A police officer slams his foot in your door, then barges past you into your house, aggressively demands you and your wife provide identity proof…all over a minor incident never likely to go anywhere near a court. Two years down the track, and…
Justice is blind…and sometimes makes a tragic mistake. For that reason, wrongful conviction findings in the UK have pointed to the clear need for a criminal case review mechanism where British justice rules. Brian Tennant backs calls for a review b…
If you can’t hear properly, communication is inevitably confused. New research indicates that very large numbers of Indigenous prisoners in Australia may not be able to properly hear what police officers and other authority figures say to them.
Even in special prisons for women, prison authorities always think of them second…or last. Because of that pervasive attitude, women do it very tough. In fighting for individual rights that male prisoners don’t need to fight for, the women run the ris…
What a difference a champion of civil liberties makes at the heart of government. The UK’s Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, is championing a bill rolling back terror laws and restoring personal freedoms. Where is the Australia politician with similar courage of h…
We won the right to speak openly in public only by repeated protest and group struggle over centuries, Humphrey McQueen told a WikiLeaks rally. It’s just as important now to carry forward the oath sworn at Eureka in 1854…”to fight to defend our rights…
The USA has announced a new policy to defeat mandatory internet censorship. They will “help people in oppressive Internet environments get around filters, stay one step ahead of the censors, the hackers and the thugs…” Hillary Clinton says. Wonder if…
It’s time for Australia to grow…by one State! So says Jane Aagaard, Speaker of the NT Parliament. She argues – as CLA does also – that Territorians should have the same rights as other Australians, and that the federal parliament should not be able to…
Ross Fitzgerald, writing in The Australian, explains the four (yes, 4) censorship-linked inquiries under way in Australia, while Paul Kerin excoriates Senator Stephen Conroy for hypocrisy over the National Broadband Network, revealing a similar tactic t…
In a scathing report, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has lambasted the Australian Federal Police for its lack of commitment to a complaints system. He accuses the AFP of wasting information, exonerating its own officers, and taking forever to resolve ma…