25 Jun 20 | Index in the Press
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Philippine online news organisation Rappler quoted Index on Censorship editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley discussing the implications of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa’s sentencing to up to six years in prison.
““This campaign is a frightening indictment of the pressures on journalists to stop reporting. We call on those who care about media freedom globally to stand up and take notice. This is not just about one journalist in one place, this has significance for journalism everywhere as part of a trend where we see reporters put under enormous pressures to stop covering stories,” said Rachael Jolley, Index on Censorship editor-in-chief.”
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15 Jun 20 | News and features, Statements
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Maria Ressa, a former CNN bureau chief and one of four journalists named Time’s Person of the Year in 2018, has today been given a sentence of up to six years in prison by a Filipino court, under a cyber libel law that didn’t even exist when the article in question was published.
Her journalism has been about fighting for the right to criticise power, and to hold her government to account.
Ressa is one of four journalists named Time’s Person of the Year in 2018. Ressa and her co-defendent Reynaldo Santos were found guilty of cyber libel at the Manila Regional Trial Court.
Ms Ressa was sentenced to a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 6 years imprisonment and granted bail pending appeal. A fine of approximately $8,000 (P400,000) was also imposed.
Index on Censorship and English PEN condemn this decision which is part of a campaign to silence dissenting voices in the Philippines.
“This campaign is a frightening indictment of the pressures on journalists to stop reporting. We call on those who care about media freedom globally to stand up and take notice. This is not just about one journalist in one place, this has significance for journalism everywhere as part of a trend where we see reporters put under enormous pressures to stop covering stories” said Rachael Jolley, Index editor-in-chief.
Daniel Gorman, director of English PEN, said: “Today is a terrible day for those who care about freedom of expression and a free press, in the Philippines and across the world. This judgement aims to intimidate journalists and writers working across the Philippines. English PEN stands with Maria Ressa, and calls for the government of the Philippines to drop these spurious charges immediately.”
Through the past few years Index and English PEN has worked to bring attention to escalating restrictions on media freedom in the Philippines. Ressa and her team have written for Index on Censorship magazine, and Ressa was a judge at the annual Index on Censorship awards.
Seven further cases remain pending against Ms Ressa. The cases against Ms Ressa, which allege illegal foreign media ownership of her news site and alleged tax offences, are equally spurious, and an act of retaliation by the current administration against her reporting.
Reporting by the Rappler website, which Ressa co-founded as CEO, has exposed corruption and abuses, including the execution of thousands of Filipinos in the name of a war on drugs.
On behalf of her legal team, Amal Clooney said of today’s verdict: “Today a court in the Philippines became complicit in a sinister action to silence a journalist for exposing corruption and abuse. This conviction is an affront to the rule of law, a stark warning to the press, and a blow to democracy in the Philippines. I hope that the appeals court will set the record straight in this case.”
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has characterised the cases against Ms Ressa as an act of “persecution” by a “bully government.”
English PEN and Index on Censorship calls for the government of the Philippines to drop their cases against Maria Ressa and her co-defendants. We stand with them, along with all writers standing for a free media in the Philippines.
This statement is signed and supported by other organisations including:
Civicus
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03 Jan 20 | Magazine, News and features, Volume 48.04 Winter 2019
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-bKFo30o2o”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What does it mean to be a man? That has been the subject of many a song and is also the subject of the winter 2019 issue of Index on Censorship magazine, where we consider how leaders are using concepts of masculinity for their political gain and our free speech loss. While you’re reading the mag, have a listen to your playlist which features artists from Bob Dylan to Taylor Swift, who are all singing, one way or another, about the problems with macho men.
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When US President Donald Trump tweeted that he is “so great looking and smart”, Carly Simon’s classic take down of an unnamed man sprung to mind. Ditto every time we see Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appearing topless on a horse. But what are these mega egos doing to our rights? Editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley spoke to New York Times lawyer David E. McCraw about the state of media freedom in the USA under Trump.
“Macho, macho man! I want to be a macho man!” Is this what the current pack of male leaders listen to every morning? And do they also add their own words, like dominant, aggressive and infallible? For a more complete list of what they are like, how they are destroying our freedoms and how you can be a macho man too, read Rob Sears guide for the modern despot.
Brandon Flowers told NME in 2017 that the then-newly released single The Man depicted his attitude towards masculinity when The Killers started out, an attitude he now regrets. With lyrics including “don’t try to teach me, I got nothing to learn”, it’s easy to see why Flowers is glad to have grown out of such youthful notions. Unfortunately, the men who dominate world politics don’t seem to have matured out of their eagerness to be “The Man” and all that that implies. Case in point China’s Xi Jinping.
Irish rock band Thin Lizzy had a hit in 1976 with The Boys are Back in Town, a joyful ode to, well, boys being back in town. Its catchy melody means it’s still a feature on many party playlists, but delve into the lyrics and evidence of toxic masculinity is there. When the boys go out, “The drink will flow and the blood will spill, And if the boys want to fight, you better let ’em”. Kaya Genç reports on a rap collective in Turkey using music to take down that kind of ‘masculine’ behaviour men can exhibit.
