Contents: 100 years on

16 Jun 17 | Magazine, Magazine Contents, Volume 46.02 Summer 2017

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The Summer 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at how the consequences of the 1917 Russian Revolution still affect freedoms today, in Russia and around the world. Andrei Arkhangelsky argues that the Soviet impulse to censor never left Russia, and Nina Khrushcheva, a great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, reflects on the Soviet echoes in Trump’s use of the phrase “enemies of the people”.

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Hamid Ismailov, a writer who fled Uzbekistan in 1992, also reflects on how the superficial removal of the symbols of Soviet rule did little to change the mentality of the country or its government.

BG Muhn explores the legacy of socialist realism art in North Korea, arguably the only remaining totalitarian communist country, where painters work in government-run studios to produce artwork inspired by Soviet ideals and Korean pride. Also examining propaganda in art, David Aaronovitch looks back at the famous Soviet films he grew up watching, and asks whether their distortion of true events is any more sinister than that of Hollywood.

Jan Fox also interviews Luis Lago Diaz, a Cuban filmmaker, showing the global reach of Soviet influence, and Rafael Marques de Morais dissects the Stalin-inspired cult of personality surrounding the president of Angola.

Meanwhile, with eyes on history, Kaya Genç examines the complex relationship between Russia and Turkey, Bernard Gwertzman reflects on his time as the New York Times’ Moscow correspondent during the 1960s, and Duncan Tucker investigates how Leon Trotsky’s journey from founding Soviet leader to dissident non-person saw him become a champion of free speech during his exile in Mexico.

Outside of the special report, Laura Silvia Battaglia interviews a Yemeni journalist about his ordeal reporting on his country’s war, which has included being kidnapped, tortured and shot, and Eliza Vitri Handayani explains how a small rural community in Indonesia has found innovative ways of standing up to big industry, including encasing their feet in cement.

Plus Jemimah Steinfeld asks the author Margaret Atwood about current threats to free speech, the South African cartoonist Zapiro discusses the time President Jacob Zuma sued him and in the culture section award-winning writer Jonathan Tel presents a surreal, original short story about China’s ban on time-travelling television.

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What difference Russia’s revolution makes to our freedom today

Colouring inside the red lines, by BG Muhn: North Korea expert debunks myths and expectations about the country’s art

Mexico’s unlikely visitor, by Duncan Tucker: Leon Trotsky might have arrived in Mexico with blood on his hands, but he quickly became a free speech fighter

The revolution will be dramatised, by David Aaronovitch: Filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein manipulated the past in his work, but was it for dramatic or propaganda purposes?

A spectre that still haunts Russia, by Andrey Arkhangelsky: The Soviet fear of alternative voices persists in Russia

Lenin’s long literary shadow, by Hamid Ismailov: Uzbekistan’s ruler still expects writers to conform

Land of milk and honey, by Lahav Harkov: Israel’s kibbutz movement walks a fine line between being harmonious and restrictive

Friends reunited, by Kaya Genç: For most of the 20th century, Turkey and Russia were hostile neighbours. Now as both clamp down on free speech, they’re finding common ground

The enemies of those people, by Nina Khrushcheva: Nikita Khrushchev’s great-grandchild considers life in Trump’s USA compared to her Soviet upbringing

Airbrushing history, by Jeffery Wasserstrom & Yidi Wu: With China’s Communist Party still in power, the way 1917 is remembered must follow the party line. One man learnt the hard way

Being the big man, by Rafael Marques de Morais: Angola’s long-ruling president has constructed an image of himself straight out of Stalin’s playbook

The big chill, by Bernard Gwertzman: Staged press conferences and tapped phones were two obstacles to reporting from Moscow during the Cold War for The New York Times’ correspondent

There’s nothing new about fake news, by Andrei Aliaksandrau: It might be a new term, but the mechanisms of fake news have been in place in Belarus for decades

Help! I’m a Taiwanese communist, by Michael Gold: Taiwan went through a mass killing of its communists. Today the country is opening up about this dark past and communists face a freer environment

Shot in Havana, by Jan Fox: The state still controls Cuba’s film industry, but a Cuban producer is hopeful about changes ahead

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Provoking the president, by Raymond Joseph: South African cartoonist Zapiro talks censorship and drawing in an exclusive interview

Yemen: “Nobody is listening to us”, by Laura Silvia Battaglia: A Yemeni journalist discusses the time he was abducted for 15 days and other dangers for reporters

Novel lines, by Jemimah Steinfeld: An interview with Margaret Atwood on current threats to free speech and why scientists need defending

No country for free speech? by Daniel Leisegang: An old libel law and a new one aimed at social media are two threats to free expression in Germany

Read all about it, by Julia Farrington: Somaliland’s hugely successful festival is marking 10 years of extending access to books

See no evil: A Chechen journalist on the current climate of fear and intimidation that is stopping real news getting out

No laughing matter, by Silvia Nortes: Making jokes about Franco and ETA is off the table in Spain if you want to avoid trouble with the law

Cementing dissatisfaction, by Eliza Vitri Handayani: Indonesians experimenting with creative forms of protest are grabbing attention and sparking new movements

