28 May 2013 | In the News
AUSTRALIA
Photographers withdraw from Vivid over censorship claims
Two international photographers have withdrawn their works from an exhibition in Sydney in protest over what one has described as censorship. (ABC News)
AZERBAIJAN
In Azerbaijan, authorities use ‘Harlem Shake’ to silence activist
The recent arrest of Ilkin Rustamzadeh highlights how Azerbaijan’s authorities use trumped up charges to silence messages they are not comfortable with, blogger Ali Novruzov writes from Baku. (Index on Censorship)
CHINA
´Ai Weiwei´s work embodies freedom of speech´
The popularity of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei in the Netherlands is largely fueled by the Dutch love of art that hovers on the edge of acceptability. This commitment to pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression is evident in the exhibition FUCK OFF 2 which he’s curated and which opens at the Groninger Museum on Sunday. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
ISRAEL
Al-Jazeera draws fire over self-censorship
The Qatar-based al-Jazeera network has been criticized over its decision to remove a controversial article posted on its website amid claims the story was “anti-Jewish” in a seemingly self-censoring act. (YNet.com)
RUSSIA
Interpol Rebuffs Russia in Its Hunt for a Kremlin Critic
Interpol has rejected a Russian request for a worldwide police hunt for William F. Browder, a British investment banker and a Kremlin nemesis who has made no secret of his whereabouts or of his battle against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin over accusations of human rights abuses. (New York Times)
Russia: Gay Rights Activists Arrested At Rally
Dozens of activists at a gay pride march in Moscow have been arrested by Russian police. (Sky News)
TUNISIA
Tunisia’s ‘topless feminist’ faces jail for having pepper spray
The lawyer of a Tunisian woman who gained notoriety for posting online topless pictures of herself as a protest says she faces six months in prison for carrying a dangerous object. (AP via CBS47)
TURKEY
Turkey Kissing Protest Held In Subway As Couples Defy Ban On Public Displays Of Affection
Dozens of couples have locked lips at a subway stop in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, to protest subway authorities’ admonishment of a couple that kissed in public. (AP via Huffington Post)
Turkey takes important steps to end human rights violations
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said on Thursday that Turkey has made significant improvements in human rights, especially in freedom of expression. (Turkish Weekly)
UNITED KINGDOM
Speaker’s wife faces £150,000 bill for online libel
SPEAKER’S wife Sally Bercow faces a legal bill of £150,000 after losing a libel battle with Lord McAlpine yesterday over a tweet which falsely linked him to allegations of sex abuse. (The Daily Express)
Could “snooper’s charter” stop terror attacks?
Some UK politicians have said the murder of a soldier in Woolwich, London this week demonstrates the need for greater surveillance of communications data. But would a “snooper’s charter” really have made a difference? Index asked Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch and Jamie Bartlett of Demos for their views. (Index on Censorship)
UNITED STATES
Microsoft Disables Comments For Xbox One Videos Following Harsh Criticisms
Want to let Microsoft know how you feel about the Xbox One? You won’t be able to do it on the official YouTube videos. If you head to Microsoft’s official channel for the Xbox One, the comments for the videos have been aptly disabled. (Gaming Blend)
Attacks on the press should come as no surprise
Freedom of the press. It’s a bedrock of our Constitution, right there in the very first amendment. That means it’s one of the most important freedoms and rights guaranteed to this country, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, all interlocked and interdependent. (Marietta Times)
As UN’s Censorship Alliance Lashes Out from Anonymity, UN Does Nothing
UN scribes from Reuters, Bloomberg News, Voice of America, Agence France Presse and others on the board of the UN Correspondents Association tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN in 2012. In 2013 they have started anonymous social media accounts to falsely accuse Inner City Press of being funded by terrorists.
(Inner City Press)
21 May 2013 | In the News
AUSTRALIA
When does mission creep become censorship?
