"The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties is taking an unusual route in the fight to stop data retention, swapping out Twitter for the silver screen... [The council] aims to screen the film for politicians and media in Canberra, raising money to rent a viewing space in Parliament House for a February 9 screening, presented in conjunction with Madman Entertainment and Electronic Frontiers Australia." 

Article: CITIZENFOUR to Screen at Parliament House
Source: 4:3 Film, 23/01/2015

"In an effort to persuade MPs of the bill’s danger, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is currently hosting screenings of Laura Poitras’ documentary film CitizenFour, an insider look at the Edward Snowden affair which exposed the global scale of the National Security Agency’s data gathering operations... All federal MPs have been invited to the film’s Canberra screening, to be held Monday night, which the organisation is currently fundraising for."

Article: Abbott 'Bullying' Labor On Data Retention Laws, Says Ludlam. Article no longer available
Source: New Matilda, 05/02/15

NSWCCL President Stephen Blanks has responded to the suggestion made by a former judge that terrorists should be kept in prison after their sentences expire if they still hold extreme religious views. Speaking to ABC Radio Current Affairs AM, Stephen characterised these comments as "a scorched earth policy":

"What a dangerous suggestion it is that people should be kept locked up just because of their opinions, and what a terrible indictment on our system that we can't, through a process of programs in prison, deradicalise these individuals."

Listen: Stephen Blanks stunned by suggestion of not releasing terrorist from jail. The content we linked to is no longer available

Source: ABC Radio Current Affairs, AM, 29/01/15

See also: Prison radicalisation expert Clarke Jones says segregation only strengthening terrorists' beliefs, Sydney Morning Herald, 29/01/15

Judge's call to keep terrorists in prison indefinitely stuns civil liberties campaigners, ABC Radio, The World Today, 29/01/15

Death row inmates Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan stand in a grim line of nearly 90 Australians who have faced a possible death sentence overseas in the past 30 years.

NSWCCL President Stephen Blanks stated "Every criminal is entitled – even the worst murderers, the worst drug dealers – to the opportunity to reform themselves."

Article: Aussies on death row part of a grim line to have faced possible death sentence

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 25/1/2015

Paid interviews with Sydney siege hostages should be prevented from going to air because they risk tainting future evidence and weakening the coronial process, former state coroner John Abernethy says.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions and NSWCCL committee member Nicholas Cowdery AM QC also fears hostages involved in exclusive cash-for-comment deals may give colourful, definitive accounts to satisfy a television audience, then feel compelled to repeat the same accounts in court, even if their views have shifted.

Article: Sydney siege aftermath: stop paid interviews going to air, says former coroner

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 22/1/2015

A number of Sydney siege survivors have reportedly signed six-figure deals to tell their stories to television networks, however legal experts have raised concerns about impacting the inquests into the deaths which are currently underway.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions and NSWCCL committee member Nicholas Cowdery AM QC raised concerns saying it could lead to the victims exaggerating their accounts to make good TV.

"There are a lot of areas of concern - moral, ethical, freedom of the press, and so on," he told AAP on Thursday.

"The part of it I'm particularly interested in is the integrity of the formal legal processes to run their course without being hampered by the sale of stories beforehand."

Article: Sydney siege interviews 'could prejudice'

Source: SBS, 22/01/2015

Bali Nine death row inmates Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are on a list of 26 prisoners Indonesia says will be executed this year, including six who will be killed this Sunday.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Stephen Blanks said the Australian government should be making it clear to Indonesia that the Australian public "regards these executions as unacceptable and unjustifiable".

Mr Blanks said it was "reprehensible" that Indonesia was resuming executions.

"The death penalty is wrong in all countries and in all circumstances," Mr Blanks said.

Article: 'Outrage' if Bali Nine executions proceed. The content we linked to is no longer available

Source: Yahoo 7, 16/11/2014

In response to the rekindled debate around section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, NSW Council for Civil Liberties Committee Member Lydia Shelley writes about Islamophobia and freedom of speech. She argues that the greater threat to Australians’ civil liberties comes from the lack of legal protections in the form of a Bill of Rights:

"Not all those who pose a threat to civil liberties and freedoms stand behind a foreign flag and hold Kalashnikovs. Some stand behind the Australian flag and promote the myth that civil liberties and freedoms need to be sacrificed in order to obtain security.

They can be persons in positions of power who seek to use freedoms and civil liberties as tools to maintain their power. They draft, and then pass, draconian legislation that strikes at the heart of democracy and the very same freedoms they are purporting to protect."

Article: Giving Bigots More Rights Is The Wrong Response To Charlie Hebdo Massacre. Article no longer available. 

Source: New Matilda, 14/01/2015

Proposed laws could ban Queenslanders from smoking on their balconies in apartment buildings, following on from similar tightened laws in NSW. President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, spoke to The Project:

"An owners corporation for a block of flats can regulate smoking on balconies, and perhaps should where it’s detrimentally affecting other residents who don’t want it."

Watch video: The Project, Tuesday 13 January (story from minute 3:40)

Source: The Project, Channel 10, 13/01/15

A man died in police custody in Bowral after a taser was used to subdue him. An investigation into his death will be overseen by the Police Professional Standards Command. President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, discussed the incident on Sunrise.

Blanks emphasised the need for police investigations to be overseen by an independent authority, and highlighted problems with the use of tasers by police.

He said: "The community cannot be satisfied with the police investigating themselves. We’ve seen too many cases where the police twist the facts to exonerate themselves in situations like this."

"The problem with tasers is that there is misunderstanding about their potential lethality. Police can tend to use them in circumstances not realising what the consequences could be."

Watch video: 37yr old dies after tasing

Source: Sunrise, Yahoo!7, 13/01/2014

NSW Council for Civil Liberties co-founder Kep Enderby QC died on 8 January 2015. Media reports credited the “lifelong civil libertarian” with his contributions to politics, the law and civil liberties in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald remembered his political and legal achievements through the words of his peers: “Gifted, ebullient, imaginative, well dressed, with a razor sharp mind, gaunt face and beautiful speaking voice, Enderby cut a confident figure.”

“Enderby was one of Australia's most significant and interesting left liberal intellectuals, who was widely respected, despite disagreements, for the passion and honesty he brought to his convictions.”

Article: Former federal Attorney General Kep Enderby remembered among his peers (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 14/1/2015)

As well as his political and legal career, The Australian highlighted Enderby’s work as the head of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of NSW, as President of the World Esperanto Association, and his support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

“Mr Enderby was a lifelong champion of human rights, civil liberties and the underdog; a romantic idealist who learnt Esperanto out of a belief that if the world spoke a single language it would lessen conflict.”

Article: Enderby a man of achievement, from the cockpit to the bench (Source: The Australian, 9/1/2015)

“Age did not weary this crusader. Right up until his later years, Kep Enderby remained a vocal proponent of civil liberties, unafraid to write and speak on controversial issues such as the rights of prisoners. Thanks to the changes Enderby brought about, Australians now suffer less discrimination than they did before his time in politics.”

Article: Vale Kep Enderby (Source: City News Canberra, 12/1/15)

See also:

Article: Former Whitlam minister Kep Enderby dies aged 88 (Source: ABC News, 9/1/15)