In the last issue of FRFI we reported on the ongoing battle to get censors in some prisons to accept prisoners’ legal right to receive our newspaper. Unfortunately, this is a continual problem. If you are reading this article, FRFI has not been censored this time, but if you do come across this problem, here is what you need to know.
FRFI is a legally published communist newspaper, meaning we have the right to distribute it and you have the right to receive it. However, despite this, we have faced repeated attempts to ban the paper over the years, varying from overt political censorship (‘communist newspaper – not allowed’) to bureaucratic (‘not ordered through the library/approved supplier’ etc), with the occasional downright incomprehensible (‘racist publication – not for issue’).
There are six issues of FRFI a year and you should usually receive your copy in the first week of February, April, June, August, October and December. If you do not get the paper, first inquire via the prison application system. If you get no response or are told it has been withheld, please submit a COMP1 form. If that does not work, please submit a COMP1A form. Sometimes, simply using this process does solve the problem but quite often it does not. However it provides you with a basis to challenge it further, either via the Prison and Probation Ombudsman or ultimately via judicial review. Keep copies of any complaints and the answers you receive so you can send them to us or to your lawyer.
Points to mention in your complaints
- FRFI is a legal publication. It contains nothing which would support its being stopped in ‘the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary’ (Article 10, European Convention on Human Rights).
- Consequently such stoppage infringes the first part of Article 10, which states that ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers . . .’ a right which the courts have clearly held to apply to publications and correspondence sent to and from prisoners.
- If nonetheless, the prison concerned takes issue with a specific article, they should remove that article, explain the reason for this and let you have the rest of the paper. In human rights law, this accords with the principle known as ‘minimum interference’ and was also the conclusion of the Ombudsman in PPO case 60279/2014.
- Because FRFI is sent free of charge directly from the publisher, it does not need to be ordered through approved suppliers, the library or a newsagent, and does not contravene the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme.
Free Julian Assange
On 19 November, Sweden dropped, for the third time, its outstanding rape investigation against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. It has never been clearer that the charges were originally drummed up at the behest of the US as an excuse to prosecute a man who played a leading role in exposing the brutality, crimes and hypocrisy of the world’s imperialist powers.
Assange’s full extradition case begins on 25 February 2020. If he is now extradited to the US over allegations he conspired to break into a classified Pentagon computer, he could receive a 175-year sentence.
Meanwhile, Assange is being kept in isolation without access to legal papers, a computer or ‘meaningful participation in his case’, significantly obstructing his legal defence. His health is suffering and sixty doctors have written to the Home Secretary to warn that without proper medical care, ‘Mr Assange could die in prison. The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose.’ The British state has ignored official letters from the UN rapporteur demanding his release, and concerns from Amnesty International that extradition would contravene his human rights and legal due processes. The bourgeois press, in particular The Guardian, has shamefully abandoned him, but the campaign for justice for Julian Assange continues.
The Defend Assange Campaign can be contacted at defend.wikileaks.org
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 273 December 2019/January 2020
