Robert Sharp

Pupil Barrister

Category: Elsewhere (Page 16 of 28)

Articles that were published somewhere else first.

Scotland has an opportunity to create a model defamation law

9 February 2015 / / 0 Comments

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle


The Scottish Law Commission has said it will include a review of the defamation law in its ninth programme of reform.  That’s fantastic news for those of us in the Libel Reform Campaign who want to ensure that the space for free speech is just as wide in every corner of the United Kingdom.
David Leask at the Daily Herald reported the story and his article puts the review in context.  Yrstrly is actually quoted briefly in the piece, but I prefer this quote from my colleagues at Scottish PEN:

We’re not just campaigning on this to plug a loophole – we’re trying to put in place a structure that supports a healthier media landscape in Scotland.

Continue reading

Quoted in the Independent, promoting cartoon book

27 January 2015 / / 0 Comments

Cartoon by Dave Brown

Cartoon by Dave Brown


Here’s a fantastic feature article by Gillian Orr in today’s Independent, detailing the brilliant Draw The Line Here project.  Yrstrly is quoted endorsing the book:

“It’s fantastic that these cartoonists are using their own right to free speech, to defend and advance the free speech of others,” says English PEN’s Robert Sharp.

Its a crowdfunded project.  Head over to the Crowdshed website to support English PEN ands the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

We can win the fight to save Raif Badawi from the horror of Saudi Arabian ‘justice’

20 January 2015 / / 1 Comment

First posted on the Independent website.
Do we see a glimmer of light in the dark case of Raif Badawi? King Abdullah has referred the case to the Saudi Arabian supreme court, following the international dismay at the public flogging Badawi received earlier this month.
Last week the news was grim. The imprisoned blogger might not have received his scheduled 50 lashes on Friday morning, but this was no act of clemency on the part of the Saudi authorities. The flogging was only delayed because Badawi was too ill and weak from his flogging the week before.
One-thousand lashes and a 10 year prison term would be a brutal punishment for any crime. But the fact that Badawi has received this sentence for insulting Islam and of founding a liberal website is astonishing. The world is appalled. The Charlie Hebdo murders have drawn public attention to ideas of freedom of speech and blasphemy, and the Raif Badawi case offers a chillingly convenient coda to the events in Paris. Continue reading

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