The sort of abuse of power we’re seeing out of ASIC is endemic to the regulatory state, argues Chris Berg. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is completely out of control. (The Drum)
AZERBAIJAN
Azerbaijan accused of restricting freedom of expression online
A group of Azerbaijani youths met in Baku city centre and made a Harlem Shake video, the dance that has become something off an online sensation in recent months. This video was uploaded in February and seems pretty harmless, no different from all the others doing the rounds on the web, and yet Ilkin Rustemzade may well go to prison. The opposition activist was arrested and charged with hooliganism for making this video. (France 24)
CHINA
Messaging app Line prepares the groundwork for censoring politically sensitive phrases in China
Earlier this year, Tencent-owned WeChat, a mobile messaging app with more than 300 million users, came under fire for censoring ‘sensitive’ topics that its users were discussing. Now, Line, a rival app developed in Japan which has 150 million users, is the next in line to pal up to the Chinese government and restrict the use of certain phrases on its service. (The Next Web)
EGYPT
US urges Egypt gov’t to defend political speech
The Obama administration is calling on the Egyptian government to rein in prosecutions of political expression amid what it called a “growing trend” of efforts to punish and deter people from speaking their mind. (AP via Post Bulletin)
FRANCE
‘Day Of Nude On Facebook’: French Users Protest Censorship With Bare-Skinned Photos
“Day of Nude on Facebook” — a French protest aimed at challenging Facebook’s unnecessary censorship of photos — backfired when the social media site took down the event page and suspended the accounts of some involved in the online demonstration. (Huffington Post)
JORDAN
Jordan premier: Arab Spring forces governments to widen press freedoms
The Arab Spring uprisings that toppled four Arab leaders have forced Mideast governments to allow more freedom of expression and of the press, Jordan’s prime minister said Monday, but critics charged that Jordan itself is not doing enough. (Washington Post
NEPAL
Libel charge at SC against press council
A libel case has been filed at the Supreme Court (SC) against the tri-monthly newssheet Sanhita published by Press Council.
Journalist Roshan Puri, Govinda Devkota and advocate Shree Krishna Subedi moved the court accusing that an article titled ‘Dai, JayaNepal, Comrade Abhinandan’ published in the Chaitra issue of the newssheet has slandered the petitioners. (Kantipur)
TUNISIA
Tunisian feminist arrested for ‘provocative’ appearance in holy city
A Tunisian feminist who scandalized her country by posting topless photos of herself online has been arrested after allegedly sneaking into Tunisia’s holiest city disguised in a veil, then trying to get undressed during a protest. (Washington Post)
UGANDA
Monitor offices under police siege
Police officers Monday searched Monitor offices, claiming they were looking for the Gen David Sejusa’s letter. The police later shut down the newspaper’s printing press and its sister FM radio stations – KFM and Dembe FM.Time Check, 11:15am and three fully packed police patrol vans stop outside Monitor offices. (Daily Monitor)
UNITED STATES
Fox News responds to ‘chilling’ DOJ investigation
Fox News has responded to a Justice Department probe of reporter James Rosen, reported by the Washington Post, that involved tracking his movements, phone calls and e-mails. (Washington Post)
Is A Facebook ‘Like’ Protected Under The Right to Free Speech?
Six former sheriff’s department employees who said they were fired in 2009 for “Liking” their boss’ political rival on Facebook appeared in Virginia federal appeals court this past week. (Opposing Views)
Column: Forced union dues violate free speech
Just as the government cannot stop you from supporting a political candidate, it cannot make you pay to support a candidate. The First Amendment protects both the right to support political causes and the right to not support them. But in California, that right is denied to hundreds of thousands of public school teachers who currently must pay exorbitant fees to bankroll the agenda of powerful teachers’ unions. (USA Today)
Attorney: Evansville man’s Twitter messages are protected free speech
The attorney for an Evansville man accused of making threats on the social media outlet Twitter is arguing the remarks are free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution. (CourierPress)
Movie studios send fraudulent censorship demands over Pirate Bay documentary
You’ll remember last month’s news that Fox had sent fraudulent takedown notices regarding my novel Homeland. This is hardly an isolated incident: the studios routinely exhibit depraved indifference to the inaccuracies in their automated censorship threats to search engines and webhosts. (Boing Boing)
US Supreme Court Accepts Religion Case: Will Legislative Prayer Survive Religious Censorship?
The case out of New York presents an opportunity for the US Supreme Court to bring needed clarity to Establishment Clause jurisprudence. I hope they do so. We have witnessed a growing governmental hostility toward religious faith and expression in the public square. (Catholic Online)
2 May 2013 | Middle East and North Africa
“Tunisians are clearly aware of the heavy responsibility they hold with regard to the future of democracy in the region. They do know that the entire world is watching carefully, that their success, or failure, will have a significant impact in the Arab world. It is here, indeed, that the democratic renewal of the Arab world is unfolding.”
