Last night not even with use of his mobile phone was Declan able to get an email through to a Nobel Laureate's Faculty Assistant in California. This is unprecedented.

I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse.
- An American professor to then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone in 2010

Our Church and State website has no less than 50 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

25 February: Email interception: Today Declan will resend 46 emails to Nobel Laureates, but how many will receive his email? (WITH UPDATE 26/2/2019)

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Re: GCHQ

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, founder of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

The category pages on Church and State are under attack daily to fluctuating extent. As I point out in my earlier post about Royal Mail's service, all three of the articles below have over 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares not zero (this morning the first article stands at 629K, the second article at 582K and counting, and the third article at 616K).





From My Picks:

4 January: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Does the escalated assault on our email apply to even those who are not Nobel laureates? Today Declan is going to try emailing 15 top people in or related to the field of neuroscience (WITH UPDATE 26/2/2019)

Our Church and State website has no less than 50 Nobel laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).



25 February (previous post): Email interception: Today Declan will resend 46 emails to Nobel Laureates, but how many will receive his email? (WITH UPDATE 26/2/2019)

UPDATE 26 February (6.55pm): It seems that now it doesn't matter how many people we email or what their field of endeavour. Yesterday only three out of 46 Nobel laureates read Declan's resent email. Today two out of 15 top people in or related to the field of neuroscience have read the same email. This has serious consequences for us moving forward. It means for a start that Declan will spend the next few months trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone. This evening he made one such phone call to New Jersey in the United States.



'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Email interception: Today Declan will resend 46 emails to Nobel Laureates, but how many will receive his email? (WITH UPDATE 26/2/2019)

Our Church and State website has no less than 50 Nobel laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).



30 December 2018: Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 25/2/2019)

UPDATE 26 February (11.22am): Last week, on 21 February, 68 Nobel laureates out of those Declan or I have emailed since 3 January had not seen their email. Yesterday only three out of the 46 emails Declan resent to Nobel laureates were read.

Re: Email Interception

Paragraph 42 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

42. The Applicant further complains that the extent of the interference with his and his wife's emails resulted in 2011 in the shelving of the Applicant's petition to the United Nations in support of embryonic stem cell research, which had by then been signed by 29 Nobel laureates as well as hundreds of other distinguished scholars from around the world. In April 2010, an American professor wrote to Minister Featherstone: "I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse." Despite the Minister's subsequent letter to then Home Secretary Theresa May (see para. 6 above), it is still not uncommon for the Applicant to have to make phone calls to try to get emails through to people. The Applicant has also amassed irrefutable evidence relating to problems with mail delivery (both incoming and outgoing). Most recently, in May 2017, the Applicant complained to Royal Mail about the mishandling of his and his wife's incoming mail following the loss of their employment contracts to the United States. He had repeatedly complained about mail not being put through their letter box before he received £30 in compensation from Royal Mail and an assurance from the Royal Mail Chief Executive's Office that "the actions taken will prevent this happening again".

Click to enlarge

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Facebook: The social network's 56th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015, and with no explanation as usual (WITH UPDATE - DAY 8 3/3/2019)

Our Church and State website has no less than 49 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Ted Cruz asks if Facebook is a "neutral public forum". Mark Zuckerberg admits Silicon Valley is an "extremely left-leaning place" and claims he tries to make sure the company does not have a political bias. pic.twitter.com/gaWw7ORQDY

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) April 10, 2018

Facebook does not have a political bias? Despite opposition from the social network, our Church and State website topped more than 3 million hits in 11 months from January to November 2017. Subsequently, Facebook's blocks against the site went from 47 days in 2017 to 179 days in 2018 plus 32 days this year. Nonetheless, we get hundreds of thousands of hits - over 2 million hits in 2018 despite the equivalent of 6 months of these blocks. Last March they blocked me from posting Church and State articles in groups four times (for 29 out of 31 days), and all without explanation. Tonight I received this notification of their 56th block against Church and State since 1 December 2015:



This is the second such notification this month. These notifications without an explanation come out of the blue. There's no way of knowing for sure whether or not next month will be another wipeout from Facebook, and without an explanation being given. However, our Facebook blocks so far this year closely mirrors last year's blocks in days:

Facebook blocks (in days)

