7 May 2019 | Artistic Freedom Case Studies Supporting Documents
Eric Gill: The Body
Training Day Schedule
10.00 to 13.30, 10 April, Clore Learning Space
Please arrive promptly, refreshments served from 9.30
Please rsvp if you haven’t already done so to [email protected]
SCHEDULE
10.00 NH: Welcome and introduction to exhibition – short version of talk and Q&A
10.30 RD: Front of House and gallery invigilation routine explained – Q&A
10.45 LJ/RD: Workshop on disclosure process and staff support.
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- Staff support and Info Packs
- Disclosure procedure
- Complaints procedure
11.00 RD /GW: Workshop on language to be used.
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- Discuss use of humour
- Discuss terms and those that are good and not
11.15 Tea break
11.30 Peter Saunders, NAPAC, National Association of People Abused in Childhood (napac.org.uk)
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- Key facts and figures
- Myth busters
- How an abused person might feel on visiting the exhibition
12.00 Presentation by Wellcome Collection staff, Georgia and Eleanor (wellcomecollection.org)
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- How to respond to visitor comments on difficult subject matter and make sure that you feel comfortable doing so
- How to close down conversations and signpost
- What to do if people are emotional – angry or upset
- Looking after yourself and team working
- How to ask for written feedback and complete surveys
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- NH/GW: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions and dealing with press
13.00 Q&A
13.30 Close
7 May 2019 | Artistic Freedom, Brazil, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”106683″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]It should come as no surprise that, when opening an exhibition exploring queer identity, there will be critics.
In Brazil, where LGBTQI+ concerns were removed from the country’s human rights ministry’s purview earlier this year, when the death threats come in relentlessly, attitudes toward gay rights pose a significant worry — particularly when one of the people making those threats happens to be the president.
For Gaudêncio Fidelis, curator of Queermuseu, this is the crushing reality he faces. Back in 2017, Fidelis launched the exhibition celebrating queer artists. Applauded by the creative community, it was soon shuttered after a backlash from the religious right – amongst them now-President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time was a federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro.
“Bolsonaro said I should be killed when he was not even a candidate, just a few hours after Queermuseu was shut down,” said Fidelis. “He didn’t mention my name because he didn’t know it, I guess. He referred to me as the ‘author of that exhibition’.
“In the first two months I got more than 100 death threats to a point where I had to have security, I had to be careful. Very few people I know, and I know some brave people, could handle that situation. I never slept for a year.”
One of Fidelis’ main detractors were far-right group Free Brazil Movement (MBL), who attacked Queermuseu persistently for two days during its opening. MBL alleged the exhibition, which included 214 works from 82 artists, promoted paedophilia, zoophilia and blasphemy, subsequently leading to its closure.
“They took the painting of two teenagers having sex with a goat, but this is a painting about people’s habits and the colonisation of Brazil,” Fidelis said. “They cropped this image and put it on the internet as if it was the picture. They were also putting up pictures that were not in the exhibition. A lot of fake news.”
In the aftermath of its sudden demise, Queermuseu drew support from artists and academics, leading to more than 3,500 people to protest outside the Santander Cultural centre in Porto Alegre, which is owned by the Santander bank.
“It turned into a huge campaign of not only reopening the exhibition, but in favour of free expression and human rights, because people’s rights were attacked,” he said. “It was not just an attack against the exhibition, it was a whole campaign against free expression.
“It was the largest ever protest in Brazil in the field of art and culture. This became a very contemptuous debate, or fight you could say – it was an intense battle that lasted for more than 12 months.”
However, Fidelis says what followed was one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in Brazil, raising over $1 million. Fidelis said he was even more surprised by the the mainstream media, which backed his campaign, allowing him to counter the fake news around the exhibition.
“I’ve never seen that with the press, they always keep some critical distance,” he said. “They were engaged throughout the process in defending the exhibition. The press understood that they would be next to be attacked, and that’s what happened two months later.”
After a visit from the public prosecutor’s office, who declared the defamatory allegations made against Queermuseu to be false, the exhibition was officially reopened to the public in 2018. Despite his success, Fidelis remains fearful for the future of free expression in his country – particularly for queer people.
Bolsonaro removed LGBTQI+ concerns from Brazil’s human rights ministry in January, while openly gay congressman Jean Wyllys quit his position and left the country later that month. He explained how he had been inundated with death threats and that violence had increased since Bolsonaro’s election.
