Ian Cobain, author of Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture (Portobello Press, 2012), will be discussing the UK’s long-standing secretive policies of torture as part of the SECL’s Distinguished Lecture series next week, on Wednesday 27 March 2013. The event has been organised by Dr William Rowlandson from the Department of Hispanic Studies.
The topic of the talk is engaging and controversial. Officially, the UK does not ‘participate in, solicit, encourage or condone’ torture and yet, says Cobain, the evidence is irrefutable: when faced with potential threats to our national security, the gloves always come off.
Drawing on previously unseen official documents, and the accounts of witnesses, victims and experts, prize-winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain looks beyond the cover-ups, the equivocations, and the attempts to dismiss brutality as the work of a few rogue interrogators, to get to the truth. From WWII to the War on Terror, via Kenya and Northern Ireland, Cruel Britannia shows how the British have repeatedly and systematically resorted to torture, turning a blind eye where necessary, bending the law where they can, and issuing categorical denials all the while. What emerges is a picture of Britain that challenges our complacency on human rights and exposes the lie behind our reputation for fair play.
Ian Cobain has been a journalist since the early 1980s and is currently an investigative reporter with the The Guardian. His inquiries into the UK’s involvement in torture since 9/11 have won a number of major awards, including the Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism. He has also won several Amnesty International media awards.
The event is open to all: to confirm your attendance, please email Sophie Baker on S.C.Baker@kent.ac.uk