Wednesday, June 07, 2006



More sedition coverage

Both Stuff and the Herald have reports on the first day of the Selwyn sedition trial - which seems mostly to have been about the axe attack and establishing authorship of the pamphlets - things Selwyn has already admitted. The trial seems to be going quite quickly; the defence will open today, and last night's report on Checkpoint [audio] suggested that it will be over by the end of the week (rather than taking eight days, as initially expected).

Meanwhile, googling for news on sedition makes it clear just what sort of dubious company we are now keeping. The search also turns up an AllAfrica.com piece on Amnesty International's latest report into human rights violations in Zambia, which includes this bit:

On 24 July, opposition leader Michael Sata was arrested and charged with sedition and espionage after supporting striking mineworkers.

Which I think shows exactly what this sort of law is used for, and why we should repeal it immediately.

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