Stirling University fighting attempt by Philip Morris to gain access to research under freedom of information laws Stirling University is fighting attempts by one of the world’s largest tobacco companies to gain detailed access to its research into the smoking habits and attitudes of teenagers. Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, wants the university’s centre for tobacco control research to hand over its data on thousands of children who are smokers. The detail reveals their attitudes to smoking and reactions to packaging and advertising. The company has successfully complained to the Scottish information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, after Stirling refused to answer a freedom of information request seeking access to the research. The university said the firm’s application, originally made anonymously through a London law firm, was “vexatious” and rejected it. But Dunion has overruled the university and ordered it to respond to Philip Morris’s request. Professor Gerard Hastings, the centre’s director, said the tobacco company was mining his research for confidential data on children’s attitudes – details a firm would not be allowed to collect itself on medical ethics grounds. “They wanted everything we had ever done on this,” Hastings told the Independent . “These are confidential comments about how youngsters feel about tobacco marketing. This is the sort of research that would get a tobacco company into trouble if it did it itself. “What is more, these kids have been reassured that only bona fide researchers will have access to their data. No way can Philip Morris fit into that definition.” Philip Morris said it was not seeking any confidential data that would identify the interviewees, and said the research findings it wanted to see were anonymised. Anne Edwards, the company’s head of external communications, said: “As provided by the FOI [Freedom of Information] Act, confidential and private information concerning individuals should not be disclosed. “We made the request in order to understand more about a research project conducted by the University of Stirling on plain packaging for cigarettes.” The centre for tobacco control research was set up by the charity Cancer Research Campaign, now Cancer Research UK, in 1999 within the university’s institute for social marketing, and is part of a UK-wide network of units studying tobacco and smoking. The dispute throws up the prospect of a drawn out legal battle between the university and Philip Morris. If Stirling again refuses the firm’s request, the appeal process could result in a judicial hearing at the court of session, Scotland’s civil court. The Scottish information commissioner’s office said he had to judge Philip Morris’s application neutrally under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2000, which is less restrictive than the equivalent legislation for England and Wales. Dunion has not ordered the university to release the data, but to properly assess the application. “What the commissioner has ruled is that he doesn’t believe that the request is vexatious,” a spokeswoman said. “All he has done is say: ‘You need to deal with this because it is a valid request.’ But the university could still refuse it on other grounds.” Smoking University of Stirling Scotland Tobacco industry Higher education Health Children Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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Stirling University fighting attempt by Philip Morris to gain access to research under freedom of information laws Stirling University is fighting attempts by one of the world’s largest tobacco companies to gain detailed access to its research into the smoking habits and attitudes of teenagers. Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, wants the university’s centre for tobacco control research to hand over its data on thousands of children who are smokers. The detail reveals their attitudes to smoking and reactions to packaging and advertising. The company has successfully complained to the Scottish information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, after Stirling refused to answer a freedom of information request seeking access to the research. The university said the firm’s application, originally made anonymously through a London law firm, was “vexatious” and rejected it. But Dunion has overruled the university and ordered it to respond to Philip Morris’s request. Professor Gerard Hastings, the centre’s director, said the tobacco company was mining his research for confidential data on children’s attitudes – details a firm would not be allowed to collect itself on medical ethics grounds. “They wanted everything we had ever done on this,” Hastings told the Independent . “These are confidential comments about how youngsters feel about tobacco marketing. This is the sort of research that would get a tobacco company into trouble if it did it itself. “What is more, these kids have been reassured that only bona fide researchers will have access to their data. No way can Philip Morris fit into that definition.” Philip Morris said it was not seeking any confidential data that would identify the interviewees, and said the research findings it wanted to see were anonymised. Anne Edwards, the company’s head of external communications, said: “As provided by the FOI [Freedom of Information] Act, confidential and private information concerning individuals should not be disclosed. “We made the request in order to understand more about a research project conducted by the University of Stirling on plain packaging