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”CULTURE” css=”.vc_custom_1481731777861{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Frenemies, by Kaya Genç: A mysterious man arrives at the White House. What does he want? A short story written exclusively for Index

Stitched in time, by Jonathan Tel: The award-winning writer on why the Chinese government controls historical narratives and an original story based on their ban of time travel shows

A tale of two Peters, by Alexei Tolstoy: First-time English translation of a story about Peter the Great by Russia’s Comrade Count, Alexei Tolstoy

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Global view, by Jodie Ginsberg: Freedoms are being curtailed across the globe in the name of “national security”

Index around the world, by
 Kieran Etoria-King: A reporter from the Maldives explains why the Index 2017 awards were a much-needed boost

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”END NOTE” css=”.vc_custom_1481880278935{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

What the Romans really did for us, by Jemimah Steinfeld: When it comes to propaganda, Roman emperor Augustus was ahead of his time

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SUBSCRIBE” css=”.vc_custom_1481736449684{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship magazine was started in 1972 and remains the only global magazine dedicated to free expression. Past contributors include Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Marquéz, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and many more.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76572″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In print or online. Order a print edition here or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions.

Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.

SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”91122″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2017/05/stand-up-for-satire/”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Bahrain: Nabeel Rajab approaches one year in prison without sentencing

09 Jun 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, Middle East and North Africa, News and features

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Next week the Bahraini human rights activist and Index on Censorship award winner Nabeel Rajab will have spent one year in prison on charges for which he has yet to be sentenced. Almost six months of his imprisonment, which began on 13 June 2016, has been spent in solitary confinement.

Rajab faces four separate legal charges, the trials for two of which – related to tweets criticising the war in Yemen and torture in Jau Prison, and “spreading false information and malicious rumours” over television interviews he gave in 2015 – have been postponed collectively over 20 times.

“We are particularly concerned about Rajab’s health, which continues to deteriorate due to the poor conditions and mistreatment he receives in prison,” said Melody Patry, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship. On 5 April 2017, Rajab underwent major surgery at a military hospital to remove ulcerated tissue from his lower back. He was returned to his cell at East Riffa Police Station two days later against medical recommendations.

“Rajab’s multiple hospitalisations are also preventing him from attending his court hearings and the judge has persistently refused all requests submitted by his lawyers to release him on bail, despite the length of his detention period in solitary confinement and despite the clear evidence about his fast deteriorating health,” Patry added.

Rajab faces two separate trials next week.

 

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Bahrain: Nabeel Rajab trial postponed until 12 June

30 May 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, News and features

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Nabeel Rajab, BCHR - winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012 with then-Chair of the Index on Censorship board of trustees Jonathan Dimbleby

Today the trial of Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been pushed back yet again, this time until 12 June 2017. His next trial date will take place just one day shy of a year since he was detained.

The fifty-four-year-old Rajab is currently detained in Kalaa Hospital following surgical complications from a procedure on 5 April. He has spent most of the past year in solitary confinement, resulting in a deterioration of his health.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “Today’s mock trial, in which Nabeel is punished for speaking the truth, shows how desperate Bahrain’s rulers are to silence and punish those who dare to expose the truth. The authorities have treated him in a degrading way for the past year and for what. This would not happen without the green-light from its allies Washington and London. This disastrous policy must be overturned.”

Rajab was jailed on 13 June 2016 for exposing human rights abuses in Bahrain, insulting Saudi Arabia and spreading “rumours and false news”. In September 2016, he published a letter in the New York Times highlighting the fact that journalists and NGO’s cannot enter Bahrain. After his letter was published, he was accused of “false news and statements and malicious rumours that undermine the prestige of the kingdom”.

Rajab’s trial on 12 June will address the accusation of spreading false news that journalists and NGO’s are being barred from the country. Another trial, which has been postponed 13 times, is scheduled for 14 June. It will address charges on his criticism of Bahrain’s capitol’s role in the military campaign against Yemen. If convicted Rajab could face 18 years in prison.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1496328210946-80160fea-3861-4″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Petition calls on Denmark to repeal blasphemy ban

15 May 17 | Campaigns -- Featured, Denmark, Digital Freedom, Statements

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We the undersigned respectfully urge the Danish Parliament to vote in favour of bill L 170 repealing the blasphemy ban in section 140 of the Danish criminal code, punishing “Any person who, in public, ridicules or insults the dogmas or worship of any lawfully existing religious community”.

Denmark is recognised as a global leader when it comes to the protection of human rights and freedom of expression. However, Denmark’s blasphemy ban is manifestly inconsistent with the Danish tradition for frank and open debate and puts Denmark in the same category as illiberal states where blasphemy laws are being used to silence dissent and persecute minorities. The recent decision to charge a man – who had burned the Quran – for violating section 140 for the first time since 1971, demonstrates that the blasphemy ban is not merely of symbolic value. It represents a significant retrograde step in the protection of freedom of expression in Denmark.

