For all media enquiries please call: 07538 28 00 41 (24 hrs)
Saturday 28th February
Corus radio network, Canada - Alex Deane interviewed by Roy Green
Friday 26th February
Security Solution Industry News - Electronic Monitoring On A Personal Level At Airports
In addition to the body scanners, the Government are also considering using passenger profiling as part of their new airport safety measures. While the Human Rights Commission accept that the Government has a duty to protect air travellers they still require a detailed report on how profiling or scanners will help. The concern is that vulnerable people such as the disabled, young children and transgendered people will be negatively affected by these new measures.
It has also been pointed out by Dylan Sharpe, the campaign director of Big Brother Watch, that neither of these methods are foolproof. Unfortunately, when it comes to terrorism, these people are very determined and it would be close to impossible to find one single method that offered complete protection. All we can ask is that due diligence is always used but it is feared by safety groups that this will become second place to relying on machinery that could fail.
Thursday 25th February
BBC News - Terrorism arrests rising in UK
But Alex Deane, of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the figures showed that actual terrorism-related charges were rare and demonstrated the relatively-small objective threat they posed.
"This shows that we should not have allowed our whole way of life to be changed by intrusive technology like ID cards and body scanners on account of government-manufactured hysteria about terrorism," he said.
Guardian - Henry Porter: Councils make unwarranted entry
"My view is that the central thing that we need to do is require a warrant for all entries into domestic premises," said Dominic Grieve, the shadow justice minister at a Centre for Policy Studies and Big Brother Watch event in London this week.
Research by Big Brother Watch shows that there are over 1,000 different powers of entry and about 15,000 to 20,000 council officials have the right to go into a property without a warrant, something the police are not allowed to do.
Daily Mail - Number of people stopped and searched under anti-terror laws falls dramatically
Alex Deane of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch said: "These figures show that actual terrorism-related charges are rare, demonstrating the relatively small objective threat that these people pose.
"This shows that we should not have allowed our whole way of life to be changed by intrusive technology like ID cards and body scanners on account of Government-manufactured hysteria about terrorism."
Watford Observer - Watford man's campaign to ban airport body scanners
A former Watford resident is spearheading a campaign to ban full body scanners from airports across Britain.
And their cause is backed by organisations such as Big Brother Watch, Privacy International and former The Corrs musician Jim Corr.
Our Kingdom - A Tory Repeal Act?
"It is my hope and intention to have a Repeal Act in the first year of a Conservative government. I have been arguing for it for some time. And I am quietly confident that I will be able to get it. Its going to cover a wide range of things". Dominic Grieve speaking to Big Brother Watch yesterday.
Independent - Two
hundred terror arrests made last year
PlayPolitical - Dominic Grieve addresses Big Brother Watch about the the powers of entry now accrued by the state
Wednesday 24th February
ITV Anglia Tonight - Dylan Sharpe interviewed for evening news
Dearne 97.1 FM - Dylan Sharpe interviewed on off-licence fingerprint scanner
Epoch Times - The New Eye in the Sky
The grounding of the drones has been welcomed by civil rights organisations who are still concerned about the future. Dylan Sharpe, Campaign Director at Big Brother Watch (BBW), wrote on the BBW website: “This is a very worrying development. We are already watched by more CCTV cameras than any other country on earth without the state surveillance network expanding into the skies above us.
“What is of most concern is that the privacy aspect is being completely ignored. The problem, it seems, is that the CAA thinks UAVs are dangerous because they have no pilot; yet no one is asking whether these drones are actually necessary or a dangerously intrusive next-step on the road to a surveillance state?”
Saturday 20th February
The Scotsman - Group slams 'big brother' state
A CAMPAIGN group set up to oppose the "big brother" state has accused the city council of "disgraceful fearmongering".
The Evening News revealed earlier this week that around 100 frontline council workers, including support workers, are being sent on anti-terrorist activity and being asked to report anything they find that is suspicious.
Dylan Sharpe, director of Big Brother Watch, a new campaign by The Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "This is disgraceful fearmongering that erodes trust in society and encourages spying, snooping and suspicion.
"Perhaps most shocking of all is Edinburgh Council's decision to start the course with support workers.
"So, Edinburgh's hard-pressed social workers will now be searching for anything that looks vaguely 'terrorist'."
Friday 19th February
BBC Radio Derby - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Shane O'Connor
East Coast FM - Alex Deane interviewed by Graeme Logan
Daily Echo - Neighbours to turn each other in for bin fines in Southampton
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “The powers being granted to the Bin Stasi should be opposed by the people of Southampton.
“Bureaucrats everywhere are using the environment as an excuse to intrude on our lives and increase council revenue and it shouldn’t be allowed – especially when disproportionately applied to trivial and absurd ‘offences’ like leaving one’s bin in the wrong place.”
Thursday 18th February
Tameside Reporter - Good 'ID'ea or not?
Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said: "It was foolish to push forward with the scheme in the face of widsespread public opposition against ID cards.
"As a result there are only a few people who have them - and nobody even recognises what they are. We have managed to live our lives for centuries without ID cards - the suggestion that there is any pressing need for them now is absurd."
Times Online - Businesses are behind the big increase in human rights cases
Tuesday 16th February
Daily Mail - Police ground unmanned drone after aviation chiefs claim £40,000 gadget was used illegally to make landmark arrest
Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: 'This intervention by the CAA is welcome and timely.
'People already feel that there is excessive surveillance in the UK without the police flying around CCTV cameras to catch us littering or parking in the wrong place.
'Privacy problems, excessive cost, or unauthorised use of airspace - Britain would be better off with fewer surveillance cameras.'
Real Radio - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Glen Hunt
Blackpool Gazette - Police use helicopter drone without permission
Monday 15th February
The Times - Number of court cases involving Human Rights Act rises by a third
Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Human rights are vital, but the Human Rights Act is often used to achieve frivolous and greedy ends, for purposes nothing to do with proper human rights.
“The abuse of the Act is a tragedy that undermines the whole idea of human rights in the eyes of the public.”
Sunday 14th February
Corus radio network, Canada - Alex Deane interviewed by Roy Green
Friday 12th February
Independent - Alex Deane: Demolish the myth that safety, in and of itself, is an absolute good
In arguing against airport body scanners, I've been met with variations on an increasingly prevalent fallacy: "if it makes us a little safer, it's worth it"; "if it saves one life, stops one crime..." What a specious argument that is.
BBC London Radio - Dylan Sharpe interviewed by Eddie Nestor
Daily Telegraph - The Conservatives are totally losing the plot if they adopt Binyam Mohamed as a cause celebre
If I understand correctly Alex Deane’s high-minded rant about the rights of innocent people receiving a fair trial (which, just to put the record straight, I fully support), he is prepared to accept at face value former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed’s claim that he was brutally tortured during his interrogation with the full complicity of British security officials.
The Guardian - Henry Porter: The Telegraph's toxic attack
His shocking little squib has attracted the notice of Alex Deane on ConservativeHome who says Coughlin produced "the most crass and unpleasant piece of demagoguery hosted by the modern broadsheet press". Deane, a lawyer, points out to Coughlin, a great champion of the special relationship and one of the intelligent service's useful idiots: "The judgment concluded that Binyam Mohamed had been subjected to 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities' – that is to say, a British citizen was tortured, by our allies.
The Wall Street Journal - Iain Martin: Binyam Mohamed Case: Is Sleep Deprivation Really Torture?
A great online row has taken place between my good friend Con Coughlin and libertarian blogger Alex Deane. Con is more than capable of sticking up for himself, but one observation occurs. Sleep deprivation features large when reading the detail of what is said to have been done to suspects, including Mr. Mohamed (a U.K. resident freed from detention in Guantanamo Bay as an innocent man who has never been charged with any crime).
Thursday 11th February
Press TV: Epilogue - Alex Deane reviews 'The Assault on Liberty' with Ken Livingstone and Rodney Austin
Elements - No scan, no flight
However, many are concerned about privacy, including Big Brother Watch (BBW) – a campaigning group which aims to protect civil liberties and personal freedoms. Director of BBW Alex Deane said: “what kind of a free society does the government think it is ‘protecting’, when it invades our privacy like this?”.
Wednesday 10th February
BBC South Today - Alex Deane interviewed by Steve Humphrey
ConservativeHome - The Telegraph's Con Coughlin is a disgrace
The Court of Appeal today held today that details of what our own security services knew about a foreign power torturing a British citizen should not be kept secret, a decision Big Brother Watch welcomes.
The Spectator - Will British judges be "responsible" for the next terrorist attack?
Con Coughlin has an awful piece up at the Telegraph arguing that, in the light of today's decision in the case of Binyam Mohamed, "if another al-Qaeda bomb goes off in London, the judges will be as much to blame as Osama bin Laden." Seriously. That's what he wrote. It's as preposterous as it is repellent. Happily, over at Conservative Home, Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch does an excellent job dismantling this and the rest of Coughlin's diatribe.
Leith FM - Alex Deane interviewed by Graeme Logan
Tuesday 9th February
BBC Look North - Alex Deane interviewed by Peter Levy
BBC News - Bridlington off-licence fingerprints customers
However, Alex Deane from human rights organisation Big Brother Watch, urged caution.
"First of all you want people not being malicious in the way they want to use personal information," he said.
"There will always be ways you can misuse personal data.
"You can always change your pin number and your password; your fingerprints are, of course, with you for life."
