Belarus: Press freedom violations April 2019

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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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#IndexAwards2019: Here’s what you need to know

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Each year, the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards gala honours courageous champions who fight for free speech around the world.

Drawn from more than 400 crowdsourced nominations, this year’s nominees include artists, journalists, campaigners and digital activists tackling censorship and fighting for freedom of expression. Many of the 15 shortlisted are regularly targeted by authorities or by criminal and extremist groups for their work: some face regular death threats, others criminal prosecution.

The gala takes place on Thursday 4 April in London and will be hosted by comedian Nish Kumar.

We will be live tweeting throughout the evening on @IndexCensorship. Get involved in the conversation using the hashtag #IndexAwards2019.

Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards nominees 2019

Arts

for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression

ArtLords | Afghanistan

ArtLords is a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan who encourage ordinary citizens, especially women and children, to paint the issues that concern them on so-called blast walls: walls the country’s rich and the powerful have built around themselves to protect them from violence while the poor fend for themselves. Their work has turned a symbol of fear, tension and separation into a platform where social issues can be expressed visually and discussed in the street. ArtLords has completed over 400 murals in 16 provinces of Afghanistan. In March 2018, for International Women’s Day, ArtLords painted a tribute to Professor Hamida Barmaki, a human rights defender killed in a terrorist attack six years ago.

Full profile

Zehra Doğan | Turkey

Released from prison on 24 February 2019, Zehra Doğan is a Kurdish painter and journalist who, during her imprisonment, was denied access to materials for her work. She painted with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and used newspapers and milk cartons as canvases. When she realised her reports from Turkey’s Kurdish region were being ignored by mainstream media, Doğan began painting the destruction in the town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media. For this she was arrested and imprisoned. During her imprisonment she refused to be silenced and continued to produce journalism and art. She collected and wrote stories about female political prisoners, reported on human rights abuses in prison, and painted despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.

Full profile

ElMadina for Performing and Digital Arts | Egypt

ElMadina is a group of artists and arts managers who combine art and protest by encouraging Egyptians to get involved in performances in public spaces, defying the country’s restrictive laws. ElMadina’s work encourages participation — through storytelling, dance and theatre — to transform public spaces and marginalised areas in Alexandria and beyond into thriving environments where people can freely express themselves. Their work encourages free expression in a country in which public space is shrinking under the weight of government distrust of the artistic sector. ElMadina also carry out advocacy and research work and provide a physical space for training programmes, residencies and performances.

Full profile

Ms Saffaa | Saudi Arabia / Australia

Ms Saffaa is a self-exiled Saudi street artist living in Australia who uses murals to highlight women’s rights and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. Collaborating with artists from around the world, she challenges Saudi authorities’ linear and limited narrative of women’s position in Saudi society and offers a counter-narrative through her art. Part of a new generation of Saudi activists who take to social media to spread ideas, Ms Saffaa’s work has acquired international reach. In November 2018, she collaborated with renowned American artist and writer Molly Crabapple on a mural celebrating murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that read, “We Saudis deserve better.”

Full profile

Campaigning

for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression

Cartoonists Rights Network International | United States / International

Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a small organisation with a big impact: monitoring threats and abuses against editorial cartoonists worldwide. Marshalling an impressive worldwide network, CRNI helps to focus international attention on cases in which cartoonists are persecuted and put pressure on the persecutors. CRNI tracks censorship, fines, penalties and physical intimidation – including of family members, assault, imprisonment and even assassinations. Once a threat is detected, CRNI often partners with other human rights organisations to maximise the pressure and impact of a campaign to protect the cartoonist and confront those who seek to censor political cartoonists.

Full profile

Institute for Media and Society | Nigeria

The Institute for Media and Society (IMS) is a Nigerian NGO that aims to improve the country’s media landscape by challenging government regulation and fostering the creation of community radio stations in rural areas at a time when local journalism globally is under threat. Three-quarters of television and radio stations in Nigeria are owned by politicians, and as a result they are divided along political lines, while rural communities are increasingly marginalised. IMS’s approach combines research and advocacy to challenge legal restrictions on the media as well as practical action to encourage Nigerians to use their voices, particularly via local radio. IMS also tracks violations of the rights of journalists in Nigeria.

Full profile

Media Rights Agenda | Nigeria

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) is a non-profit organisation that has spent the last two decades working to improve media freedom and freedom of expression in Nigeria by challenging the government in courts. While the constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, other laws – including the sections of the Criminal Code, the Cybercrimes Act and the Official Secrets Act – limit and even criminalise expression. Through its active legal team, MRA has initiated strategic litigation targeting dozens of institutions, politicians and officials to improve the country’s legal framework around media freedom. Its persistent campaigning and lawsuits on freedom of information have helped improve access to government-held data.