“We were in plain democracy, so much so, that we could appeal to the Supreme Court – I did it twice,’ said Fidelis. “We could go to the normal institutions of democracy, but we can’t do that now. It’s a whole new world in Brazil and that’s why people are leaving.” [/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1557304208972-adcd0337-5d35-7″ taxonomies=”15469″ exclude=”105410, 105403, 105408, 105400″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
3 May 2019 | Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, Turkey, Turkey Statements
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Musa Kart
Index on Censorship joins Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) to report that the internationally acclaimed cartoonist Musa Kart is again a prisoner this World Press Freedom Day.
In November 2016 Musa Kart was one of a number of staff from the Cumhuriyet newspaper arrested without charge. He and his colleagues’ subsequent months in Silivri prison would be described as unlawful by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, “being in contravention of articles 10, 11 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 14, 15 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.
In April 2017 he was formally indicted with “helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member” and “abusing trust”, prosecutors stipulating a maximum sentence of twenty-nine years. His trial began in July 2017. His funny, excoriating opening statement is worth reading in full.
After twelve months of court proceedings (arduous litigation being a well-worn censorious tactic) Kart was eventually found guilty and sentenced to three years and nine months. The appeals lodged on behalf of all those who received shorter sentences during the Cumhuriyet trials failed in February this year. Kart was informed he would be required to go to prison for one year and sixteen days.
On April 25th he and five colleagues – board members Önder Çelik and M.Kemal Güngör, news director Hakan Kara, columnist Güray Öz and financial officer Emre İper – decided to hand themselves in at Kandıra prison, a typically dignified and brave gesture.
Musa’s ultimate incarceration represents the culmination of fifteen years of persecution by then prime minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who twice tried and twice failed to use court action to silence the cartoonist in 2005 and 2014.
As those who have followed recent history in Turkey will be aware, the attempted coup of July 2016 and the subsequent state of emergency provided Erdoğan the pretext required to round up many of his perceived enemies in academia, local government, the military, press and media. His victory in the April 2017 referendum, granting the president greater powers, and subsequent re-election in 2018 have only entrenched his position. In survey after survey Turkey remains the world’s number one jailer of journalists.
Kart is a past winner of CRNI’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award, was given the Cartooning For Peace Swiss Foundation’s Prix International du Dessin de Presse last year and is currently the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Maison du Dessin de Presse, Morges. He formally retired from cartooning in December 2017.
The undersigned organizations join Index and CRNI in calling for the immediate release of Musa Kart and his five courageous colleagues and the dismissal of all charges against the criminalised former staff of Cumhuriyet. This World Press Freedom Day we express our solidarity with all those suffering in the protracted and unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey, and call for its end.
Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI)
Adil Soz – International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech
Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC)
ARTICLE 19
Bytes for All (B4A)
Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP)
Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Free Media Movement
Independent Journalism Center (IJC)
Index on Censorship
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
International Press Institute (IPI)
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Media Watch
Norwegian PEN
PEN America
PEN Canada
PEN International
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)
South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM)
South East Europe Media Organisation
Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
Articolo 21
Civic Spaces Studies Association – Turkey
Danish PEN
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
German PEN
Global Editors Network
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa
Swedish PEN[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1556869431554-27d0cab8-ff70-3″ taxonomies=”55″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
30 Apr 2019 | Belarus, Belarus Incident Reports
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Index on Censorship’s Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom project tracks press freedom violations in five countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Learn more.
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Bank account of freelance journalist arrested over not having paid fines for work without accreditation
30 April 2019 – Homel freelancer Andrei Tolchyn was summoned to the executor in conjunction with his four unpaid fines and told that his bank account had been arrested and he would have ten days to pay them.
He was sentenced to heavy fines for ‘illegal production of media content’ without accreditation for the TV channel Belsat. The total amount of the fines is 3200 Belarusian rubles (1,523 dollars).
Update:
Tolchyn’s account was unlocked after the fines had been paid.
Link: https://baj.by/be/content/u-zhurnalista-frylansera-andreya-tolchyna-aryshtavali-rahunak-u-belarusbanku
https://baj.by/be/content/belarusbank-razblakavau-rahunak-zhurnalista-frylansera-raney-zablakavany-z-za-shtrafau
Category: Legal Measures
Source of violation: State Agency
Two Brest freelancers fined
18 April 2019 – Freelance journalists Ales Liauchuk and Milana Kharytonava were fined 1,275 Belarusian rubles (about 600 dollars) each for their cooperation with Belsat TV without accreditation. The decision was taken by the chairperson of the Brest district court.