The Danish blasphemy ban is incompatible with both freedom of expression and equality before the law. There is no compelling reason why the feelings of religious believers should receive special protection against offence. In a vibrant and pluralistic democracy, all issues must be open to even harsh and scathing debate, criticism and satire. While the burning of holy books may be grossly offensive to religious believers it is nonetheless a peaceful form of symbolic expression that must be protected by free speech.

Numerous Danes have offended the religious feelings of both Christians and Muslims without being charged under section 140. This includes a film detailing the supposed erotic life of Jesus Christ, the burning of the Bible on national TV and the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed. The Cartoon affair landed Denmark in a storm of controversy and years of ongoing terrorist threats against journalists, editors and cartoonists. When terror struck in February 2015 the venue was a public debate on blasphemy and free speech.

In this environment, Denmark must maintain that in a liberal democracy, laws protect those who offend from threats, not those who threaten from being offended.

Retaining the blasphemy ban is also incompatible with Denmark’s human rights obligations. In April 2017 Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagtland emphasised that “blasphemy should not be deemed a criminal offence as the freedom of conscience forms part of freedom of expression”. This position is shared by the UN’s Human Rights Committee and the EU Guidelines on freedom of expression and religion.
Since 2014, The Netherlands, Norway, Iceland and Malta have all abolished blasphemy bans. By going against this trend Denmark will undermine the crucial European and international efforts to repeal blasphemy bans globally.

This has real consequences for human beings, religious and secular, around the globe. In countries like Pakistan, Mauretania, Iran, Indonesia and Russia blasphemy bans are being used against minorities as well as political and religious dissenters. Denmark’s blasphemy ban can be used to legitimise such laws. In 2016 the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief pointed out that “During a conference held in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) [in 2015], the Danish blasphemy provision was cited by one presenter as an example allegedly indicating an emerging international customary law on “combating defamation of religions”.

Blasphemy laws often serve to legitimise violence and terror. In Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh free-thinkers, political activists, members of religious minorities and atheists have been killed by extremists. In a world where freedom of expression is in retreat and extremism on the rise, democracies like Denmark must forcefully demonstrate that inclusive, pluralistic and tolerant societies are built on the right to think, believe and speak freely. By voting to repeal the blasphemy ban Denmark will send a clear signal that it stands in solidarity with the victims and not the enforcers of blasphemy laws.

Jacob Mchangama, Executive director, Justitia
Steven Pinker, Professor Harvard University
Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury, Exiled editor of Shuddhashar, 2016 winner International Writer of Courage Award
Pascal Bruckner, Author
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Human Rights Activist Founder of AHA Foundation,
Dr. Elham Manea, academic and human rights advocate (Switzerland)
Sultana Kamal, Chairperson, Centre for Social Activism Bangladesh
Deeyah Khan, CEO @Fuuse & founder @sister_hood_mag.
Fatou Sow, Women Living Under Muslim Laws
Elisabeth Dabinter, Author
William Nygaard, Publisher
Flemming Rose, Author and journalist
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Index on Censorship
Kenan Malik, Author of From Fatwa to Jihad
Thomas Hughes, Executive Director Article 19
Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN America
Pragna Patel – Director of Southall Black Sisters
Leena Krohn, Finnish writer
Jeanne Favret-Saada, Honorary Professor of Anthropology, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,
Maryam Namazie, Spokesperson, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
Fariborz Pooya, Host of Bread and Roses TV
Frederik Stjernfelt, Professor, University of Aalborg in Copenhagen
Marieme Helie Lucas, Secularism Is A Women’s Issue
Michael De Dora, Director of Government Affairs, Center for Inquiry
Robyn Blumner, President & CEO, Center for Inquiry
Nina Sankari, Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation (Poland).
Sonja Biserko, Founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
James Lindsay, Author
Malhar Mali, Publisher and editor, Areo Magazine
Julie Lenarz – Executive Director, Human Security Centre, London
Terry Sanderson President, National Secular Society
Greg Lukianoff, CEO and President, FIRE
Thomas Cushman, Professor Wellesley College
Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, New York Law School
Simon Cottee, the Freedom Project, Wellesley College
Paul Cliteur, professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University
Lino Veljak, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Lalia Ducos, Women’s Initiative for Citizenship and Universals Rights , WICUR
Lepa Mladjenovic, LC, Belgrade
Elsa Antonioni, Casa per non subire violenza, Bologna
Bobana Macanovic, Autonomos Women’s Center, Director, Belgrade
Harsh Kapoor, Editor, South Asia Citzens Web
Mehdi Mozaffari, Professor Em., Aarhus University, Denmark
Øystein Rian, Historian, Professor Emeritus University of Oslo
Kjetil Jakobsen, Professor Nord University
Scott Griffen, Director of Press Freedom Programmes International Press Institute (IPI)
Henryk Broder, Journalist
David Rand, President, Libres penseurs athées — Atheist Freethinkers
Tom Herrenberg, Lecturer University of Leiden
Simone Castagno, Coordinamento Liguria Rainbow
Laura Caille, Secretary General Libres
Mariannes Andy Heintz, writer
Bernice Dubois, Conseil Européen des Fédérations WIZO
Ivan Hare, QC[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1495443304735-e4b217b9-25e4-0″ taxonomies=”88, 53″][/vc_column][/vc_row]