Full profile

P24 | Turkey

P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) is a civil society organisation that aims to neutralise censorship in Turkey — a country in which speaking freely courts fines, arrest and lengthy jail sentences. P24’s pro bono legal team defends journalists and academics who are on trial for exercising their right to free expression. It also undertakes coordinated social media and public advocacy work that includes live-tweeting from courtrooms and campaigning through an array of websites, newsletters and exhibition spaces. Its latest effort aims to provide spaces for collaboration and free expression in the form of a literature house and a project connecting lawyers and artists.

Full profile

Digital Activism

for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information

Fundación Karisma | Colombia

Fundación Karisma is a civil society organisation that challenges online trolls by using witty online ‘stamps’ that flag up internet abuse. It is an initiative that uses humour to draw attention to a serious problem: the growing online harassment of women in Colombia and its chilling effect. The organisation offers a rare space to discuss many issues at the intersection of human rights and technology in the country and then tackles them through a mix of research, advocacy and digital tools. Karisma’s “Sharing is not a crime” campaign supports open access to knowledge against the backdrop of Colombia’s restrictive copyright legislation.

Full profile

Mohammed Al-Maskati | Middle East

Mohammed al-Maskati is a digital security consultant who provides training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa. Working as Frontline Defenders’ Digital Protection Consultant for the MENA Region, Mohammed teaches activists – ranging from vulnerable minorities to renowned campaigners taking on whole governments – to communicate despite government attempts to shut them down. He educates them on the use of virtual private networks and how to avoid falling into phishing or malware traps, create safe passwords and keep accounts anonymous. As governments become more and more sophisticated in their attempts to track and crush dissent, the work of people like Al-Maskati is increasingly vital.

Full profile

SFLC.in | India

SFLC.in (Software Freedom Law Centre) tracks internet shutdowns in India, a crucial service in a country with the most online blackouts of any country in the world. The tracker was the first initiative of its kind in India and has quickly become the top source for journalists reporting on the issue. As well as charting the sharp increase in the number and frequency of shutdowns in the country, the organisation has a productive legal arm and brings together lawyers, policy analysts and technologists to fight for digital rights in the world’s second most populous country. It also provides training and pro-bono services to journalists, activists and comedians whose rights have been curtailed.

Full profile

Journalism

for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression

Bihus.info | Ukraine

Bihus.info is a group of independent investigative journalists in Ukraine who – despite threats and assaults – are fearlessly exposing the corruption of many Ukrainian officials. In the last two years alone, Bihus.info’s coverage has contributed to the opening of more than 100 legal cases against corrupt officials. Chasing money trails, murky real estate ownership and Russian passports, Bihus.info produces hard-hitting, in-depth TV reports for popular television programme, Nashi Hroshi (Our Money), which illuminates discrepancies between officials’ real wealth and their official income. One of the key objectives of the project is not just to inform, but to involve people in the fight against corruption by demonstrating how it affects their own well-being.

Full profile

Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) | Serbia

Investigating corruption is one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism: three investigative reporters have been murdered in the European Union in the past year alone. In Serbia, journalists face death threats and smear campaigns portray investigative journalists as foreign-backed propagandists. Against this backdrop, Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) stands out as one of the last independent outlets left amid an increasingly partisan media. Using freedom of information requests, the CINS has created databases based on thousands of pages of documents to underpin its hard-hitting investigations. These include stories on loans provided to pro-government tabloids and TV channels. CINS also provides hands-on investigative journalism training for journalists and editors.

Full profile

Mehman Huseynov | Azerbaijan

Mehman Huseynov is a journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, consistently ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom. Sentenced to two years in prison in March 2017 after describing abuses he had suffered at a police station, Huseynov has put his life in danger to document sensitive issues. His work circulated widely on the internet, informing citizens about the real estate and business empires of the country’s government officials, and scrutinising the decisions of president Ilham Aliyev. Before his release from prison in March 2019, Huseynov remained defiant, saying: “I am not here only for myself; I am here so that your children are not in my place tomorrow. If you uphold the judgement against me, you have no guarantees that you and your children will not be in my place tomorrow.”

Full profile

Mimi Mefo | Cameroon

Mimi Mefo is one of less than a handful of journalists working without fear or favour in Cameroon’s climate of repression and self-censorship. An award-winning broadcast journalist at private media house Equinoxe TV and Radio, Mefo was arrested in November 2018 after she published reports that the military was behind the death of an American missionary in the country. Mefo reports on the escalating violence in the country’s western regions, a conflict that has become known as the “Anglophone Crisis” and is a leading voice in exposing the harassment of other Cameroonian journalists, calling publicly for the release of those jailed.

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Thirty years on: the Salman Rushdie fatwa revisited

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Salman Rushdie. Credit: Fronteiras do Pensamento

Salman Rushdie. Credit: Fronteiras do Pensamento

On 14 February 1989 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to execute author Salman Rushdie over the publication of The Satanic Verses, along with anyone else involved with the novel.