While “lion man” is used with some irony by Mumford and Sons in this song, to show a man who hides his insecurities behind a facade of machismo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro does not appear to exhibit any irony when he refers to himself as a majestic lion surrounded by hyenas, as he did last year. Stefano Pozzebon reports on the uphill battle faced by the Brazilian press to hold this lion to account.
Bob Dylan’s moving, acoustic attacks on macho world leaders sending young people off to spill their blood on the battlefield are timeless. “When the death count gets higher, you hide in your mansion” sings Dylan in Masters of War. Somak Ghoshal reports on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is a fervent patriot with a strong war cry.
Macho leaders are eager to impress, whether it be to their citizens in a bid to maintain fearful respect and loyalty or fellow world leaders who they want to come across as heads of powerful states not to be underestimated. What would Canadian powerhouse Shania Twain say? If this song is anything to go by, they don’t impress her much. Arrogant intelligence, vanity and fast cars are all big no-nos, and we’d assume draconian policies and the quashing of free expression are too. It’s bad news for Tanzania’s “Bulldozer” President Magufuli.
Did Lily Allen write her song Fuck You with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in mind? The song takes aim at small-minded, hate-filled, racist homophobes, with lines like “So you say it’s not OK to be gay, well I think you’re just evil”, which could be one way to address a leader whose party continues to assault gay rights by promoting “family values” that exclude LGBT people.
Taylor Swift captures the inequalities between the sexes in The Man, her song about the respect she would get if she was a man for the same actions that result in criticism for a woman. Female journalists could sing the same song, often being targeted as much for their gender as for their words. Miriam Grace Go reports on Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte, for example, and his explicit denigration of female journalists and politicians.
No-one writes a protest song quite like Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk rock group. In October 2016, two weeks before Donald Trump was elected as US president, they released Make America Great Again, a dystopian vision of the USA under Trump. Lyrics include “Can you imagine a politician calling a woman dog?” Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine this as it’s become all too real. Caroline Lees reports on how world leaders are using slurs to undermine their opponents in a trend that appears to be getting worse.
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19 Dec 19 | Press Releases
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“They like to think of themselves as strongmen but what, in fact, they are doing is channeling the worst kind of machismo,” writes Index on Censorship editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley.
In the winter issue published today Index reports on how macho leaders, from Trump and Johnson to Modi and Bolsonaro, protect their fragile egos by stifling dissent, debate and democracy.
Jolley continues: “They are extremely uncomfortable with public criticism. They would rather hold a Facebook ‘press conference’ where they are not pressed than one where reporters get to push them on details they would rather not address.”
All around the world, these so called “strong men” have stormed the polls and are coming to power. Many are being voted in democratically, but they don’t believe in freedom of speech, and are actively eroding it. “Right now these techniques are coming at us from all around the globe, as if one giant algorithm is showing them the way,” writes Jolley as part of a special report on this global trend.
In this issue news editor Miriam Grace Go of Filipino news publication Rappler writes about how the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, tries to show his strength by being as foul-mouthed as possible. If you’re a critical journalist – and especially a woman journalist – as she is, what can you expect?
Indian journalist Somak Goshal reports on how people are being labelled as “Pakistani terrorists” for not showing “patriotism”. And Stefano Pozzebon talks to journalists in Brazil who are right in the firing line of Jair Bolsonaro’s attacks on the media, and who are now hiring security guards.
Mark Frary reviews the tools that autocrats are using to crush dissent and Caroline Lees looks at smears that are used as a tactic to silence journalists and other critics. We also publish a poem from Hong Kong writer Tammy Lai-ming Ho, which addresses the current protests engulfing the city, plus two short stories written exclusively for the magazine by Kaya Genç and Jonathan Tel.
Editor’s Notes: Index on Censorship Magazine
For interviews contact: [email protected]
Since its establishment in 1972, Index on Censorship magazine has published some of the greatest names in literature including Samuel Beckett, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Hilary Mantel and Kurt Vonnegut. It also has published some of the greatest campaigning writers of our age from Vaclav Havel to Amartya Sen and Ariel Dorfman plus journalism from Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, China, India, Turkey and more. Editor Rachael Jolley was named British Society of Editors’ editor of the year in the specialist publication category (2016) and the magazine has received numerous awards including the APEX Award for Excellence and the Hermann Kesten prize.
Digital editions are on sale at exacteditions.com/indexoncensorship
Print copies of the magazine are also on sale at BFI, Serpentine Gallery and MagCulture (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester) and Red Lion Books (Colchester).
Launch Event
Shake off the post New Year blues with drinks, snacks and debate at Index on Censorship’s winter magazine launch. Guest speakers include Xiaolu Guo, Dora Papp, Lindsey Hilsum and Rob Sears. The event will be hosted by Index editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley on Wednesday 15 January at Google’s London HQ. For media invitations please email: [email protected]
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