for cigarettes.” The centre for tobacco control research was set up by the charity Cancer Research Campaign, now Cancer Research UK, in 1999 within the university’s institute for social marketing, and is part of a UK-wide network of units studying tobacco and smoking. The dispute throws up the prospect of a drawn out legal battle between the university and Philip Morris. If Stirling again refuses the firm’s request, the appeal process could result in a judicial hearing at the court of session, Scotland’s civil court. The Scottish information commissioner’s office said he had to judge Philip Morris’s application neutrally under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2000, which is less restrictive than the equivalent legislation for England and Wales. Dunion has not ordered the university to release the data, but to properly assess the application. “What the commissioner has ruled is that he doesn’t believe that the request is vexatious,” a spokeswoman said. “All he has done is say: ‘You need to deal with this because it is a valid request.’ But the university could still refuse it on other grounds.” Smoking University of Stirling Scotland Tobacco industry Higher education Health Children Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sarkozy under pressure after Le Monde claims secret service spied on journalist
September 1, 2011 No Comment
Phone records of reporter covering Bettencourt affair were intercepted, judge tells paper Nicolas Sarkozy is under pressure over yet another twist in the Bettencourt affair after Le Monde newspaper said it had proof that the French secret services had spied on one of its journalists to uncover his sources. France’s paper of record said an investigating judge had uncovered documents showing that state intelligence agencies had ordered the mobile phone operator Orange to hand over detailed phone records of its investigative reporter Gérard Davet. These included details of every call Davet had made and received and the geo-localisation of his movements. Shortly after the secret services illegally requested the phone files on Davet in July 2010, Le Monde said state spies identified an adviser in the justice ministry as the supposed source for one of Davet’s stories. The adviser, a magistrate, was swiftly demoted and posted to French Guyana. The Bettencourt affair began as a family feud between the L’Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt, and her daughter. But in 2010 it exploded into a series of scandals that threatened the highest levels of the French state. Investigations were opened into illegal party funding, suspected tax evasion and money-laundering while Bettencourt’s links with Sarkozy and his government, in particular the minister of labour, Eric Woerth, came under the spotlight. Davet was targeted after an article revealing Woerth’s links to the case. Le Monde began court action in September last year, suing for the violation of the French law that protects the anonymity of journalists’ sources. The paper said the targeting of Davet and his personal phone information was illegal. The alleged targeting of journalists in the Bettencourt affair, seen as an attempt by the state to intimidate sources into staying quiet, has become known as “the scandal within a scandal”. In a scathing front-page editorial Le Monde said the tracking of journalists had become “an affair of state” which lent credence to the suspicion that a cabinet noir , or office of shady operations, existed at the highest reaches of French power, namely the Elysée. Nicolas Sarkozy France Privacy Le Monde Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sarkozy under pressure after Le Monde claims secret service spied on journalist
September 1, 2011 No CommentPhone records of reporter covering Bettencourt affair were intercepted, judge tells paper Nicolas Sarkozy is under pressure over yet another twist in the Bettencourt affair after Le Monde newspaper said it had proof that the French secret services had spied on one of its journalists to uncover his sources. France’s paper of record said an investigating judge had uncovered documents showing that state intelligence agencies had ordered the mobile phone operator Orange to hand over detailed phone records of its investigative reporter Gérard Davet. These included details of every call Davet had made and received and the geo-localisation of his movements. Shortly after the secret services illegally requested the phone files on Davet in July 2010, Le Monde said state spies identified an adviser in the justice ministry as the supposed source for one of Davet’s stories. The adviser, a magistrate, was swiftly demoted and posted to French Guyana. The Bettencourt affair began as a family feud between the L’Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt, and her daughter. But in 2010 it exploded into a series of scandals that threatened the highest levels of the French state. Investigations were opened into illegal party funding, suspected tax evasion and money-laundering while Bettencourt’s links with Sarkozy and his government, in particular the minister of labour, Eric Woerth, came under the spotlight. Davet was targeted after an article revealing Woerth’s links to the case. Le Monde began court action in September last year, suing for the violation of the French law that protects the anonymity of journalists’ sources. The paper said the targeting of Davet and his personal phone information was illegal. The alleged targeting of journalists in the Bettencourt affair, seen as an attempt by the state to intimidate sources into staying quiet, has become