179 days in 2018
- January 2018: 16 days
- February 2018: 15 days
- March 2018: 29 days
- April 2018: 17 days
- May 2018: No blocks in May
- June 2018: 14 days
- July 2018: 17 days
- August 2018: 11 days
- September 2018: 12 days
- October 2018: 16 days
- November 2018: 19 days
- December 2018: 13 days
32 days in 2019
- January 2019: 16 days
- February 2019: 13 days
- March 2019: 3 days (until 3 March)

My previous Facebook post of 12 February, Fighting for survival in London: Facebook's concerted campaign against our Church and State website shows no signs of waning (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019: re Block 55 DAY 8), contains more detailed statistics and reveals that we have been, and remain, under attack on a number of fronts. For example, the now on-off assault on our two primary laptops aside, the category pages in Church and State are under attack daily to fluctuating extent. As I point out in my earlier post about Royal Mail's service, all three of the articles below have over 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares, not zero. Tonight the first article stands at 629K, the second article at 578K and counting, and the third article at 616K.


UPDATE 3 March (12.47pm): I appealed this latest block from Facebook on 24 February, and true to form, there has been and will likely be no response from them. On another front, we are not getting emails through to Nobel laureates or even to our closest colleagues. I recorded on 21 February that 68 Nobel laureates out of those Declan has emailed since 3 January had not seen their email. According to my email tracker, only 12 out of 110 resends have been read; see my updated post of 30 December 2018, Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 3/3/2019). The post reveals a letter in June 2010 from then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone to now Prime Minister Theresa May about the interception of our emails. An American professor wrote at the time: "I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse."

'Independent' court scrutinising MI5 is located inside Home Office http://t.co/ZezpDipCPx via @guardian

— Ian Cobain (@IanCobain) March 5, 2014

Re: Investigatory Powers Tribunal

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) dismissed Declan's complaint against the secret services on papers in less than three weeks, on 1 September 2011, stating that it was "obviously unsustainable". This is paragraph 11 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

11. The IPT was created in October 2000 by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and given the power to investigate any complaints against GCHQ, MI5 or MI6, as well as complaints about surveillance operations mounted by the police or any other public bodies. The Guardian reported on 5 March 2014 that the tribunal, which claims to be completely independent of the UK Government, is secretly operating from a base within the Home Office, by which it is funded. The newspaper found that the IPT had investigated about 1,500 complaints and upheld only 10, five of which concerned members of one family who had all lodged complaints about surveillance by their local council. No complaint against any of the intelligence agencies had ever been upheld. The discovery that the IPT is lodged within a Whitehall department fuelled criticisms of the tribunal that had been levelled by rights groups, lawyers and complainants. The IPT's critics complain that the secrecy is excessive and that its procedures are stacked so heavily in favour of the government and against complainants that it is fundamentally unfair. According to The Guardian, some senior lawyers have described the IPT as "Kafkaesque", while one eminent barrister has dismissed it as a "kangaroo court". The newspaper also reports that because of the secrecy surrounding the tribunal and the perception that it is unfair, many would-be complainants spurn it.

Click to enlarge

Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Criminal? This is a solid documentary called #Citizenfour that may influence your thinking either way:



JOIN THE CONVERSATION #CITIZENFOUR

From My Picks:

4 January: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Before yesterday, 68 Nobel Laureates out of those Declan or I have emailed since 3 January had not seen their email. Yesterday Declan resent 25 of his emails, 21 of which remain unread (WITH UPDATE 23/2/2019)

I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse.
- An American professor to then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone in 2010

30 December 2018: Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 22/2/2019)

UPDATE 23 February (8.54pm): Yesterday Declan resent another 27 emails to Nobel laureates. Only four have been read - the exact same number as the day before from 25 resends. Last night one of yesterday's recipients gave his permission to add his name to our list of Honorary Associates. Our Church and State website now has no less than 50 Nobel laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today). So now to get through to four Nobel laureates, without the use of his mobile phone, Declan has to resend at least 25 emails. Can this get any worse?

Click to enlarge

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

68 Nobel Laureates have not seen Declan's email, Facebook's 55th block against Church and State, and we're back to internet cuts

Our Church and State website has no less than 49 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).


We pay British Telecom £900 per year for broadband.

