Company sees threat to free speech on the Internet

From Reuters/New York Times, AP/Forbes.com, CNN:

A judge in Milan has found three Google executives guilty of criminal privacy violation charges for allowing a cellphone video of the bullying of an Italian youth to be displayed on a company website in 2006.

Press reports said the video showed the boy, described as having Down syndrome or autism, being taunted by classmates while one of the teens made a mock phone call to a Down syndrome support group.

A Google spokesman said the company would appeal what it called an “astonishing” decision, and said the case posed a threat to freedom of speech on the Internet.

Prosecutors said the case was not about censorship, but about balancing freedom of expression with the rights of an individual. They said the video remained online for months even though some web users had posted comments asking that it be taken down. Google said it removed the video within hours of being notified by police.

The three defendants received six-month suspended sentences for privacy violation. They were acquitted of charges of defamation, as was a fourth executive. All had denied wrongdoing. In an earlier action in juvenile court, the four bullies were sentenced to community service.

From the Montreal Gazette, CBC News:

A French family is making a public appeal to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds after their application for permanent residency was rejected because their seven-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy.

Rachel Barlagne was deemed “medically inadmissable” because her disability would pose an “excessive burden” on the state. According to court documents, the “excessive burden” amounts to $5,200 per year for special education.

“We hope the immigration minister understands our situation and takes steps to allow us to stay,” David Barlagne said outside Federal Court in Montreal, where his lawyers are fighting to keep his family in the country. “We are determined to do whatever we have to to stay in Canada.”

Earlier post here.

(Photo from CBC News)

From the [UK] Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, CNN,  BBC:

The British government offered  “sympathy” and “regret” yesterday to survivors of the Thalidomide scandal, and unveiled a government plan award more than £20 million in compensation to survivors.

The statement, by Health Minister Mike O’Brien, comes more than 50 years after one of the worst public health and political scandals in Britain’s recent history. Thalidomide had not been fully tested before it was prescribed to pregnant women  as a treatment for morning sickness or insomnia starting in 1958. The drug was withdrawn in 1961 after thousands of babies were born with missing or foreshortened limbs, blindness, deafness, and other disabilities.

“The government wishes to express its sincere regret and deep sympathy for the injury and suffering endured by all those affected,” said O’Brien.

Advocates have fought a long and bitter battle for compensation, and for public acknowledgment that the government should have done more to avert or minimize the drug’s disastrous consequences.

Guy Tweedy, of the Thalidomide Trust, said: “I’m highly delighted and so glad that it actually came, 50 years too late but never mind. It’s an apology not just to thalidomide victims but to the parents who lost their children in the early days. The apology means as much in some ways as the money.”

Earlier posts here.

Editors of the Montreal Gazette say the Canadian government has made a “bad mistake” and should reverse its decision to expel a family of French immigrants because one of their daughters has cerebral palsy.

Computer software business owner David Barlagne and his wife brought their family from Paris to Montreal in 2005 after being told there would be no barriers to their becoming permanent residents. But government officials later informed them that their seven-year-old daughter Rachel is “medically inadmissible” and “risks giving rise to an excessive burden on social or health services.”

An excerpt:

If word gets out about how badly Canada has treated the Barlagne family, we won’t have to worry about over-shooting our targets for top-calibre immigrants for years to come.

See also: Family threatened with deportation due to daughter’s illness — CTV.com

(Montreal Gazette photo)

From the [UK] Independent,  BBC, [UK] Guardian, [UK] Times, [UK] Telegraph:

An official report says the British government should “radically overhaul” the system for educating kids with disabilities, finding broad evidence that parents must battle to get appropriate support for their children.

Among other findings, the inquiry said children with disabilities are eight times more likely to be excluded from school, and many are removed illegally. For example, the report found that some children were routinely excluded when there were staffing shortages or if support staff were absent.

The report said the school system was still living with the legacy of old expectations that children with disabilities could not be educated.

“My inquiry has concluded that there needs to be a major reform of the current system,” said Brian Lamb, the report’s author and chairman of the Special Education Consortium. “There needs to be a radical recasting of the relationship between parents, schools and local authorities, to ensure a clearer focus on the outcomes and life chances for children with special needs and disability.”

The government-commissioned inquiry called for the creation of a new national helpline to provide parents with information and advice, as well as funding for a government ombudsman’s office to help parents with complaints about special education.

Students with disabilities make up 20 percent of the school-age population in the UK.

From the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star:

Canada must end institutionalization of mentally disabled people and invest in their quality of life by improving access to jobs and social supports, says a report released to coincide with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The report by the Canadian Association for Community Living found that only a quarter of Canadians who have an intellectual disability and live alone are employed, and almost 75 per cent of them live in poverty.

The group also called for the closing of Canada’s three remaining large-scale institutions, which house some 900 people in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and called for community-based services to take their place. “Living in an institution is not living,” said Bendina Miller, president of the association.

Related story: Govt. report finds 60 percent of Israelis with disabilities live in poverty; Many are isolated — YnetNews, Tel Aviv

From Associated Press/USA Today and Reuters:

The United Nations has appointed musician Stevie Wonder as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He will will focus on helping to improve life for the estimated 650 million people with disabilities — about 10% of the world’s population.

UN representatives said the singer-songwriter, who has won 25 Grammy awards, is being recognized for his philanthropic work with the U.S. President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and Junior Blind of America.

Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950 and became blind shortly after birth.

(Getty Images photo from USA Today)

UPDATE from AP:

Referring to the 650 million people with disabilities, Wonder said, “It is beyond my ability to fathom that 10 percent of the people of this world don’t matter to the other 90 percent of the people in the world.”

“I would hope that every single human being, and every single world leader, will commit themselves to making this world a better place and accessible for every single human being on this planet,” he said.

See also: Wonder promotes message of peace — CNN

Earlier post: UN says huge barriers remain for people with disabilities