known as “the scandal within a scandal”. In a scathing front-page editorial Le Monde said the tracking of journalists had become “an affair of state” which lent credence to the suspicion that a cabinet noir , or office of shady operations, existed at the highest reaches of French power, namely the Elysée. Nicolas Sarkozy France Privacy Le Monde Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Home secretary to specify tighter restrictions under terrorism prevention and investigation measures The government is planning emergency powers to forcibly relocate terror suspects, months after pledging to scrap the existing measure. Launching the terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpim) bill in May, the Home Office said “relocation to another part of the country without consent will be scrapped”. But it has now brought back the powers, reserving them for “exceptional circumstances”. The emergency legislation would enable the home secretary to specify more stringent restrictions on suspected terrorists in exceptional circumstances, the Home Office said. These would include the power to relocate the individual without their consent to a different part of the country and tighter restrictions on association and communications, it said. The enhanced Tpim bill will be put before parliament should exceptional circumstances arise. Under the measures, the home secretary “may impose restrictions on the individual leaving a specified area or travelling outside that area”, the draft bill said. A suspect under such an order may also be forced to hand in their passport. The home secretary could also impose restrictions on the individual’s possession or use of electronic communication devices, including both computers and telephones. Further restrictions could also be imposed to limit who the suspect communicates or associates with, where the suspect works or what he or she studies. The restrictions imposed under the Tpim were an “imperfect but necessary step”, the Home Office said. It also rejected a recommendation from the joint committee on human rights that an alternative system of restrictions linked to an ongoing criminal investigation, such as that proposed by the former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald, was appropriate. “Tpim notices, like the control orders they will replace, are intended to be used in such cases – where there is no realistic prospect of a prosecution, and there is no imminent prospect that further investigation will yield evidence that could be used to prosecute,” the Home Office said. “In such cases the government is faced with a stark choice between taking no action at all – potentially leaving the public unprotected from a serious threat – and imposing preventative measures to protect the public. “In such a case the purpose of the measures is not to facilitate the gathering of evidence – which process will already have been exhausted, although of course it will continue as far as is possible while restrictions are in force – but to protect the public and disrupt or prevent the individual’s involvement in terrorism-related activity.” May’s decision to impose a control order on a terror suspect banned from London was upheld by the high court in July. Mr Justice Owen, sitting in London, ruled that the restrictions imposed on CD’s freedom, including the decision to relocate him from London to a Midlands city, were a “necessary and proportionate measure for the protection of the public from the risk presented by CD and his associates”. The judge said he was satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that CD, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was “a leading figure in a network of Islamist extremists based in north London and has been involved in planning an attack or attacks on members of the public”. The relocation powers were ditched by the coalition under the new terrorist prevention and investigation measures, which will replace control orders from next year. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, warned MPs that plans to water down the control orders would mean that CD could no longer be stopped from living in the capital. Under the draft emergency legislation, such powers would be able to be brought back in exceptional circumstances. UK security and terrorism Terrorism policy Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Home secretary to specify tighter restrictions under terrorism prevention and investigation measures The government is planning emergency powers to forcibly relocate terror suspects, months after pledging to scrap the existing measure. Launching the terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpim) bill in May, the Home Office said “relocation to another part of the country without consent will be scrapped”. But it has now brought back the powers, reserving them for “exceptional circumstances”. The emergency legislation would enable the home secretary to specify more stringent restrictions on suspected terrorists in exceptional circumstances, the Home Office said. These would include the power to relocate the individual without their consent to a different part of the country and tighter restrictions on association and communications, it said. The enhanced Tpim bill will be put before parliament should exceptional circumstances arise. Under the measures, the home secretary “may impose restrictions on the individual leaving a specified area or travelling outside that area”, the draft bill said. A suspect under such an order may also be forced to hand in their passport. The home secretary could also impose restrictions