Update Summation 21 February 2019

304 internet cuts since 26 May 2017 (173 cuts 2017; 122 cuts 2018; 9 cuts 2019). With an all-time record-equalling 7 cuts in one day on 19 June 2018; 22 cuts in May 2018 that included on 8 May the 3rd ever 1/2 hour cut on the same day as Declan's updated complaint to the UN; 16 cuts in August 2018 that included on 17 August an all-time record-breaking cut of 3 1/4 hours; 4 cuts last month; 5 cuts this month that includes Facebook's 55th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015; 1 cut for 3/4 hour this morning (as of 21 February at 11.17am).

173 cuts 2017
122 cuts 2018
Since May 2018*
- May 2018: 22 cuts
- June 2018 40 cuts
- July 2018 26 cuts
- August 2018: 16 cuts
- September 2018: 0 cuts
- October 2018: 3 cuts
- November 2018: 1 cut
- December 2018: 4 cuts
9 cuts 2019
- January 2019: 4 cuts
- February 2019: 5 cuts

* All cuts on old BT router (including in 2019). We have yet to install the BT router we received on 19 August 2018. The bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box is seldom sufficient to watch a various number of TV channels (and because of this, our TV usually operates off our TV aerial or our TV viewing restricted to the BBC iPlayer, i.e. when players and apps have not also been disabled, as has occurred 37 times since 10 December 2018 and for up to one day at a time). The fluctuating bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box – or the more extreme disconnection of the box from the internet whilst we are already connected online through the router (as has occurred 3 times) – has been from the day after we received the box on 8 September 2017, and remains, a constant reminder with respect to whatever BT router we choose to use for our laptops. On 7 February our TV players and apps were disabled an unprecedented 15 times in one night.

7 July 2018: INTERNET CUTS: Are 45-minute Internet cuts to be the new norm? We pay British Telecom £850 per year for broadband (WITH UPDATE 21/2/2019: re 304th Internet cut since 26 May 2017)

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Re: GCHQ

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, founder of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

The category pages on Church and State are also under attack daily to fluctuating extent. As I point out in my earlier post about Royal Mail's service, all three of the articles below have over 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares not zero (this morning the first article stands at 628K, the second article at 530K and counting, and the third article at 612K and counting).





From My Picks

30 December 2018: Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 21/2/2019)

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Royal Mail: This year our employment contracts made it out of the UK but going on two weeks later they are currently in transit to or from a PO Box destination in America (WITH UPDATE 15/02/19)

Our Church and State website has no less than 48 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

4 January 2019: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

Declan and I are tracking our employment contracts to the United States. Royal Mail: "Our delivery aim to European countries like Germany, France and Spain, is a speedy 3-5 working days and just 5-7 working days for the rest of the world - even to countries on the other side of the globe, like Australia, China or New Zealand." This year our contracts made it out of the UK with Declan's first posting on 2 February, but going on two weeks later, we cannot be sure they are not on the way back to us. United States Postal Service (USPS) Tracking tonight:*


* I had to upload this image to an alternative host for images on 15 May 2020. It is one of my images in MediaFire that is now not appearing on the site.

When you click "Continue tracking":

USPS: "Your package is moving within the USPS network and is on track to be delivered to its final destination. It is currently in transit to the next facility."

Re: Royal Mail

Paragraph 42 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

42. The Applicant further complains that the extent of the interference with his and his wife's emails resulted in 2011 in the shelving of the Applicant's petition to the United Nations in support of embryonic stem cell research, which had by then been signed by 29 Nobel laureates as well as hundreds of other distinguished scholars from around the world. In April 2010, an American professor wrote to Minister Featherstone: "I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse." Despite the Minister's subsequent letter to then Home Secretary Theresa May (see para. 6 above), it is still not uncommon for the Applicant to have to make phone calls to try to get emails through to people. The Applicant has also amassed irrefutable evidence relating to problems with mail delivery (both incoming and outgoing). Most recently, in May 2017, the Applicant complained to Royal Mail about the mishandling of his and his wife's incoming mail following the loss of their employment contracts to the United States. He had repeatedly complained about mail not being put through their letter box before he received £30 in compensation from Royal Mail and an assurance from the Royal Mail Chief Executive's Office that "the actions taken will prevent this happening again".

17 July 2018: Royal Mail: Once again Declan complains to the CEO of Royal Mail about mail not being delivered through our letter box (WITH UPDATE 1/8/2018)

UPDATE 14 February (10.22am): Almost two weeks after posting, it appears this morning that our contracts have been held for collection or redelivery in North Carolina since yesterday afternoon, notwithstanding the clear nature of the receipt Declan holds for the mail item to a PO Box destination (i.e., without requiring a signature). It's not altogether clear which of these two screenshots applies:**


USPS: "Your item has been delivered to your nominated collection point on 13-02-2019 and it's now ready for you to collect."

