The association between Ugandan adolescents’ viewing of specific television genres and sex-related normative beliefs and behaviours

Growing evidence in Western nations indicates that exposure to high levels of sexual media content influences adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviours in those countries. Although media in many sub-Saharan markets contain increasingly higher levels of sexual content, little research has investigated the effects of that content on adolescents’ HIV-related risk and protective behaviours. This project used cultivation theory to examine Ugandan adolescents’ media use, and to test the relationship between their exposure to specific television genres and their sex-related normative beliefs and behaviours. Three hundred and sixty secondary school students from four purposively sampled schools filled out a questionnaire about their television viewing, their beliefs about the prevalence of sexual intercourse among their peers, and their own sexual behaviours. Preliminary evidence of relationships between watching comedy and cartoon programming, and high estimates of the proportion of adolescents who engage in sexual intercourse, were observed. Watching comedy programming and non- African programming was associated with the higher likelihood to have ever had sexual intercourse.     

Sir Alexander Cadogan and Lord Halifax's ‘Damascus road’ conversion over the Godesberg terms 1938

The article challenges the recent perception that Lord Halifax was the hero of the Czech crisis in 1938, when in fact the real credit for his revolt against the Godesberg terms belonged to Sir Alexander Cadogan, the Permanent Under‐Secretary at the Foreign Office. It does on to argue that Halifax was ill suited by nature to be Foreign Secretary and that his subsequent record shows him to have been a natural appeaser, still loyal to Chamberlain, who argued for an accommodation with Hitler in the summer of 1940.     

Problems of neutrality: Swiss diplomatic documents, 1939–45

Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.13 (1939–1940), edited by Jean‐François Bergier and André Jäggi (with the collaboration of Marc Perrenoud). Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1991. cvii + 1098 pp. 6 annexes. Sw.Fr.150. ISBN 3–7165–0725–3.

Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.14 (1941–1943), edited by Antoine Fleury, Mauro Cerutti and Marc Perrenoud. Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1997. cxxxi + 1400 pp., 3 annexes. Sw.Fr.165. ISBN 3–7165–0849–7.

Documents Diplomatiques Suisses/Diplomatische Dokuments der Schweiz/Documenti Diplomatici Svizzeri 1848–1945, Vol.15 (1943–1945), edited by Philippe Marguerat and Louis‐Edouard Roulet with Roland Blättler, Catherine Krüttli‐Tüscher, Marc Perrenoud and Maurice Peretti and Marie‐Jeanne Steiner. Berne: Benteli Verlag, 1992. cv + 1200 pp. 3 annexes. Sw.Fr.160. ISBN 3–7165–0843–8.

Das Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und seine Bestände, edited by Klaus Urner, Marie‐Claire Däniker, Thomas Ehrsam and Claudia Hoerschelmann. Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung Verlag, 1999. 360 pp. Sw.Fr. 40. DM52. ISBN 3–85823–763–9.     

Restorative justice and reconviction

Proponents of restorative justice have suggested that its practices have the potential to reduce reoffending by those responsible for a harm. This article examines these claims using the results of two separate studies of the reconviction of offenders dealt with by processes that had restorative characteristics. The first study examines reconviction rates over'a'period'of'six years for a sample of young people who took part in family group conferences. The second study examines outcomes for samples of 100 offenders involved in each of two different community panel pre-trial diversion schemes for adults. One scheme involved offenders and victims meeting together with community panel members to determine outcomes that would repair harm to the victim and contribute to preventing reoffending. The second scheme involved Maori offenders meeting with representatives of their tribe in a setting with spiritual meaning for Maori. Those participating in both the community panel schemes were less likely to reoffend than matched samples of others who had committed similar offenses. There were also economic savings to the criminal justice system when offenders were dealt with by the panels compared to those dealt with by traditional methods. Taken together, these projects indicate that restorative processes and practices can have a positive impact on helping people to avoid reoffending.     

Delfi AS v Estonia: The Liability of Secondary Internet Publishers for Violation of Reputational Rights under the European Convention on Human Rights

In October 2013, the European Court of Human Rights in Delfi AS v Estonia upheld a decision of the Estonian Supreme Court to impose liability on the owners of an internet news portal for defamatory comments which had been posted on their website by anonymous third parties. This note suggests that the decision is important in the context of publications with a ‘public interest’ element to them, because it appears to afford more protection to the right to reputation (deriving from the Article 8 right to privacy) and less to freedom of expression than was formerly the case. It is further argued that the Court's emphasis on the positive obligation of states to protect this right to reputation may mean that the existing English law in this area, including, potentially section 5 of the Defamation Act 2013, is inconsistent with the ECHR jurisprudence.     

Welfare Reform and the Shifting Threshold of Support for Disabled People

Among the highly significant changes to the benefits system made by the Welfare Reform Act 2012 is provision for a new disability benefit, personal independence payment (PIP). PIP is replacing disability living allowance (DLA), received by three million people, as the principal form of state financial support towards disability‐related care and mobility costs for those of working age. The legislation, including regulations prescribing a new disability assessment framework, plays its traditional role in this field of rationing access to benefit and directing front‐line policy implementation. This article examines how, in the context of the Coalition government's welfare reforms, PIP shifts the threshold of entitlement for people with disabilities and it assesses PIP's potential impact on equality and the right to independent living, to whose realisation disability benefits may be expected to contribute significantly. It also considers the impact on disabled people of other relevant reforms, including the controversial ‘bedroom tax’.