Tag Archives: caitlin moran

Stephen Tall

Today’s #TwitterSilence – are you in or out?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th August 2013 - 9:30 am

For those of you who don’t inhabit the Twittersphere, many people today are taking part in a #TwitterSilence (that’s its hashtag).

It was the idea of Times columnist Caitlin Moran as “a symbolic act of solidarity” intended to shame Twitter into taking more seriously the rape/bomb threats and other abuse being targeted against women. You can read her blog about it here.

I’m not taking part. I summarised my reasons here:

My Co-Editor Caron Lindsay wrote an excellent piece on the topic here last week. And Index on Censorship’s Padraig Reidy has written an excellent response to Caitlin Moran, highlighting how the well-intentioned desire to limit the free speech of people who abuse it can have damaging consequences:

A lot of time spent defending free speech is not actually about defending what people say, but defending the space in which they can say it (I’ll refrain from misquoting Voltaire here). It may be idealistic, but we genuinely believe that given the space and the opportunity to discuss ideas openly, without fear of retribution, we’ll figure out how to do things better. Censorship holds society back. In fact, it’s the litmus test of a society being held back.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 9 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Who are your favourite commentators? Nominate them for Comment awards by 31 July

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th July 2012 - 11:28 am

The Comment Awards, run by Editorial Intelligence take place in October and aim to celebrate the “achievement of the UK’s finest print and online commentors”.

A wide ranging panel of judges, including our very own Jo Swinson MP, will judge 16 categories from Independent Blogger to commentators of the year on politics, business, foreign affairs, sport, media and culture. There are also Twitter categories, for politician and public figure.

Nominations are welcome from any individual or organisation, which obviously includes all of you. They close next Tuesday, 31st July. If you look at the list of winners from last year, …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Paul WalterPaul Walter
    Peter, please see my ample answers above. I have made it perfectly clear what I believe. Best wishes, Paul...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Paul, I accept you are agreeing to an extent. A limited extent. "There are ample legal mechanisms for ensuring that the financial settlement with t...
  • Paul WalterPaul Walter
    Peter: “We shouldn’t tolerate the term “Crown Dependency” being a synonym for “tax haven”.” I don’t know whether you are actually reading my ...
  • David Raw
    I rather thought the 3rd Duke and Duchess of Atholl sold the Isle of Man's feudal and sovereign rights in 1765 for £70,000 via the Isle of Man Purchase Act 176...
  • Roland
    @Peter Martin - I was responding to the curved ? ball Jeff throw out about Motability: If they can't charge VAT then its okay to reclaim the VAT rather than sim...