Discussing privacy and surveillance – tonight in Nottingham

Tonight the University of Nottingham will host an open debate, Democracy in a Digital Age.

Researchers and activists will explore many interesting topics, from the issues faced by our system with the explosion of the internet in everyday life to the role of social media on social movements.

CILD will be joining the debate, thanks to Andrea Raimondi, a Ph. D. students at the University of Nottingham.
Andrea, who worked with us at the International Journalism Festival, last month in Perugia, will talk about privacy and surveillance.

Andrea will specifically focus on the recent announcements of the British government about the Snoopers’ Charter and the abolition of the Human Rights Act.

Here’s the text of his talk, titled Security and Democracy.

The abstract:

There is an increasing tendency of governments around the world to strengthen their political power in monitoring communications and censoring information. Censorship and surveillance are becoming essential components of the mechanism of security, the aim of which is to preserve the safety of the public sphere. The small pitch of today will focus on the impact of Internet censorship and surveillance on democracy. In particular I will discuss which consequences the Tories’ Political Manifesto, the Snoopers’ Charter and Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, have from the point of view of human rights; how these consequences will affect citizens and why this will be no security for the interest of the public, but for the interests of those in powers.

This text is published in Creative Commons CC-BY