Dear IRR News subscriber,

Buzz Johnson, the founder of Karia Press, died last month. This week we publish a tribute by Chris Searle to the ‘people’s exemplar’ who was to find ‘excellence in the most unrecognised and neglected of contexts, and print and spread its message in the midst of hope and struggle.’

In news from across the UK, a report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has found that poor responses to medical emergencies are widespread in immigration removal centres, with fifteen deaths in immigration detention investigated since 2004. A key prosecution witness at the trial of Nicky Jacobs, who is accused of murdering PC Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985, has said ‘all blacks look alike’. And five men of Nepalese descent have been convicted of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour after a fight in Aldershot last November. The men say they were acting in self defence following racist abuse.

Jon Burnett

Assistant Editor, IRR News