BBC Radio Humberside - Alex Deane interviewed by Peter Levy
Saturday 6th February
PlayPolitical - Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch voices his opposition to full body scanners at airports in a BBC Breakfast interview
Friday 5th February
Ilford Recorder - Smart! Spy car that can break the law
Dylan Sharpe, from anti-CCTV campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "People in Woodford Green are right to be angry. These CCTV cars are designed for one purpose: Accumulating money for the council. It's bad enough that they drive around actively seeking people to fine, now they're breaking their own rules."
ICTV (Ukraine) - Alex Deane interviewed on body scanners
Thursday 4th February
Luton Today - Big brother info is a little sister
The Big Brother Watch campaigners believe that having too many council-run CCTV cameras is an infringement of privacy and human liberty.
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, which is a campaign by the founders of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Local councils across Britain are creating enormous networks of CCTV surveillance at great expense, but the evidence for the ability of CCTV to deter or solve crimes is sketchy at best."
The group claims that the number of council-controlled CCTV cameras across the country has trebled in the last decade
Wednesday 3rd February
Daily Express - Race row over taxi drivers flying the flag
Alex Deane of campaign group Big Brother Watch said: “Southampton Council should leave these taxi drivers alone. Do they not have more important things to be dealing with than enforcing pointless rules and petty complaints?
“If a driver put up a sign saying they spoke Urdu, French or German, this decision would never have been made.”
Daily Mail - Passengers laid bare as full body scanners are introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports
But Alex Deane, a barrister and director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said such measures meant 'the terrorists have won'.
'People are understandably afraid of terrorism,' he said. 'But we didn't allow the IRA to impede our freedoms or change our way of life, and we shouldn't change now either.
'Those upset by the prospect of undergoing these scans shouldn't be forced to choose between their dignity and their flight.
BBC Radio Humberside - Alex Deane interviewed by Peter Levy
The Guardian - We don't need secret surveillance cameras
The Herald Scotland - Transport Secretary defends use of full-body scanners at airports
Letters from a Tory - Quote of the day
“The terrorists have won.”
- Alex Deane, barrister and director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, responding to the news that passengers using Heathrow and Manchester airports have been told that they will no longer be allowed to board their flights if they refuse to submit to full-body scans.
Tuesday 2nd February
The Times - Compulsory full-body scans launched at Heathrow
Alex Deane, a barrister and director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said such measures meant “the terrorists have won”.
“People are understandably afraid of terrorism,” he said. “But we didn’t allow the IRA to impede our freedoms or change our way of life, and we shouldn’t change now either.
Daily Telegraph - Airport body scan images 'destroyed immediately' says Lord Adonis
But Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said:
"Those upset by the prospect of undergoing these scans shouldn't be forced to choose between their dignity and their flight.
"What kind of a free society does the Government think it is 'protecting', when it invades our privacy like this?
20minutos.es - El aeropuerto de Manchester y uno de Londres empiezan a usar el escáner corporal
Por su parte, el director de la campaña Big Brother Watch, Alex Deane, dijo que con esta decisión "se cede al chantaje terrorista" porque "no se puede dar a elegir a los pasajeros entre su dignidad y perder un vuelo".
Manchester Evening News - Passengers back airport scanners
But human rights campaigners argue that the technology, which shows up false limbs and breast implants, creates 'indecent' images and could compromise passengers' privacy.
Alex Deane, director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: “People are understandably afraid of terrorism. But we didn't allow the IRA to impede our freedoms or change our way of life and we shouldn't change now either.
Evening Standard - Lord Adonis: Airport body scan images destroyed immediately
Grazia - Does my bum look big in this body scan?
Press and Journal - Refusing full-body scan will lead to flight ban
South Wales Evening Post - Flight ban for passengers who refuse body scan
V3.co.uk - Airport body scans to be compulsory
The Institution of Engineering and Technology - Bodyscanners now in use at UK airports
ChannelWeb.co.uk - Airport body scans to be compulsory
Yes, But, However - Heathrow and Manchester Airports Requiring Full Body Scan
Monday 1st February
BBC Breakfast - Alex Deane interviewed by Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams
Daily Mail - Air passengers who refuse a full body scan to be barred from their flights
But Alex Deane, a barrister and director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said such measures meant "the terrorists have won".
"People are understandably afraid of terrorism," he said. "But we didn't allow the IRA to impede our freedoms or change our way of life, and we shouldn't change now either.
"Those upset by the prospect of undergoing these scans shouldn't be forced to choose between their dignity and their flight. What kind of a free society does the Government think it is 'protecting', when it invades our privacy like this?"
Birmingham Post - Body scanners to be installed at Birmingham airport
Alex Deane, a barrister and director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said use of the scanner meant “the terrorists have won”.
He added: “Those upset by the prospect of undergoing these scans shouldn’t be forced to choose between their dignity and their flight.”
BBC News - 'No scan, no flight' at Heathrow and Manchester
Daily Record - Air passengers to be banned from getting on flight if they refuse full body scan
Yorkshire Post - Flight ban for passengers who refuse body scan
Asian Leader - Flight ban for passengers who refuse body scan
