Who does their homework now?

From: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/ (http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=2994) By Me!

Following on from previous blog posts about the media coverage our Reading AI group have been getting concerning the lack of specialist services for women in the Reading area, the coverage came to a head when our local MP, Martin Salter (former Amnesty member) got involved.

To remind people of the press release and the premise of the campaign, check out these two links: http://www.box.net/shared/pvpco4d5ue and http://www.mapofgaps.org/

Our main local paper, the Reading Evening Post jumped on this story and went straight to Martin Salter MP for his reaction. To see the article go here: http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2047102_mp_hits_back_at_amnesty_claims

So…. apparently we don’t do our homework. Riiiiight.

There are a few points of this article that stand out. The first is that we are talking about specialist services for women who have suffered any kind of violence. For example, a women’s refuge without the prescence of men. So it is funny to see the article talking about Crossing Bridges, an important service, that helps both men and women… Go to http://www.mapofgaps.org/ to see why specialist (i.e. women only services) are important.

Our press release, along with the MofG findings say that there is only one service in Reading that specially caters for women, and that is Berkshire Women’s Aid (BWA), so it is amazing how everything that the article/Martin Salter talks about is run/co-ordinated by or have an involvement from BWA. Even if you read the comments at the bottom of the article, the first comment from janestheone (a pen name for former Reading East MP Jane Griffiths) mentions the group Sahara… scroll up a bit and there is a comment from Kitty K that confirms this has been taken over by BWA.

Comments from people/contacts i have strongly suggest that BWA struggle some years with the funding they do have- yet considering that nearly every service in Reading for women involves BWA (as Martin Salter and the article point towards) it is surely a strong indication that they need more funding.

I have saved the best till last though. In the article Martin Salter says, “I am more than happy to support their EDM” (EDM 653). We are still waiting to see his signature on the list though. Anyway, i would like to point out that the EDM states “That this House welcomes the `Map of Gaps’ report and website by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women coalition” http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37703&SESSION=899. Our press release used parts of this report to point out the lack of services in Reading for women, and it was from this that we were accused of not doing our homework. Well, in actual fact it looks like Martin Salter had not done his homework in not reading the EDM, as although i am sure he would had supported it regardless, i doubt he would had said what he said if he had read it.

Political win? I think so.

To view our full response to the article in full then check this out: http://www.box.net/shared/qi1jzh350q

Next stop is Reading East MP Rob Wilson who has told us that he is not supporting the EDM…

More media coverage

From: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/ (http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=2793) By Me!

More media coverage concerning our recent press release (http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=2771) to local media outlets about the poor lack of services in Reading for female victims of abuse and violence. This time it has a nice little quote from Reading Borough Council. http://www.2tenfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1213979

Reading Amnesty International ‘Adopt’ Two Prisoners of Conscience

By Me! From: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/ Specifically: http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=2792

Reading Amnesty International (RAI) have continued their work to help those unjustly imprisoned by ‘adopting’ two West Papuan prisoners of conscience.

Defined by Amnesty International, a prisoner of conscience is a person who has been imprisoned because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality or political ideology, and who do not promote or partake in violence.

The West Papuans RAI have adopted, Yusak Pakage and Filep Karma, were arrested in 2004 for raising the Morning Star flag, the West Papuan flag of independence.

Although Pakage and Karma were arrested in 2004 for this offence, it was not until 2008 that a Presidential Decree declared it a crime to show a regional flag of independence in Indonesia, with which subsequent arrests have followed.

On 19 July 2008, 46 people were arrested by Indonesian police at a Morning Star Flag raising ceremony in what Paula Makabory from the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights has described as “peaceful” and which was “not an act which could over throw the Government”. These flag raisers where apparently set upon by the local police who started ““beating them, kicking them with boots and torturing the demonstrators. The men in the group were then stripped to their underwear” (http://intercontinentalcry.org/46-arrested-for-raising-west-papua-independance-flag/)

Yusak Pakage and Filep Karma attended a peaceful protest on 1 December 2004 where the Morning Star flag was raised. Filep Karma, a civil servant, was arrested at the site. The arrest of Yusak Pakage followed later that day when a small group of protestors went to the police station to argue for Filep Karma’s release.

Karma and Pakage were sentenced to 15 years and 10 years imprisonment in May 2005.

Although RAI will not made any official comment about whether West Papua should be independent, RAI do express sincere concerns about the suppression of Yusak Pakage and Filep Karma’s freedom of expression and peaceful protest, guaranteed to them by international declarations such as the International Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

RAI also express their distress at reports that have come out of Indonesia of the inhumane treatment that these prisoners of conscience have experienced while locked away.

Reports have surfaced that Yusak Pakage along with five other political prisoners have been subjected to beatings, one such beating resulting in Pakage’s eyelid being torn.

Reports that have also suggested that these prisoners have been starved for days on end, locked in confined and darkened rooms and have been subjected to humiliations by being forced to remove all their clothes.

Regardless of the opinions as to whether West Papua should be independent, RAI know that the treatment of these prisoners of conscience is in complete violation of their human rights.