— Journalist and human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine From the anthology, Fleeting Words, edited by Naziha Rjiba, published in cooperation with PEN Tunisia and Atlas Publications, with the support of Index on Censorship and IFEX.
(more…)
17 Apr 2013 | Newswire
Self-censorship has poisoned Russian media, art and other spheres.
In the past few years, criminal prosecution of artists and new laws have made it clear for those who criticise the Kremlin or Russian Orthodox Church in their creative work, will face consequences for portraying either of these institutions negatively.
A Russian artist came under fire for depicting members of Pussy Riot as religious icons
Just last week, the State Duma passed two controversial laws in the first hearing. One forbids obscene language in movies, books, TV, and radio during mass public events. The other stipulates criminal punishment — including five years in prison — for “insulting believers’ feelings”. Both laws, as far as human rights activists are concerned, limit artists’ freedom of expression, and encourage self-censorship.
Index spoke to three notable artists to find out how the art community deals with self-censorship, and the ever-increasing restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia.
Artyom Loskutov, an artist from Novosibirsk, is famous for holding “monstrations” — flash mobs with absurd slogans like “Tanya, don’t cry” and “Who’s there?”. In 2009, he was arrested on drug possession charges, but he claims that the marijuana was planted on him by police. A blood test proved that he had not taken any drugs, and his fingerprints were not found on the package. Three years on, he faced three administrative cases, and paid a 1000 rouble fine for creating icon-like images of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina and placing them on billboards. He was accused of insulting believers. He is currently appealing the court ruling in the European Court of Human Rights.
The artist told Index that the cases against him are acts of censorship, but vows to remain defiant and continue with his work:
The icons idea concerned two kinds of mothers: one mother is honoured as a saint, the two others — Tolokonnikova and Alekhina — were thrown in prison. The authorities, including the court, are becoming more insane, and one wouldn’t want to cause persecutions. But I can’t say that given that, I refuse to implement any of my plots. In the 90s my generation felt that we had nothing, except free speech, and all the 2000s attempts to take it away meet nothing but incomprehension
In 2010, The prosecutor’s office in Moscow’s Bassmany district examined the works of Moscow-based artist Lena Hades, “Chimera of Mysterious Russian Soul” and “Welcome to Russia”. Russian nationalists appealed to the authorities claiming these paintings insult Russians. The case did not go to court, but Hades told Index that Russian galleries feared exhibiting her paintings after the incident.
“Galleries are afraid of financial sanctions,” Hades says, “Although 95 per cent of my paintings are about philosophy rather than about social events, they are only exhibited in Tretyakov Gallery and Moscow Museum of Modern Art”.
Despite reduced chances of her work being exhibited, Hades still painted Pussy Riot’s members, and went on a 25-day hunger strike against their prosecution. The artist is no fan of self-censorship, even if it comes at a cost. According to her, no artist that responds to reality can accept self-censorship:
This is not courage, this is aristocratic luxury of doing what you want. Self-censorship is more harmful for a modern Russian artist than censorship. He is frightened of scaring away galleries and buyers and prefers to paint landscapes with cows — anything far enough from real social life
Artist Boris Zhutovsky has a long-standing relationship with censorship. In 1962, he was slammed by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who banned work by Zhutovsky and his colleagues. For several years following the incident, the artist faced difficulties in finding employment, and his work was not exhibited in the USSR.
Zhutovsky continues to court controversy today: in the past few years he has painted the trials of Russia’s most well-known political prisoners, businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who were first convicted in 2005. He explained Russia’s culture of self-censorship to Index:
Self-censorship is based on fear, and the amplitude of this fear has changed throughout my life. In the times of Stalin, it was the fear of the Gulag and execution. In the times of Khruschev it was the fear of loosing a job or a country – a person could be forced to leave the Soviet Union. After Perestroika the fear shrank, and now the fear which nourishes self-censorship is the fear to anger your boss
He is optimistic that a younger generation of artists will not accept self-censorship as a standard, as the the era of Putin is far from that of Stalin, but only time will tell.