on the individual’s possession or use of electronic communication devices, including both computers and telephones. Further restrictions could also be imposed to limit who the suspect communicates or associates with, where the suspect works or what he or she studies. The restrictions imposed under the Tpim were an “imperfect but necessary step”, the Home Office said. It also rejected a recommendation from the joint committee on human rights that an alternative system of restrictions linked to an ongoing criminal investigation, such as that proposed by the former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald, was appropriate. “Tpim notices, like the control orders they will replace, are intended to be used in such cases – where there is no realistic prospect of a prosecution, and there is no imminent prospect that further investigation will yield evidence that could be used to prosecute,” the Home Office said. “In such cases the government is faced with a stark choice between taking no action at all – potentially leaving the public unprotected from a serious threat – and imposing preventative measures to protect the public. “In such a case the purpose of the measures is not to facilitate the gathering of evidence – which process will already have been exhausted, although of course it will continue as far as is possible while restrictions are in force – but to protect the public and disrupt or prevent the individual’s involvement in terrorism-related activity.” May’s decision to impose a control order on a terror suspect banned from London was upheld by the high court in July. Mr Justice Owen, sitting in London, ruled that the restrictions imposed on CD’s freedom, including the decision to relocate him from London to a Midlands city, were a “necessary and proportionate measure for the protection of the public from the risk presented by CD and his associates”. The judge said he was satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that CD, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was “a leading figure in a network of Islamist extremists based in north London and has been involved in planning an attack or attacks on members of the public”. The relocation powers were ditched by the coalition under the new terrorist prevention and investigation measures, which will replace control orders from next year. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, warned MPs that plans to water down the control orders would mean that CD could no longer be stopped from living in the capital. Under the draft emergency legislation, such powers would be able to be brought back in exceptional circumstances. UK security and terrorism Terrorism policy Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
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A defiant Gaddafi denounced rebels as ‘traitors’, and said tribes loyal to him would never surrender to ‘collaborators’ A defiant Muammar Gaddafi has issued his latest apocalyptic statement, urging his surrounded followers to “keep fighting” and promising to turn Libya “into a hell”. In an audio statement aired this afternoon by Syria’s Arrai TV station, Gaddafi denounced the rebels as “traitors”, and said tribes loyal to him would never surrender to “collaborators”. “We won’t surrender again; we are not women; we will keep fighting,” he declared. “They [the Libyan people] cannot be brought to their knees. You cannot even pass through their soil, can you imagine ruling them? The Libyan people are not a herd of sheep, they cannot be defeated,” he said, referring to still-loyal tribes in the towns of Sirte and Bani Walid. He continued: “My voice represents danger to them [the international community]. Now they are working to jam our radio stations. They fear our voices. This proves the occupiers are weak.” He then exhorted: “Stand up to them from city to city, mountain to mountain, valley to valley. It will continue to be a long battle. Libya will turn into a hell. How can the Libyan people surrender? Continue to fight. We enjoy grassroots support. Collaborators cannot survive.” The message gives no clue where Gaddafi might be hiding, or even if he is still inside the country. There is continuing speculation that he is in or near Bani Walid, 150kms south-east of Tripoli, where he was allegedly spotted last Friday. Alternatively some believe he has fled further to the southern desert town of Sabha, 750 kilometres from the capital. It does indicate that Libya’s vanished ex-leader hasn’t yet grasped the reality of his situation: that most of the country including Tripoli is now under new management. Nor does he appear understand that, far from wanting to rise up and defend his old regime, most Libyans are glad to see the back of him. There is no indication when the message was recorded. But Gaddafi’s broadcast seems deliberately designed to undermine the “Friends of Libya” conference taking place in Paris. The conference, attended by world leaders, is a major boost to the National Transitional Council (NCT), now acclaimed by most of the international community as Libya’s legitimate ruling authority. