic Books, 2009 Review by Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong Where do you start? Like just where DO you start? Mr Rogan, an Oxford don who…

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its condemnation of the newly-adopted General Telecommunications Law (LGT), which will penalize small radio stations, especially indigenous community radio stations, that are waiting to be officially assigned broadcast frequencies.   Approved on third reading by the…

Argentina’s new law on Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA), known in Spanish as the Ley de Medios, is due to enter fully into force tomorrow. Reporters without Borders reiterates its support for the bill’s general principles and endorses its application. However,…

The Argentine media group Clarin obtained an eleventh-hour ruling yesterday delaying the application of a section of the country’s new media law which would have forced it to give up some of its broadcasting licences. The Civil and Commercial Court…

As a result of a constitutional challenge filed by the journalist Randall Rivera against Costa Rica’s Information Crimes Law, the Supreme Court has temporarily suspended parts of the controversial legislation, in particular Article 288 providing for prison sentences of between…