Link: https://belsat.eu/ru/news/brestskih-nezavisimyh-zhurnalistov-snova-oshtrafovali-bolshie-dengi-vzyskali-s-tretej-popytki/
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Leading independent media not accredited to annual message of president Lukashenko
18 April 2019 – Journalists for the leading news website TUT.BY, the news agency BelaPAN, the newspaper Belorusy I Rynok, and European Radio for Belarus were not accredited to cover the annual message of Alexander Lukashenko to the people and the National Assembly on 19 April 2019.
Two of them, BelaPAN`s Tattyana Karavenkova and special correspondent for European Radio for Belarus Zmitser Lukashuk, are permanently accredited in the parliament.
Link: https://baj.by/be/content/zhurnalistau-nedzyarzhaunyh-smi-ne-akredytavali-na-paslanne-lukashenki
Category: Blocked Access
Source of violation: State Agency
Blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin sentenced to large fine in criminal trial
18 April 2019 – A judge for the Leninski district court of Brest passed a sentence in the criminal case against blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin. He was convicted under Art. 188 (Slander) and Art. 189 (Insult) of the Criminal Code. The reason for initiating his criminal case was an appeal of a police officer over a video on the blogger`s YouTube channel Narodnyj Reportior.
The blogger was fined around 9180 Belarusian rubles (4,590 dollars). Piatrukhin was also obliged to recompense moral damage to four policemen. In total the blogger has to pay 8,840 dollars. In addition, the judge also ordered him to pay legal fees.
This amount should be paid within a month. It is also reported that the blogger made a written undertaking not to leave a place and his property was distrained.
Link: http://charter97.link/en/news/2019/4/18/330954/
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Court
Journalist with photo camera banned from entering into local government premises
Correspondent for the independent newspaper Hazeta Slonimskaya Krystsina Saladukha who came to make pictures of the exhibition of a housing building project launched a day before was banned from entering into the building of Slonim local government in the Hrodna region. A security guard told her she was not entitled to pass people with photographic equipment without a special permission.
Link: https://baj.by/be/content/zhurnalistka-pryyshla-sfatagrafavac-praekt-yae-navat-ne-puscili-u-rayvykankam
Category: Blocked Access
Source of violation: Public official
Freelance journalist Lupach fined twice for a month
15 April 2019 – Hlybokaye-based freelance journalist Zmitser Lupach stood trial in the Sharkaushchyna district court for contributing to Belsat TV without accreditation. A judge imposed on him a fine of 892.5 Belarusian rubles (about $440) over his news story about the weak economy situation and low salaries in the district.
Link: https://belsat.eu/en/news/collecting-negative-opinions-freelance-journo-fined-for-contributing-to-belsat-tv/
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Freelance journalist Yauhen Skrabets fined the second day in a row
12 April 2019 – In Brest, freelance journalist Yauhen Skrabets fined 765 Belarusian rubles (364 dollars) following a police report under Article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Offences for “production of information content for a foreign media outlet which was not accredited in the Republic of Belarus.” His article titled Activists And Independent Journalists Not Allowed Into the Press Conference at the I-Power Plant had appeared on the website of Belarusian Radio Racyja based in Poland.
Link: https://baj.by/be/content/sud-bresckaga-rayona-pakarau-frylansera-yaugena-skrabca-chargovym-shtrafam
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Freelance journalist fined in Mahiliou
11 April 2019 – A judge in the Leninski district court of Mahiliou ruled to fine freelance journalist Alina Skrabunova 1275 Belarusian rubles (approximately 600 dollars). She was found guilty of “participation in the illegal production of media content” as her video on the opening of an inclusive cafe where wheelchair users work had been broadcasted on the TV channel Belsat.
Link: https://baj.by/be/content/za-syuzhet-pra-lyudzey-z-invalidnascyu-zhurnalistku-pakarali-shtrafam-u-50-bazavyh
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Freelance journalist fined in two cases
11 April 2019 – The Hlybokaye district court fined independent journalist Zmitser Lupach 1,020 Belarusian rubles ($485) in total in two cases. He was tried under Article 22.9 (illegal production and/or distribution of media content) and under Article 23.34 (violation of the procedure for organizing or conducting mass events) of the Code of Administrative Offences. In the first case, the journalist was punished for his report on the TV channel Belsat and, in the second case, for raising a white-red-white flag during Freedom Day, the anniversary of the Belarusian People’s Republic.
Link: http://charter97.link/en/news/2019/4/11/330183/
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Freelance journalist fined in Brest
11 April 2019 – The Leninski district court of Brest considered a case against freelance journalist Yauhen Skrabets under Article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Offenses over his working for a foreign media outlet without accreditation. The police report states he “interviewed without accreditation, thus violating the rights and obligations of a foreign media journalist.” As a result, a judge fined the journalist BYN 765 ($364).