RAI will keep up to date with the status of Pakage and Karma and will work to ensure the knowledge of these abuses are kept within the public domain. Dr Sean O’Leary from RAI has commented that “we are asked why we write letters on behalf of people like Filep and Yusak. The Indonesian government wants us to forget about them – they want to be able to put such ‘troublemakers’ in prison and out of sight.  It is up to us to keep the spotlight on them, to publicize their plight, so that the World knows what is really happening in a ‘civilized’ country like Indonesia and everywhere else where such injustice occurs.”

Dr O’Leary went on to say that “If we do not stand up for other people’s freedom of speech when we can do so, how can we say that we ourselves deserve it?”

A day in the life of a voluntary local media officer

From http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/ (http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=2771) Written by, me!

I had one old hectic day on Friday 6 March while I was at work.

I won’t admit on here that I actually spent a good proportion of my work morning working hard for my local Reading Amnesty Group. I didn’t admit it, did I?

Anyway, late on Thursday 5 March I adapted a recent letter I received as part of the media officer’s email list about the map of gaps (http://www.mapofgaps.org/) and services in local areas dedicated to supporting women who are victims of abuse. I then proceeded to send this out as a press release to all the media contacts I have in my local area; newspapers, radio etc. I thought nothing more once I clicked send and rested my little head on my pillow for a night of slumber.

I hadn’t a chance before work to check my emails, oh boy, I wish I had…

My normal routine is that when I get to work, I log onto my computer (takes about 10 minutes!) and while it is logging on I make myself the first of about 20 cups of tea I have each day and then log onto my email account on my phone (I have a huge phone bill as they don’t let me on facebook/hotmail at work). There I found an email from one of my local radio stations, 2ten fm. I won’t write out the email on here, but the gist was, we want an interview!

Ahhhhhh! Panic!

I panicked not because of the prospect of an interview- in fact my vanity obviously craves such attention (tongue in cheek). But firstly, I was at work, and secondly (and more importantly) I shamefully admit that my knowledge of services in Reading for women who have suffered abuse is rather limited, in fact, it is limited to what I put on the press release!

After scrambling around for a few minutes trying to organise my work load for the day I thought of my next plan of attack- should I try and cram in some research from the internet before my big interview? No, too risky, my managers sit behind me. Should I just tell them I am rubbish and can’t do the interview? No, getting the message out is the important thing, it doesn’t necessarily matter how it comes out. Or should I ring up fellow RAI group members and get support? Yes! Perfect!

Then it dawned on me…. I don’t have our Stop Violence Against Women campaign co-ordinator’s number, and furthermore, she works at a school, being able to contact her was hard enough, let alone organise for her to do an interview!

The phone rings *ring ring, ring ring*, I answer….. “Hello I’m XXX ringing from the Reading 107 fm news desk it is about your recent press release…. we would like an interview”

What! Two interviews!

I really needed to get in touch with our SVAW co-ordinator; what to do, what to do! Then it dawned. Alex!! I’ll ring our chairperson, I admit his is the only number I had in the group (yeap, and I’m the group’s media officer!).

I could feel my manager’s eyes burning into the back of my head as I made my third phone call of the morning where I talked about violence against women (something which is in no way a laughing matter, but as an outsider expecting me to be doing my work must had sounded unusual).

Alex was free! He said he’d make some phone calls and see what he can do. Brilliant!

*ring ring, ring ring*

My phone goes again… unknown number

“Hello?….Hi, it’s XXX from BBC Radio Berkshire….”

They wanted me to send the PR again, all they could see was the title and they were very interested in reading what it said….. Hmmm, slight problem; I sent it from my hotmail address, and that is blocked at work.

Second by second crept by until it hit me, my phone! I hate to think of my next phone bill…. I logged onto my email and managed to find my message and forwarded it to my work email (not that I am doing any of this while I am meant to be working…).

My phone stopped ringing for the time being, but now came the messages to my work email. I hope our IS department were not snooping in… I used the words violence and abuse quite a bit, let’s hope they don’t pop up in my work’s filters!

I still had the problem of these two interviews and the possible third interview.

Words and phrases that these radio station’s news desks had used on the phone to me included ‘important’, ‘big news’, ‘a lot of interest’, ‘most listeners’ and ‘major local interest story’. Nice.

*ring ring, ring ring*

It was Alex with some amazing news. He had been in touch with Heather from Amnesty UK who works on the SVAW campaign who has agreed that she would organise for the interviews to be done! Fantastic! This way we would have the best possible person being interviewed who knew what they were talking about!

I have been informed that 2ten fm and Reading 107 fm were planning on running this story on air today (9 March), but unfortunately a mixture of being at work and going straight from work to the local pool place meant I have not had a chance to listen to the broadcasts yet. Despite this, a quick click onto the Reading 107 fm website revealed this as the main story: http://www.reading107fm.com/female-victims-of-violence-need-more-support-446236

There are still 3 hours left of the day, with at least 4 news bulletins on each station, I wonder if they are still broadcasting the story…..?

If you want to have a nosey at the press release then you can see it here: http://www.box.net/shared/pvpco4d5ue