July 5, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

A poem by Murzban F. Shroff

This is the winter of our confinement

This is the spring of our unease

This is the summer of our expectations

The fall of our species

This is the weakness of our senses

This is the outcome of our greed

This is the collapse of our intellect

The negation of our needs

This is the night of our darkness

This is the prison of our morrows

This is the cumulus of our burden

The song of our sorrows

This is what we brought our world to

Conquering land and sea and sky

Not for a moment did we pause

Thinking where our limits lie

We robbed the earth of its beauty

And we drained the soil of...

July 5, 2020,  News  No comments

This is an article by historian Dinyar Patel that was posted on the BBC News website on Sunday 5 July 2020.

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) is an unfamiliar name these days.

Yet, aside from being the first Asian to sit in the House of Commons, he was also the most important leader in India before Mahatma Gandhi, as well as being an anti-racist and anti-imperialist of global significance.

Now, more than ever, amidst various global crises, he deserves to be remembered.

His life is a stirring testament to the pow...

July 3, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

As England gets ready for pubs and restaurants to re-open from tomorrow (Sat 4 July) will they be compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018?

Under UK Government instructions, all establishments – irrespective of their size – are under a legal obligation to keep a record of their customers in order to assist the NHS Test and Trace programme to detect Covid-19 outbreaks.

These records are expected to be kept for three weeks, and customers are likely to have to fill out a card and hand this to the bar /restaurant staff at the time they pay the bill. In some cases, online booking will require this info in order to make a reservation.

So not only must the custome...

June 27, 2020,  EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Data Protection Board, Guru in a Bottle  No comments

Described as a ‘treasure chest’ of decisions, it will help DPOs and Data Controllers understand what’s happening on the ground.

Unsurprisingly, most decisions on the lead SA pivot on the protection of data subject rights and the legal basis for processing.

Where action by the Lead SA has been taken in the wake of multiple-jurisdiction infringements, this has been more about compliance orders and a ‘slap on the wrist’ for the data controller rather than imposing headline catching fines, trying to find a consensual approach to remedy data privacy breaches.

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June 3, 2020,  News  No comments

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May 29, 2020,  News  No comments

When I was working in BBC News & Current Affairs in the late 80s/early 90s, the internet was in its infancy and there wasn’t Facebook or YouTube or Twitter.

Also, we had the BBC Guidelines, under DG John Birt, that provided guidance on balance, impartiality and how certain news items were to be reported, particularly during election times, etc.  These days, with 24-hour rolling news and the fragmentation of media and audiences, it’s that much harder to be heard, so journalists use social media as another channel to engage with the audience.

It will be interesting to see what former-BBC boss Richard Sambrook advises in how the BBC continues to steer a path of neutrality i...

May 29, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

A brilliant example of Jugaad Innovation for PPE Facemasks for those who need to lip read.

For more on this news story, click here 

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May 29, 2020,  Council of Ministers, data protection, EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, European Data Protection Supervisor, News, Thought Leadership  No comments

Having left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, the UK is currently in a Brexit transition period that runs out on 31 December 2020. Whilst the other 27 Member States of the EU have been grappling with containing the Covid-19 pandemic, you could be forgiven for thinking these countries as well as the UK have taken their eyes off the ball when it comes to striking a Brexit deal.

If you think that to be the case, think again.

If the UK wants an extension, it will need to ask for this by 30 June 2020 and the European Commission has already indicated that in the circumstances this would be granted...

May 16, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

I was really lucky to have worked with Lynn Faulds-Wood and John Stapleton when the dynamic duo presented Watchdog in the early ‘90s.

In those days, the production office was sandwiched between Kilroy (floor below) and That’s Life (floor above) at BBC Lime Grove Studios in Hammersmith (now sadly long gone). However, my memories of working with Lynn and John and meeting them years after we’d all left the show have stayed with me ever since.

I remember Lynn and John saying to me that they thought I wrote really well for TV and they never changed a word of the scripts I would write for them. That was high praise given it was my first AP job in telly.

I had come across ...

January 20, 2019,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

I would like to mark the sacrifice of the Jewish Community as a result of the atrocities that made the world a darker place in WWII.