** I also had to upload this image to an alternative host for images on 15 May 2020. It is another of my images in MediaFire that is now not appearing on the site.

When you click "Continue tracking":

USPS: "Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility."

UPDATE 15 February (10.40am): This morning USPS Tracking finally reads: "Your item was delivered on 14-02-2019." On a not unrelated front, since December 2018, we have been experiencing difficulties with email the likes of which we have never known before; see my post of 30 December, Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 15/2/2019). According to Mailtrack, of the Nobel laureates Declan or I have emailed since 3 January, no less than 64 have not seen their email.



'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Fighting for survival in London: Facebook's concerted campaign against our Church and State website shows no signs of waning (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019: re Block 55 DAY 8)

This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site.
-Don Collins, President of ISAF, an NGO dedicated to helping women

Ted Cruz asks if Facebook is a "neutral public forum". Mark Zuckerberg admits Silicon Valley is an "extremely left-leaning place" and claims he tries to make sure the company does not have a political bias. pic.twitter.com/gaWw7ORQDY

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) April 10, 2018

Facebook does not have a political bias? Despite opposition from the social network, our Church and State website topped more than 3 million hits in 11 months from January to November 2017. Subsequently, Facebook's blocks against the site have gone from 47 days in 2017 to 179 days in 2018 plus 24 days this year. Nonetheless, we get hundreds of thousands of hits - over 2 million hits in 2018 despite the equivalent of 6 months of these blocks. Last March they blocked me from posting Church and State articles in groups four times (for 29 out of 31 days), and all without explanation. Tonight I received this notification of their 55th block against Church and State since 1 December 2015:



This is the first such notification this month; there were two last month. These notifications without an explanation come out of the blue. There's absolutely no way of knowing whether or not the rest of this month will be another wipeout from Facebook, and without an explanation being given.

Re: Facebook

Paragraph 40 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

40. The Applicant's wife has encountered numerous problems with Facebook. In August 2011, then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone wrote to Facebook on the Applicant's behalf, asking that they explain why she had been barred (see Annex 19, p. 47). The bar was subsequently lifted; however, since December 2015, Facebook has blocked her from posting to groups 37 times, and for up to 12 days at a time (see Annex 22, p. 50). In December 2015, Shadow Home Office Minister Lyn Brown made an enquiry on the Applicant's behalf to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch asking if he could offer an explanation as to the terms and conditions the Applicant's wife was alleged to have broken twice previously (see Annex 20, p. 48). To the best of the Applicant's knowledge, Mr. Hatch did not respond to this letter. The Applicant's wife only ever posts to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that she is well familiar with, and she only ever posts articles that she has already published on the Church and State website. This concerted campaign against the Church and State website escalated in November 2017 after the site topped more than 3 million hits over the previous eleven months [emphasis added]. In March 2018, the Applicant's wife was blocked from posting to groups four times (for 29 out of 31 days), and all without explanation. The following is taken from her complaint to Facebook dated 28 January 2018 (see Annex 21, p. 49):

"Seldom has Facebook made it clear why I am being blocked. Today's block records as the 30th time Facebook has blocked me from posting in groups since 1 December 2015. The only explanation given at the time of one of these blocks has been "spam" (received today); and Facebook has only responded to four of my previous 29 appeals, citing "technical problems" in each instance. Nonetheless, I have been blocked from posting to groups a total of 43 days (and counting) in the last three months alone."

Facebook UK & Ireland Managing Director Steve Hatch

UPDATE 19 February (11.27am): I appealed this latest block from Facebook on 12 February, and true to form, there has been and will likely be no response from them.

