Paris, January 19, 2006 -- Those devoted to files, the little corporals of social or administrative security control, and other opportunists of preventive surveillance will be honoured at the 6th annual Big Brother Awards France. The presentation of awards will take place this year on Friday February 3, 2006 at the Association of Confluences in Paris (190 bd de Charonne, 75020 Paris - M. Alexandre Dumas), starting at 7 pm with a screening of short-films, clips and documentaries, the majority of which are self-produced, which re-trace the movements of total security, the temptations of "zero tolerance" and the generalized surveillance of public spaces and the private sphere.

The ceremony will begin at 8:30; free admission, but a show of support (also free) is suggested (upon entrance or exit); do not arrive too late or you risk being billeted at the bar. The list of nominees, as well as the composition of the jury, will be made public next week. While waiting, from now on you will find on our Web site posters and flyers to be printed and distributed, as well as banners and buttons so as to show support for us on your Web sites.

Awarded each year in about fifteen countries on the initiative of Privacy International, by independent juries composed of academics, human-rights activists and other qualified persons, the "Orwell Award" (from the name of the author of "1984") "compensates" (in a sense) the institutions, companies and people who distinguish themselves through their scorn for the right to private life or their promotion of the surveillance and control of individuals. The "Voltaire Award" rewards, for those who, by contrast, defend the inalienable right to private life, and thus the freedoms forseen by the rights of Man.

The selection committee of the BBA France brings together the organizations Smile, you are being filmed!, the Virtualists, the Observatory of the Rights of Users, the ODEBI league, the Free Foundation Software and EUCD.info. These groups benefit from the technical and logistical help of Teleplaisance.org, Globenet and samizdat.net, without forgetting the Confluences Association, which is hosting the awards ceremony.

Among the NGOs supporting the initiative are the International Federation of the Leagues of the Rights of Man, ACT-UP Paris, Acrimed, Free Software Foundation (FSF France), the Immigrants' Information and Support Group, the Union of the Lawyers of France, and the Union of the magistrature.

Launched by Privacy International in October 1998 in London, this ceremony aims at stigmatizing the threats to private life life by giving the finger to the people, institutions and companies that are the most active in the promotion or conception of surveillance technologies. The concept is inspired by the novel "1984" by George Orwell, and obtained the moral support of Richard Blair, son of the famous writer (whose real name was Eric Blair). Since 1998, the various BBAs have been organized in a large number of countries on four continents (latest to date in 2005: Finland, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Italy).

PI is an organization created in London in 1990 to awaken public opinion on the erosion of private life and to fight against new technologies of the surveillance of individuals. Since then, PI has been at the center of about thirty conferences, taken part as an NGO at dozens of international meetings, thousands of interventions or interviews in the media, organized public-awareness campaigns, testified in front of governmental or parliamentary authorities, like the House of Lords, the Canadian Parliament, the OECD, UNESCO, the European Parliament and the Parliament of the Council of Europe. Registered in the United Kingdom as a non-profit association (Not-profit Limited Company # 4354366).

(Originally published by the Nice IMC. English translation 25 January 2006.)

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