A follow up on that previous report earlier in the year that the UK's Musicians Union was lobbying its counterparts around the world to formally condemn the use of music in torture - ie playing music at loud volumes to 'break' political prisoners psychologically. The MU put a motion to the International Federation Of Musicians Congress in Johannesburg last weekend, and it was promptly passed.
John Smith, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union, told CMU: "I am delighted that FIM has passed this extremely important motion. Too many people remain unaware of music torture and of the very real damage that it causes to its victims. Prisoners who have experienced both physical torture and torture using music have testified to the fact that the music torture was the most unbearable of the two. It is high time that the use of music in interrogations was recognised for what it is: a horrific form of psychological torture".
The MU's actual motion read thus: "Congress call upon the FIM Executive Committee to make known its wholehearted opposition to these reported practices, which it considers to be, at the very least inhumane and a potential infringement of musicians' moral rights".