12 Jul 13 | Events
Venue Doughty Street Chambers,
54 Doughty Street
London, WC1N 2LS (map)
Time 6.30pm
RSVP [email protected]
Space is limited, so please reserve a place early
Edward Snowden’s leaks about the US’s international mass surveillance programmes has prompted perhaps the definitive debate of our age: How free are we online? Can we ever trust technology with our personal details?
Have democratic freedoms been subverted by surveillance programmes such as PRISM and Tempora, justified on the grounds of security?
Join Index on Censorship and Doughty Street Chambers on 25 July to discuss these issues and more.
Speakers include
– Charles Arthur (Technology Editor, the Guardian)
– Stephen Cragg, QC (Doughty Street Chambers)
– Kirsty Hughes (Chief Executive, Index on Censorship)
– Bella Sankey (Policy director, Liberty)
Chair: Kirsty Brimelow (Doughty Street Chambers, Chairwoman of Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales
READ: Snowden leaks open up the great question of our age
11 Jul 13 | Events
Free speech, Mass Surveillance and Modern Media: how free are we and who decides?
Updating a status, tweeting a celebrity, Instagramming our breakfast- we all do it, but how much do you think about who is seeing what you put online? Social media is constantly hitting the headlines as people are arrested for posting a picture or sending a tweet without thinking of the real-life consequences. But should what happens online stay online? And can our governments ever be justified in reading our private messages in order to keep us safe?
If you want to discuss, argue or learn a bit more about these issues then join Index on Censorship and the Lewisham Youth Parliament and Young Mayor for, “Mass surveillance and modern media: who’s in control?”, to debate how our freedom of expression is being challenged by these developments in modern communication.
The event will be part debate and part workshop starting with a panel and Q&A session between Index on Censorship’s CEO, Kirsty Hughes and Philip Cowell, Head of Programmes at English PEN. It will be chaired by Index’s Head of Advocacy, Mike Harris. You will get to the chance to challenge our speakers on the key issues before breaking into workshop groups to discuss, and attempt to answer, some of the most problematic issues facing free speech online:
If we voluntarily put all our information online do we still deserve the right to privacy?
Where would you draw the line on offensive speech made on social media?
Do you mind our government reading your emails in the name of national security?
The event will be hosted at the Albany Theatre in Deptford Monday 22nd July from 5-7pm for young people between 14-20 years old. There is limited space so if you would like to take part in this exciting debate please email Fiona Bradley
[email protected] to reserve you place.
09 Jul 13 | Middle East and North Africa
Despite promising reform and introducing a new constitution in 2011, Morocco’s treatment of dissidents indicates the changes were just window dressing, Samia Errazzouki writes
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced a constitutional reform process during a 9 March 2011 speech, following popular protests organised by the 20 February Movement. Regime supporters and allies — France and the United States — hailed the move towards reform as “unprecedented.” Morocco was soon referred to as the “model for the region.”
But the government’s repression of freedom of expression has remained steadfast even after the new constitution.
Most recently, in March 2013 dissident rapperMouad Belghouat (alias El Haqed) was released from jail after he served his second, year-long prison sentence over his anti-regime lyrics, which were described as “undermining state authority.”
In February 2012, 18-year old Walid Bahomane was charged with “defaming Morocco’s sacred values” after he posted a caricature of Mohammed VI on Facebook. Even though he did not create the illustration, Bahomane was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for the act of sharing the image.
In the same month, Abdessamad Hidour, an activist with the 20 February Movement faced similar charges after a video of him criticising Mohammed VI was uploaded on Youtube. In the video, he likened Mohammed VI’s reign to colonialism and railed against his corrupt practices, landing him a three-year prison sentence.
These are only a few cases out of many that have drawn widespread attention over the nature of the charges as well as the expedited trials that landed all those charged in jail.
Morocco’s latest constitution supposedly grants the right to freedom of expression, but it still leaves room for repression.
The king stacked the constitutional reform deck by appointing the committee to undertake the work. The reforms introduced some liberalisation, but did not address demands for democratisation of the system. It’s an old trick dating to the 1960s when Morocco’s first constitution was drafted following its independence from France.
The latest version of the constitution incorporates human rights language and places greater attention on the legal protection of free speech, such as the following:
- Article 10 grants the opposition the “freedom of opinion, expression, and of assembly.”
- Article 25 states that “The freedoms of thought, of opinion and of expression under all their forms are guaranteed.”
- Article 28 addresses the press, “The freedom of the press is guaranteed and may not be limited by any form of prior censure.”
Out of context, these articles stand as testaments for what regime supporters describe as “landmark reforms.” However in scrutiny and in practice, these articles have proved to be futile. In Article 28, for example, immediately after stipulating the guarantee of freedom of the press, there is a caveat that leaves this article open to interpretation: “All have the right to express and to disseminate freely and within the sole limits expressly provided by the law, information, ideas, and opinion.” Immediately, “freedom of the press” is limited to a legal framework dictated by the regime and this interpretation has come into play in various recent trials where freedom of speech and press has been threatened, especially in instances when the monarchy has been the target of criticism.
The regime’s response to free speech cases following constitutional reform is swift and relatively consistent, indicating no clear break from its past policies. Despite these violations of freedom of expression, Moroccans continue to express their dissent in multiple media, from online publications to protests on the streets, indicating that the regime’s alleged “path toward reforming” is long and winding.
Samia Errazzouki is a Moroccan-American writer and co-editor of Jadaliyya’s Maghreb Page.
28 Jun 13 | Campaigns, Europe and Central Asia, Turkey Statements
Index on Censorship calls on the Turkish government to end its attempts to limit free speech as seen in its pressurising of journalists, criticism of social media commentary, and excessive violence in policing of recent protests.
The free speech organisation is very concerned at reports that the Turkish government has asked Twitter to set up an office in the country, allegedly to persuade the social media platform to remove tweets the government finds to be subversive or simply too critical. If true, this would be an extraordinary move.
Index CEO Kirsty Hughes said:
“The Turkish government appears increasingly unwilling to respect the fundamental rights of the Turkish people to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. The increasing political pressure from government combined with excessive violence in policing are undermining rights and threaten to seriously chill free speech through direct censorship and self-censorship. Without proper respect for free speech, there can be no effectively functioning democracy.”
Related
• Turkey losing its way on free speech
• Turkey’s Taksim Square cleared after violent clashes
• The EU must take action on Turkey
• “There is now a menace called Twitter”