Link: http://charter97.link/en/news/2019/4/11/330204/
Category: Fines
Source of violation: Police, Court
Police raid Belsat TV office in Minsk
9 April 2018 – Police searched the office of Belsat TV channel in Minsk under a search warrant of the Investigative Committee. An official representative of the Investigative Committee Siarhei Kabakovich confirmed that the search was carried out as part of the investigation of a slander case under Article 188 of the Criminal Code.
In the summer 2018 Belsat TV journalist Ales Zaleuski prepared a video story about corruption at the Minsitry of Health Care, reporting about arrest of Aleh Shved, head of the state-owned enterprise Medtechnocenter. However, the text version on the channel’s website did not repeat the video. The text said, Aleh Shved was arrested together with his brother Andrei, head of the State Committee of Forensic Examination. Editors corrected the mistake and published the retraction immediately after the mistake was noticed. However, Andrei Shved addressed Minister of the Interior asking to prosecute me under criminal charges. In November 2018, the Investigation Committee decided there were no grounds to start criminal proceedings.
However, in January 2019 Minsk city prosecutor’s office instigated a new investigation and brought the case back to the Investigative Committee. Zaleuski believes, there are no other criminal cases against the TV channel staff. According to the journalist, they are looking for the person who published the text under the video story on the website. They have already carried out interrogations with a video camera. The witnesses in the case are Ales Zaleuski, cameraman Aliaxander Lubianchuk, and Belsat representatives Aliaksei Minchonak and Iryna Slaunikava.
During the search, the police seized two computer system units, three laptops, and all data storage media.
Update: Two days later all the equipment seized was returned to Belsat TV.
Link(s): https://belsat.eu/en/news/investigators-raiding-belsat-tv-office-in-minsk/
https://baj.by/en/content/minsk-police-raid-and-search-belsat-office-slander-charges-office-has-been-crushed
http://charter97.link/en/news/2019/4/9/329891/
https://baj.by/en/content/minsk-office-belsat-gets-back-equipment-seized-during-recent-search
Categories: Interrogation, Attack to Property
Source of violation: State Agency, Police
Police hinder journalist’s work while demolishing crosses in Kurapaty
4 April 2019 – Deputy head of the Minsk police department Siarhei Udodau barred journalists from working in Kurapaty near Minsk, where builders were demolishing crosses erected around a people’s memorial to the victims of Stalin’s repressions.
When Deutsche Welle Pauliuk Bykouski said that, under the law, he is entitled to be present at the place of public events, Udodau threatened to detain him for disobeying the police. A similar incident occurred with the correspondent of the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty Aleh Hruzdzilovich.
Euroradio’s Raman Pratasevich said a man in civilian clothes elbowed the journalist’s camera and stood in front of the photographer to hinder filming how the crosses were being demolished. Belsat TV cameraperson Iryna Arakhouskaya was also prevented from recording. Before that, men in civilian clothes prevented journalists from filming the detention of protesters.
Links: https://baj.by/be/content/fakty-perashkodau-u-pracy-zhurnalistau-padchas-padzey-u-kurapatah-4-krasavika
Category: Blocked Access, Physical Assault
Source of violation: Police
Ministry of information bans distribution of BelGazeta issue through newsstand chain
2 April 2019 – An issue of the weekly BelGazeta was withdrawn from the newsstand chain Belsayuzdruk on the recommendation of the ministry of information. The number contained, in particular, humorous pieces and a cartoon on cows. This was due to the fact that President Lukashenko roughly criticized the sanitary condition of the cows on a farm in the Shklou district and this was followed by the deprivation of a number of officials at various levels.
BelGazeta editor-in-chief Kiryl Zhyvalovich visited the ministry of information and had a conversation with the minister. Zhyvalovich refused to specify which articles the ministry had claims against, he just noted that there were several such materials.
Regarding this incident, the Minister of Information Aliaksandr Karliukevich said that “it is unacceptable when media outlets or websites, intentionally hyperbolizing critical claims, falling into open vulgarity and loutishness.”
Links: http://mininform.gov.by/news/all/v-ministerstvo-informatsii-postupilo-neskolko-obrashcheniy/
https://euroradio.fm/ru/belgazeta-mu
https://belsat.eu/ru/news/sistemnoe-hamstvo-i-hamskaya-sistema/
Category: Censorship
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