Facebook blocks

2015
1st 1-4 December 2015 (4 days)
2nd 5-7 December 2015 (3 days)
Total: 7 days
---------------------------------------------------
2016
3rd 6-9 January 2016 (4 days)
4th 12-15 January 2016 (4 days)
5th 20-22 January 2016 (3 days)
6th 13-16 February 2016 (4 days)
7th 23-26 March 2016 (4 days)
8th 20-23 May 2016 (4 days)
9th 25-30 May 2016 (6 days)
10th 1-3 July 2016 (3 days)
11th 7-8 September 2016 (2 days)
12th 21-22 September 2016 (3 days)
13th 27-28 September 2016 (2 days)
14th 29 September - 3 October 2016 (5 days)
15th 4-5 October 2016 (2 days)
16th 18-23 October 2016 (6 days)
17th 9-14 December 2016 (6 days)
Total: 58 days
---------------------------------------------------
2017
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
21st 19 June 2017 (1 day)
22nd 19-21 August 2017 (3 days)
23rd 19 September 2017 (1 day)
24th 28 October - 8 November 2017 (12 days)
25th 23-30 November 2017 (8 days)
26th 7-8 December 2017 (2 days)
27th 10-17 December 2017 (8 days)
28th 28 December 2017 - 31 December 2018 (4 days)
Total: 47 days
---------------------------------------------------
2018
28th (cont.) 1-4 January 2018 (4 days)
29th 16-23 January 2018 (8 days)
30th 28 January - 4 February 2018 (8 days)
31st 12-19 February 2018 (8 days)
32nd 26 February - 5 March 2018 (8 days)
33rd 7-14 March 2018 (8 days)
34th 16-23 March 2018 (8 days)
35th 24 March - 1 April 2018 (9 days)
36th 4-11 April 2018 (8 days)
37th 14-21 April 2018 (8 days)
38th 2-5 June 2018 (4 days)
39th 13-14 June 2018 (2 days)
40th 17-24 June 2018 (8 days)
41st 10-17 July 2018 (8 days)
42nd 21-28 July 2018 (8 days)
43rd 31 July - 3 August 2018 (4 days)
44th 10-17 August 2018 (8 days)
45th 4-6 September 2018 (3 days)
46th 20-27 September 2018 (8 days)
47th 30 September - 7 October 2018 (8 days)
48th 12-20 October 2018 (9 days)
49th 2-9 November 2018 (8 days)
50th 15-22 November 2018 (8 days)
51st 28 November - 5 December 2018 (8 days)
52nd 8-15 December 2018 (8 days)
Total: 179 days
---------------------------------------------------
2019
53rd 7-14 January 2019 (8 days)
54th 18-25 January 2019 (8 days)
55th 12-19 February 2019 (8 days) (ongoing)
Total: 24 days

179 days in 2018
- January 2018: 16 days
- February 2018: 15 days
- March 2018: 29 days
- April 2018: 17 days
- May 2018: No blocks in May
- June 2018: 14 days
- July 2018: 17 days
- August 2018: 11 days
- September 2018: 12 days
- October 2018: 16 days
- November 2018: 19 days
- December 2018: 13 days
24 days in 2019
- January 2019: 16 days
- February 2019: 8 days (until 19 February)

I am frequently reporting problems with my Facebook Network for Church Monitoring page (see the latest here). Sometimes these sort of problems present themselves in clusters:

6 June 2018

Dear Facebook,

This afternoon I have been unable to post directly to my Page, schedule posts or view my scheduled posts. Please see the attached screenshot, which shows the removal of my facility to post directly to my Page and to view my scheduled posts.

I will not know until this evening whether or not my scheduled posts are posting.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in these matters.

Sincerely,
Lola Heavey
https://www.facebook.com/networkforchurchmonitoring/

Despite our distinguished list of 196 Honorary Associates (incl. 7 Nobel Laureates), blocks on access to our Church and State website also continue unabated; see my post 27 June 2018, SITE BLOCKS: The blocks on access to our Church and State website continue unabated (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019: re 1,553rd block since 26 July 2016). Then there's the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site. For example, as I point out in my newer post about Royal Mail's service, all three of the articles below have over 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares not zero (this morning the first article stands at 627K, the second article at 528K, and the third article at 612K).


We compare the targeting of our laptops with the removal of our flat door in 2012; see my post of 27 November, The targeting of our two primary laptops runs into a record-breaking third month. My primary laptop has been targeted for over three months (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019). And it's not just Facebook blocks, blocks on access to our Church and State website, the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site, and the targeting of our laptops. Since 26 May 2017, I have been recording internet cuts to boot; see my post of 7 July, INTERNET CUTS: Are 45-minute Internet cuts to be the new norm? We pay British Telecom £850 per year for broadband (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019: re 302nd Internet cut since 26 May 2017). Perhaps of particular importance in all this is the fact that Church and State topped more than 3 million hits in 11 months from January to November 2017 (30 Facebook blocks ago), and despite the even then far from level playing field.



