Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking with stakeholders to help take anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (a) on social media and (b) elsewhere online.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Online Safety Bill will apply to all companies that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, as well as search services.
All companies in scope of the Bill will have duties to proactively tackle priority illegal content, including illegal anti-semitic content, and will need to prevent their services from being used to facilitate or commission these offences. They will also be required to swiftly remove other illegal content where there is a victim and it is flagged to them. In addition, Category 1 Service, which will include the largest social media companies, will need to ensure they properly enforce their terms of service, and provide adult users with tools to help them avoid content that is abusive or incites hatred on the basis of religion.
This means that the Bill will offer adult users a ‘triple shield’ of protection against anti-semitic content. Firstly, regulated services will need to take robust action against such content where it meets a criminal threshold. Secondly, Category 1 services will be required to take down anti-semitic content that is in breach of their own terms of service, and third, they must provide adults with greater controls over content they may not wish to see, reducing the risk that they encounter anti-semitic content.
Finally, the Online Safety Bill will require all services which are likely to be accessed by children to provide safety measures for child users. Those safety measures will need to protect children from inappropriate and harmful content and activity, including anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the arrest of journalist Mohammed Zubair, what steps her Department plans to take to help protect the freedom and safety of religious minority journalists in India.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are aware of the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, a journalist and the co-founder of Alt News, and concerns around media freedom in India. The British High Commission in New Delhi continues to follow these events closely, while recognising that the Indian judicial system is a matter for the Government of India. The UK Government remains committed to media freedom, and to championing democracy and human rights around the world. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, including media freedom and freedom of religion or belief, and where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level.
We work closely with and regularly engage India's vibrant media, which promotes lively debate across the political spectrum, and do this through the annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand which includes over 60 Indian alumni. In 2021, we supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation in running workshops for journalists reporting on issues such as human trafficking and child labour. On 5 May 2021, the then-Foreign Secretary led a discussion with G7 members and guest states, including India, on further multilateral coordination to promote media freedom. He stressed to all states the importance of media freedom and combatting the use of arbitrary detention and encouraged support for UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the arrest of journalist Mohammed Zubair in India, if she will discuss with her Indian counterpart the (a) protection of press freedoms and (b) safety of journalists in that country.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are aware of the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, a journalist and the co-founder of Alt News, and concerns around media freedom in India. The British High Commission in New Delhi continues to follow these events closely, while recognising that the Indian judicial system is a matter for the Government of India. The UK Government remains committed to media freedom, and to championing democracy and human rights around the world. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, including media freedom and freedom of religion or belief, and where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level.
We work closely with and regularly engage India's vibrant media, which promotes lively debate across the political spectrum, and do this through the annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand which includes over 60 Indian alumni. In 2021, we supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation in running workshops for journalists reporting on issues such as human trafficking and child labour. On 5 May 2021, the then-Foreign Secretary led a discussion with G7 members and guest states, including India, on further multilateral coordination to promote media freedom. He stressed to all states the importance of media freedom and combatting the use of arbitrary detention and encouraged support for UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Indian counterpart on press freedoms in India.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are aware of the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, a journalist and the co-founder of Alt News, and concerns around media freedom in India. The British High Commission in New Delhi continues to follow these events closely, while recognising that the Indian judicial system is a matter for the Government of India. The UK Government remains committed to media freedom, and to championing democracy and human rights around the world. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, including media freedom and freedom of religion or belief, and where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level.
We work closely with and regularly engage India's vibrant media, which promotes lively debate across the political spectrum, and do this through the annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand which includes over 60 Indian alumni. In 2021, we supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation in running workshops for journalists reporting on issues such as human trafficking and child labour. On 5 May 2021, the then-Foreign Secretary led a discussion with G7 members and guest states, including India, on further multilateral coordination to promote media freedom. He stressed to all states the importance of media freedom and combatting the use of arbitrary detention and encouraged support for UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to ensure the safety and independence of journalists in India in the context of the recent change in that country's position on the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are aware of the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, a journalist and the co-founder of Alt News, and concerns around media freedom in India. The British High Commission in New Delhi continues to follow these events closely, while recognising that the Indian judicial system is a matter for the Government of India. The UK Government remains committed to media freedom, and to championing democracy and human rights around the world. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, including media freedom and freedom of religion or belief, and where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level.
