22 Dec 22 | Magazine, Magazine Contents, Volume 51.04 Winter 2022
The winter issue of Index takes as its central theme the censorship of British royal history.
With the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II putting the UK under increased global scrutiny, Index looked at the battle to access royal archives.
Index spoke to historians, academics, and writers, and were surprised at the number of historic files on the Royal Family which are unavailable, and the absurdity of the reasons for denying access to some of them. We have one simple request: end this secretive culture by opening up official archives related to the Royal Family.
Up front
Royal secrecy has no place in a democracy by Jemimah Steinfeld: We need an end to the UK tradition of keeping royal archives secret.
The Index by Mark Frary: The latest news from the free speech frontlines. Big impact elections, stirring words from the sister of a jailed British-Egyptian activist and a note on billionaire social media takeovers
Features
Mexico’s truth stares down barrel of a gun, by Chris Havler-Barrett: An overreaching military tightens its firm grip in a country mired by violence.
The war the world forgot, by Jemimah Steinfeld: Inside the book exposing the raw truth of the ongoing war in Yemen.
A dissident hero, by Jo-Ann Mort: A journey back to the dissident foundations of Index, through Pavel Litvinov’s memories.
The truth is in the telling, by Kaya Genç: Who decides the limits of disinformation? In Turkey, the government wields the power.
Reaching for an emotional flak jacket, by Rachael Jolley: Trauma takes its toll on journalists, whose mental health is swept under the rug. But are times changing?
Bad seeds, by Vandana Shiva: In seed banks in India, farmers claw back control and give a voice to nature.
Singapore’s elastic band of a Public Order Act, by Kirsten Han: A threat of prison for peaceful protesters, unless you’re in with the right people.
Hong Kong’s valiants with a message for the world, by Yeung Willie Sau: Even in in the face of totalitarianism, the activist chronicling protesters’ journeys refuses to be silenced
Press under pressure, by Alessio Perrone: A new government threatens further erasure of media freedom in Italy – just don’t call them right-wing.
Radical timelines, by Lili Rutai, Mehran Bhat, and Muqeet Shah and Andrew Mambondiyani: A round-the-world tour of social media’s power to both platform and silence.
Tapestry of tyranny, by Katie Dancey-Downs: The embroidery collective stitching stories of Belarus’s political prisoners.
Special Report: Crown confidential
Crown confidential, by Martin Bright: An exclusive Index investigation into the extent Britain’s royals want to control their own story.
Secrets, lies and a costly legal battle, by Andrew Lownie: One historian’s hard fight to reveal the truth about the Mountbattens.
A royal reckoning, by Jenny Hocking: The Queen meddled in an Australian election and then meddled in the history.
Comment
Down with a disclaimer, by Marc Nash: The crowning glory of the argument against labelling art in the case of The Crown.
The Satanic Verses is the rude contrary of the authoritarian lie, Hanif Kureishi: A celebration of Salman Rushdie’s work and an unwavering stand against the spectre of fascism.
Jamaica needs to be a republic – now, by Roselea Hamilton: Support for the monarchy is fading on this commonwealth island.
Report first, talk later…, by Richard Sambrook: Has pressing emotional buttons become the driving force of news?
UK law risks criminalising the innocent, by Danny Shaw: The most draconian piece of legislation in years will kill protest.
Crowning glory, by Ben Jennings: Announcing the birth of a right royal cartoon.
Challenge the gatekeepers, by Ruth Anderson: We need a conversation about where lines are drawn and by whom.
Culture
Russia’s exiled author writes back: by Martin Bright and Zinovy Zinik: An exclusive new story from an author who escaped under the Iron Curtain.
The Unbeaten, by Jemimah Steinfeld: Unpacking samizdat success, writing from Ukraine and keeping creative spirit alive, over coffee with Andrey Kurkov.
The smile that says a thousand words, by Katie Dancey-Downs and Danson Kahyana: A Ugandan poet turns the trauma of an attack into an act of bravery.
Truth, down under, by Francis Clarke and Diane Fahey: Falling for fake news like lemmings off a cliff.
Last word, by Masih Alinejad: The Iranian activist on the growing protest movement and what book she’d read in prison.
14 Nov 22 | Italy, News and features
Tomorrow anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano stands trial for defaming the good name, if that it be, of Italy’s neo-fascist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, after he condemned her remarks calling for ships that sought to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean be sunk and the migrants left to drown. Saviano spoke out on a TV show in 2020 when an NGO rescue ship picked up 111 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean. But a six-month-old baby boy, originally from Guinea, drowned when the dinghy he was in capsized.
A clearly distressed Saviano said: “They’re bastards: Meloni, Salvini… How is it possible, given such despair? They have a legitimate policy which opposes receiving [migrants] – but surely not in the case of an emergency on the open sea?”
