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This is to make everyone aware of what is happening here in the UK in terms of family court censorship.
It seems that there may be very real attempts to censor Len and prevent any knowledge of what he is doing from reaching the public - effectively preventing people from even knowing he is on hunger strike. He and anyone else in the UK publicising information about his hunger strike could be under threat of prison sentences and/or seizure of their goods, which I presume includes computers, if it is believed that they will disseminate this story further.
This puts people supporting him in the UK in a very awkward position. It may be that if the British and foreign press are to be made aware of what is happening, it is up to you to get the news out - some of you will be in possession of the relevant information already, and, if not in the UK, can disseminate it further at your discretion. British courts, in fact any authoritarian power, does not necessarily state its threats in unambiguous language, so the courts will phrase things in such a way as to maintain an appearance of altruism, by for instance referring to a certain newspaper article and the information contained therein ... Nevertheless, courts do seize goods and put people in prison on just such civil liberties issues - the threat is not an idle one.
The case has particular relevance to the British Press at the moment, as they are still stinging from the recent legal decision to ban them from publishing the new identities and locations of the two boys, now eighteen, who at the age of 10 killed Jamie Bulger. Whatever one's opinions on the morality of this, the decision to suppress the press in this way represents a significant precedent. Attempts to prevent disclosure of Len's hunger strike follow in the same vein.
From the editor: please write letters to the following
Central London County Court
Attn.: Judges Nicholas Antoine Macbeth Medawar
13-14 Park Crescent
London
W1N 3PD
Great Britain
- UK News Editor, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER, UK
- News Desk, Independent News & Media PLC, 1-2 Upper Hatch Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
- News Desk, The Mirror, One Canada Square, London, E14 5AP, UK
- Editor, The Morning Star, Cape House, First Floor, 787 Commercial Road, London E14 7HG
- News Editor, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London, E98 1XY
- BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, London, W12 8QT
- Independent Television News (ITN), Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8XZ
- Sky News, Centaurs Business Park, Grants Way, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 5QD
Letters carry more weight than email, so please write soon.
Sample letter
Dear Editor,
In Canada and the United States there is growing awareness of the situation of Len Miskulin, a father in Loughton, Essex, who is in the second month of a hunger strike to protest the biased treatment he has received from the Family Court there.
Enclosed is a copy of Len's statement, Dying for Justice, which provides details regarding his situation. Further information is also available at the following websites:
http://www.ukmm.org.uk/notices/hunger.htm
http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~g.tenbroek/hunger/
http://www.backlash.com/content/gender/2000/12dec00/lem1200.html
http://www.backlash.com/content/gender/2001/01jan01/lem0101.html
Please investigate this matter immediately before it is too late.
Respectfully,
(Sign your name - include your address, email address and day time phone number)
Click on the link for the Dying for Justice and print it out so you can enclose a copy. If hundreds or, dare we be optimistic, thousands of people from all over the world do this, it will have a profound affect on the media which they will not be able to ignore.
For even greater impact, however, we should also mail one or a few major newspapers outside the UK. I would suggest the following:
- Newsdesk, The Boston Globe, P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
- Newsdesk, The Globe and Mail, 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON, M5V 2S9
- Newsdesk, The New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036
Thank you - Rod Van Mechelen
What do you think? - Post your comments on the Equalitarian Forums.
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