From My Picks:

4 January: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

We pay British Telecom £900 per year but we're lucky now if we get 1/5 of their advertised internet speeds (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019)

Is the ongoing assault on our two primary laptops more criminal than the removal of our flat door in 2012?

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Update 19 February (11.32am)

7 February: The targeting of our two primary laptops runs into a record-breaking third month. My primary laptop has been targeted for over three months (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019)

From My Picks:

4 January: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Our TV players and apps are disabled an unprecedented 15 times in one night. We pay British Telecom £900 per year for broadband

Our Church and State website has no less than 48 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

4 January 2019: Information Commissioner: Declan battles the Commissioner's Lead Case Officer over the nature of his data complaint against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 31/1/2019) What an experience!

We pay British Telecom, one of the world's leading communications services companies, £75 per month (£900 per year) for BT Infinity 2 fibre optic broadband. As a BT customer, I have been recording our internet cuts (299) since 26 May 2017. Declan has made countless phone calls to BT Customer Service and has dealt with BT Executive Level Complaints multiple times. Never has there been a fault found with our phone line or in our area, and our BT router mysteriously rectified itself last August to such an extent that we haven't yet installed the new router we received that month as a matter of urgency. Tonight our TV players and apps have been disabled an unprecedented 15 times in one night. We have treated our second BT YouView box for TV viewing as a virtual write-off since the day after we received it on 8 September 2017. The ridiculous and persistent fluctuating bandwidths we get through the box - or its more extreme disconnection from the internet whilst we are already connected online through the router - is a constant reminder that non-stop internet cuts through our BT router can kick off at any time with cuts that can last for hours, the longest being 3 1/4 hours on 16 August.

Update Summation 7 February 2019

299 internet cuts since 26 May 2017 (173 cuts 2017; 122 cuts 2018; 4 cuts 2019). With an all-time record-equalling 7 cuts in one day on 19 June 2018; 22 cuts in May 2018 that included on 8 May the 3rd ever 1/2 hour cut on the same day as Declan's updated complaint to the UN; 16 cuts in August 2018 that included on 17 August an all-time record-breaking cut of 3 1/4 hours; 4 cuts last month that included 1 cut during Facebook's 54th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015; no cuts so far this month (as of 7 February at 11.42pm).

173 cuts 2017
122 cuts 2018
Since May 2018*
- May 2018: 22 cuts
- June 2018 40 cuts
- July 2018 26 cuts
- August 2018: 16 cuts
- September 2018: 0 cuts
- October 2018: 3 cuts
- November 2018: 1 cut
- December 2018: 4 cuts
4 cuts 2019
- January 2019: 4 cuts
- February 2019: 0 cuts

* All cuts on old BT router (including in 2019). We have yet to install the BT router we received on 19 August 2018. The bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box is seldom sufficient to watch a various number of TV channels (and because of this, our TV usually operates off our TV aerial or our TV viewing restricted to the BBC iPlayer, i.e. when players and apps have not also been disabled, as has occurred 20 times since 10 December 2018 and for up to one day at a time). The fluctuating bandwidth on our 2nd BT YouView box – or the more extreme disconnection of the box from the internet whilst we are already connected online through the router (as has occurred twice to date) - has been from the day after we received the box on 8 September 2017, and remains, a constant reminder with respect to whatever BT router we choose to use for our laptops. Tonight our TV players and apps have been disabled an unprecedented 15 times in one night (the previous all-time figure for this sort of disabling had been 5 times since 10 December 2018).

7 July 2018: INTERNET CUTS: Are 45-minute Internet cuts to be the new norm? We pay British Telecom £850 per year for broadband (WITH UPDATE 7/2/2019: re 299th Internet cut since 26 May 2017)

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Re: GCHQ

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, founder of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

The category pages on Church and State are also under attack daily to fluctuating extent. As I point out in my earlier post about Royal Mail misdelivering our mail, the second article below has more than 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares not zero (tonight it stands at 612K and counting).



This article recently topped 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares (tonight it's 626K and counting):





Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Criminal? This is a solid documentary called #Citizenfour that may influence your thinking either way:



JOIN THE CONVERSATION #CITIZENFOUR

From My Picks

8 May 2018: Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Today we are cut off the internet for a half an hour

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/