The trial has been widely seen as an attack on free speech and, yet again, raises questions about the ability of the far right to use Italy’s bizarre legal code to gag their critics. The case is even more fraught because Meloni was the leader of the ultra-right Brothers of Italy party then but is now also the country’s prime minister. If found guilty, Saviano faces a potential jail sentence. But the writer is no ordinary target. Since 2006 he has been under sentence of death from the Camorra, Naples’ number one crime organisation, after he published Gomorrah, a book that challenged the clan’s silent grip on much of southern Italy.
The title comes from anti-Camorra Catholic priest Giuseppe Diana in 1994, who was murdered for his courage: “The time has come to stop being a Gomorrah.”
Saviano faces calls from Meloni’s camp to cut his police protection. In plain English, by criticising Meloni he may end up being murdered by the very gangsters the writer says are in secret association with the far right. He faces a second trial for criticising Meloni’s coalition partner, Matteo Salvini, in the same TV interview: this case is already grinding its way through the courts.
Saviano told The Observer: “There was a dramatic, tragic shipwreck… A baby was drowned. But from Meloni and Salvini came ferocious and inhuman anti-migrant propaganda. In the light of this, and the libel charge, do you really think mine were such offensive words?”
PEN’s President Burhan Sonmez has written to the prime minister calling on her to drop the trial. He wrote: “Despite calls by Italy’s Constitutional Court to undertake a comprehensive review of criminal defamation laws, journalists and writers are still liable to prison sentences in case of defamation through the press. Criminal defamation lawsuits exhaust their victims. They rob them of their time, of their money, of their vital energy. Crucially, they are punitive and can lead to self-censorship and discourage the investigative journalism that is so necessary in a healthy and functioning democracy.”
Thus far there has been no response from the prime minister’s office to PEN’s letter but Meloni has given no signs of backing down. She said three days ago: “On that boat were migrants, not shipwrecked people. People boarded those ships in international waters … The ship that took them in its charge was equipped to accommodate them and provide for all their reception needs…The banana republic in which citizens are so vexed but which is so popular on the left is over.”
What the prime minister fails to realise is that, along with the case brought by her, Italy’s standing as a civilised democracy is on trial too.
30 Sep 22 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Burma, Hong Kong, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Opinion, Ruth's blog, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe
The last week has been unprecedented in global news – although I do feel that every time we see the word unprecedented to refer to current events we’re just tempting fate to make it even worse. Our news has been dominated by crucially important and life-changing stories – the economic turmoil in the UK; the impact of global inflation; the real-life effects of Hurricanes Fiona and Ian on the east coast of Canada and the USA; Putin’s annexation of four more Ukrainian territories; the election of the most right-wing prime minister since Mussolini in Italy and; the suspected nation-state-orchestrated sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. This has been a busy news week. But beyond the headlines there have been so many other stories, other crises, other issues that in a ‘normal’ week (if there is such a thing anymore) would have demanded our attention.
So this week – I want to do a round-up of what we’ve missed as the world has become an even scarier place for too many people. To remind us all of what else is happening in the world that we’ve missed as we have been glued to the news that is struggling to report on everything that has happened.
- At least 18 journalists have been arrested in Iran for daring to cover the protests which have followed the brutal death of Mehsa Amina, who was beaten by state officials for incorrectly wearing a hijab.
- Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was appointed the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia by his father, a move seemingly designed to give him an extra layer of legal protection in the ongoing lawsuits relating to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
- In an act of extraordinary self-sabotage which will undermine not only the British government’s global soft influence but will also significantly impact the promotion of real news and a free and fair media, the BBC World Service has announced deep cuts to their provision including ending Hindi, Arabic, Persian and Chinese radio services among others.
- Azerbaijan has launched an offensive into Armenia this month, with casualties reported on both sides. Although there is currently a ceasefire, the situation in Armenia looks bleak, with little international attention.
- Border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have taken nearly 100 lives, with 137,000 people forced to flee the fighting in a week that has marked the worst violence in the area for years.
- The former democratic leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, has had a further three years added to her detention in a closed trial – her total sentence is now 23 years. In addition one of her advisors, the Australian citizen Sean Turnell, has also been sentenced to a three-year prison sentence by the military junta.
- In Zimbabwe, author Tsitsi Dangarembga has been arrested and fined for protesting against the government in the latest sign of a government crackdown against dissent.
- In Hong Kong, a man who attended the British Consulate in order to mark the passing of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been arrested and charged with sedition for playing the British national anthem on his harmonica.
- A new report from Global Witness has highlighted the fact that an environmental activist is killed every two days while trying to prevent or expose aggressive forms of industry.
- In numerous states in the USA the impact of the end of Roe v Wade is now being felt. The University of Idaho has issued guidance informing faculty that they must remain neutral on issues relating to abortion or face dismissal – the rights afforded under academic freedom will not extend to this area.
- In the UK the Court of Appeal considered the case of the Colston 4 and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. The judgement is far from ideal – and removes the human rights defence for future similar acts.
These are just a few of the dozens of stories that many of us missed this week while the world is in turmoil. As ever the role of Index is to make sure that these stories and those of dissidents are not ignored or forgotten.