We work closely with and regularly engage India's vibrant media, which promotes lively debate across the political spectrum, and do this through the annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand which includes over 60 Indian alumni. In 2021, we supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation in running workshops for journalists reporting on issues such as human trafficking and child labour. On 5 May 2021, the then-Foreign Secretary led a discussion with G7 members and guest states, including India, on further multilateral coordination to promote media freedom. He stressed to all states the importance of media freedom and combatting the use of arbitrary detention and encouraged support for UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to ensure that the Indian Government fulfils its commitments as a signatory to the 2022 G7 Resilient Democracies Statement in the context of reported persecution of Indian journalists who are critical of the governing Bharatiya Janata party.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are aware of the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, a journalist and the co-founder of Alt News, and concerns around media freedom in India. The British High Commission in New Delhi continues to follow these events closely, while recognising that the Indian judicial system is a matter for the Government of India. The UK Government remains committed to media freedom, and to championing democracy and human rights around the world. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, including media freedom and freedom of religion or belief, and where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level.
We work closely with and regularly engage India's vibrant media, which promotes lively debate across the political spectrum, and do this through the annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand which includes over 60 Indian alumni. In 2021, we supported the Thomson Reuters Foundation in running workshops for journalists reporting on issues such as human trafficking and child labour. On 5 May 2021, the then-Foreign Secretary led a discussion with G7 members and guest states, including India, on further multilateral coordination to promote media freedom. He stressed to all states the importance of media freedom and combatting the use of arbitrary detention and encouraged support for UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she will take to ensure equal treatment of asylum seekers of all ethnicities and nationalities fleeing war; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it, in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). As a signatory to the Refugee Convention and ECHR, we are legally obliged to consider all asylum claims made in the UK and admitted to the asylum system, and we are legally obliged to consider people’s human rights in all circumstances where a person would be removed from the UK.
Every asylum claim, regardless of the ethnicity or nationality of the claimant is carefully considered on its individual merits by assessing all the evidence provided by the claimant against a background of country information from a wide range of credible sources, including the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office, the media and non-governmental sources, such as the UNHCR, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Refugee status is granted when someone has a well-founded fear of persecution under the Refugee Convention for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. For those who do not have a well-founded fear of persecution for a convention reason, we consider whether they are at risk of serious harm and are in need of protection on humanitarian grounds. This ensures that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin.
All asylum decision making policies are developed and reviewed in line with our duties under the Equality Act 2010; to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Protected characteristics include race.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the criticisms and accusations against Falun Gong and a call to eradicate the group, published in the pro-Beijing media in Hong Kong.
Answered by Amanda Milling
We remain deeply concerned about the persecution of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and others on the grounds of their religion or belief in China, including reports that authorities are tightening control over how certain religions are practiced. The freedom to practise, change or share one's faith or belief without discrimination or violent opposition is a human right that all people should enjoy. We believe that societies that aim to guarantee freedom of religion or belief are more stable, prosperous and more resilient against violent extremism.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps her Department is taking to help counter international digital persecution of religious minorities through online surveillance and intimidation.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Promoting the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities. No one should be excluded because of their religion or belief. Discrimination damages not only societies, but it also holds back economies. Countries cannot fully develop while they oppress members of minorities.
We are working closely with digital and social media platforms to help them identify and take action to mitigate the harmful spread of intimidation online. In addition, we actively support Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other organisations in research to inform technology companies, partner governments and others about the misuse of online platforms.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that UK humanitarian aid is accessible to all (1) religious, and (2) faith, communities, in particular while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK works to ensure that all humanitarian assistance reaches the most in need, including those who may be vulnerable because of their religion or belief. As a core part of the UK pledge of up to £1.3 billion to respond to COVID-19, we are working to encourage state security responses that are transparent, proportionate and fair, and that respect international humanitarian law and promote human rights.
We work closely with our operational partners to ensure they rigorously assess vulnerability and needs, including those linked with religious identity and membership of faith communities as part of the humanitarian response process. This is enhanced by humanitarian actors speaking directly to those impacted, including members of affected communities and Faith-Based Organisations, and by reviewing historical data, media findings and other reports.