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Luke Harding guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A defiant Gaddafi denounced rebels as ‘traitors’, and said tribes loyal to him would never surrender to ‘collaborators’ A defiant Muammar Gaddafi has issued his latest apocalyptic statement, urging his surrounded followers to “keep fighting” and promising to turn Libya “into a hell”. In an audio statement aired this afternoon by Syria’s Arrai TV station, Gaddafi denounced the rebels as “traitors”, and said tribes loyal to him would never surrender to “collaborators”. “We won’t surrender again; we are not women; we will keep fighting,” he declared. “They [the Libyan people] cannot be brought to their knees. You cannot even pass through their soil, can you imagine ruling them? The Libyan people are not a herd of sheep, they cannot be defeated,” he said, referring to still-loyal tribes in the towns of Sirte and Bani Walid. He continued: “My voice represents danger to them [the international community]. Now they are working to jam our radio stations. They fear our voices. This proves the occupiers are weak.” He then exhorted: “Stand up to them from city to city, mountain to mountain, valley to valley. It will continue to be a long battle. Libya will turn into a hell. How can the Libyan people surrender? Continue to fight. We enjoy grassroots support. Collaborators cannot survive.” The message gives no clue where Gaddafi might be hiding, or even if he is still inside the country. There is continuing speculation that he is in or near Bani Walid, 150kms south-east of Tripoli, where he was allegedly spotted last Friday. Alternatively some believe he has fled further to the southern desert town of Sabha, 750 kilometres from the capital. It does indicate that Libya’s vanished ex-leader hasn’t yet grasped the reality of his situation: that most of the country including Tripoli is now under new management. Nor does he appear understand that, far from wanting to rise up and defend his old regime, most Libyans are glad to see the back of him. There is no indication when the message was recorded. But Gaddafi’s broadcast seems deliberately designed to undermine the “Friends of Libya” conference taking place in Paris. The conference, attended by world leaders, is a major boost to the National Transitional Council (NCT), now acclaimed by most of the international community as Libya’s legitimate ruling authority. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Luke Harding guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Study: Highest Paid CEO’s Often Earn More Than Their Companies Pay in Federal Income Taxes
September 1, 2011 No CommentThe Young Turks ‘ Cenk Uygur weighs in on a recent article at the Huffington Post via Reuters, which at a time when we’ve got record income disparity in the United States is yet another example of why we need to get the money out of politics, do something to fix these corporate tax loopholes and offshore tax havens and last but not least, address the issue of CEO pay being completely out of whack with what the average employee out there is making. Highest-Paid CEOs Often Earn More Than Company Pays In Income Taxes, Study Finds : Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid U.S. CEOs earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax, a pay study said on Wednesday. It also found many of the companies spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes. At a time when lawmakers are facing tough choices in a quest to slash the national debt, the report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a left-leaning Washington think tank, quickly hit a nerve. They went on to say that after reading this, ranking member Democratic Representative, Elijah Cummings called for a hearing on executive compensation to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s chair, Darrell Issa. I’m not holding my breath for that to do an ounce of good. That said, I’d like to hear more statements like this from every Democrat in the near future: In a letter to that committee’s chairman, Republican Darrell Issa, Cummings asked “to examine the extent to which the problems in CEO compensation that led to the economic crisis continue to exist today.” He also asked “why CEO pay and corporate profits are skyrocketing while worker pay stagnates and unemployment remains unacceptably high,” and “the extent to which our tax code may be encouraging these growing disparities.” Go read the rest of the article for a breakdown of some of the numbers that Cenk talked about in the clip above. And as he noted towards the end of the clip, this is yet another example of why that repatriation tax holiday is just a really bad idea .
Continue reading …NYTimes Downplays Rep. Carson’s Smear, Suggests Rep. West May Leave CBC Because He’s ‘Taking Issue with Criticism’
September 1, 2011 No CommentRep. Allen West (Fla.), the only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), is considering leaving the CBC after a fellow member of the caucus practically compared Tea Party members to lynch mob members. Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) recently told a gathering in Miami that Tea Party members “would love to see us as second-class citizens” and to see blacks “hanging on a tree.” New York Times staffer Jennifer Steinhauer reported the development yesterday on The Caucus blog . Today the Times ran a condensed version of that blog post on page A16 and headlined it “Taking Issue With Criticism,” as though Rep. Andre Carson's comments were legitimate critiques of the Tea Party movement. “An e-mail to the spokeswoman for Representative Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, who is the chairman of the caucus, was not immediately returned,” Steinhauer noted in the August 31 Caucus post. No mention was made in today's print edition about whether Cleaver had since returned the phone call to give the Times a comment about West's complaints about Carson and his threat to resign from the CBC. Cross-posted from MRC's TimesWatch .
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