Civil liberties - new material (64)
01 March 2006
Intelligent eyes, Gary Mason. Jane's Police Product Review Issue 12 (February/March) 2006, pp12-13. Article on Internet Protocol (IP) CCTV cameras, "a more intelligent and selective surveillance tool" than the dated analogue CCTV. It is being developed by BT's Broadband Applications Research Centre. Mason points out the "limitations" of old-style CCTV technology: "First, it requires human beings to interpret the events being displayed on the monitors and therefore does not compensate for lapses in concentration, tiredness and boredom. Second, the surveillance information can only be viewed at a set location by a relatively small number of users." These problems were, of course, raised prior to the launch of old-style CCTV, but were then dismissed as scaremongering; it would seem that the human fallibility argument has acquired a new value now that a more advanced technology needs to be groomed for its replacement. Mason describes the advantages of IP among which is the following: "The technology has also developed the concept that electronic surveillance no longer needs to be passive but can be "event driven" so that the cameras are activated by motion detection software or other systems that sense abnormal activity."
Esculca, January-February 2006, n.12. This issue of the bulletin of the Galician-based "observatory for the defence of rights and freedoms", includes documents and talks presented during initiatives by a coalition of civil society groups working for the eradication of torture (Coordinadora para la prevención de la tortura) in Spain. There are articles on proposals to reform the prison regime in Galicia, on anti-terrorist trials involving Basque social movements, on the violation of prisoners' data protection rights through the disclosure of information by prison authorities in Galicia and video-surveillance. An in-depth report about the death in custody of Diego Viña Castro, who committed suicide in a Guardia Civil station in Arteixo in September 2004 is also included, featuring details of the accusations that have been levelled at officers for failing to comply with the interior ministry's protocol for the prevention of suicides. In spite of assurances that the Spanish armed forces deployed in Iraq were involved in peace-keeping rather than military operations, an extract from a US Congress document detailing the ships that composed the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in Operation Iraqi Freedom, notes that these included the Spanish "Álvaro de Bazán" frigate. The Esculca bulletin is available at: http://www.esculca.net
Let my Father Go, Severin Carrell. Independent on Sunday 2.4.06, pp12-13. Interview with the family of Jamil al-Banna, a London based Palestinian who is being held illegally at Guantanamo Bay by the US military. Having been abandoned by the British government, this article records the impact of Jamil's "disappearance" on his children as well as discussing recent developments in the case of Bisher al-Rawi.
Planning Guide for Gypsies and Travellers. Travellers' Times 2006. This guide aims to help people from the Travelling community to get planning permission for their trailers, caravans, mobile homes or chalets on a site. Currently a quarter of Gypsies and Travellers live on authorised sites, a situation that has got worse since 1994, when councils no longer had to provide sites. Available from Travellers' Times, Tel. 01432 344039, email: travellerstimes@ruralmedia.co.uk