Published in the UK in 1988 by Viking Penguin, the book was met with widespread protest by those who accused Rushdie of blasphemy and unbelief. Death threats and a $6 million bounty on the author’s head saw him take on a 24-hour armed guard under the British government’s protection programme.

The book was soon banned in a number of countries, from Bangladesh to Venezuela, and many died in protests against its publication, including on 24 February when 12 people lost their lives in a riot in Bombay, India. Explosions went off across the UK, including at Liberty’s department store, which had a Penguin bookshop inside, and the Penguin store in York.

Book store chains including Barnes and Noble stopped selling the book, and copies were burned across the UK, first in Bolton where 7,000 Muslims gathered on 2 December 1988, then in Bradford in January 1989. In May 1989 between 15,000 to 20,000 people gathered in Parliament Square in London to burn Rushdie in effigy.

In October 1993, William Nygaard, the novel’s Norwegian publisher, was shot three times outside his home in Oslo and seriously injured.

Rushdie came out of hiding after nine years, but as recently as February 2016, money has been raised to add to the fatwa, reminding the author that for many the Ayatollah’s ruling still stands.

Here, 30 years on, Index on Censorship magazine highlights key articles from its archives from before, during and after the issue of the fatwa, including two from Rushdie himself.


Cuba today, the March 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Cuba today, the March 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

World statement by the international committee for the defence of Salman Rushdie and his publishers

March 1989, vol. 18, issue 3

On 14 February the Ayatollah Khomeini called on all Muslims to seek out and execute Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, and all those involved in its publication. We, the undersigned, insofar as we defend the right to freedom of opinion and expression as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, declare that we also are involved in the publication. We are involved whether we approve the contents of the book or not. Nonetheless, we appreciate the distress the book has aroused and deeply regret the loss of life associated with the ensuing conflict.

Read the full article


Islam & human rights, the May 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Islam & human rights, the May 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Pandora’s box forced open

Amir Taheri

May 1989, vol. 18, issue 5

‘What Rushdie has done, as far as Muslim intellectuals are concerned, is to put their backs to the wall and force them to make the choice they have tried to avoid for so long’. Last year, when poor old Mr Manavi filled in his Penguin order form for 10 copies of Salman Rushdie’s third novel, The Satanic Verses, he could not have imagined that the book, described by its publishers as a reflection on the agonies of exile, would provoke one of the most bizarre diplomatic incidents in recent times. Mr Manavi had been selling Penguin books in Tehran for years. He had learned which authors to regard as safe and which ones to avoid at all costs.

Read the full article


Islam & human rights, the May 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Islam & human rights, the May 1989 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Jihad for freedom

Wole Soyinka

May 1989, vol. 18, issue 5

This statement is not, of course, addressed to the Ayatollah Khomeini who, except for a handful of fanatics, is easily diagnosed as a sick and dangerous man who has long forgotten the fundamental tenets of Islam. It is useful to address oneself, at this point, only to the real Islamic faithful who, in their hearts, recognise the awful truth about their erratic Imam and the threat he poses not only to the continuing acceptance of Islam among people of all religions and faiths but to the universal brotherhood of man, no matter the differing colorations of their piety. Will Salman Rushdie die? He shall not. But if he does, let the fanatic defenders of Khomeini’s brand of Islam understand this: The work for which he is now threatened will become a household icon within even the remnant lifetime of the Ayatollah. Writers, cineastes, dramatists will disseminate its contents in every known medium and in some new ones as yet unthought of.

Read the full article


South Africa after Apartheid, the April 1990 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

South Africa after Apartheid, the April 1990 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Reflections on an invalid fatwah

Amir Taheri

April 1990, vol. 19, issue 4

Broadly speaking, three predictions were made. The first was that Khomeini’s attempt at exporting terror might goad world public opinion into a keener understanding of Iran’s tragedy since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The fact that the Ayatollah had executed thousands of people, including many writers and poets since his seizure of power in Tehran had provoked only mild rebuke from Western governments and public opinion. With the fatwa against Rushdie, we thought the whole world would mobilise against the ayatollah, turning his regime into an international pariah. Nothing of the kind happened, of course, and only one country, Britain, closed its embassy in Tehran – and that because the mullahs decided to sever.diplomatic ties. In the past twelve months Federal Germany and France have increased their trade with the Islamic Republic to the tune of II and 19 per cent respectively. The EEC countries and Japan have, in the meantime, provided the Islamic Republic with loans exceeding £2,000 million. The stream of European and Japanese businessmen and diplomats visiting Tehran turned into a mini-flood after Khomeini’s death last June.

Read the full article


South Africa after Apartheid, the April 1990 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

South Africa after Apartheid, the April 1990 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Salman Rushdie and political expediency

Adel Darwish

April 1990, vol. 19, issue 4

When I reviewed Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses in September 1988, it never crossed my mind to make any reference to possible offence to Muslim readers, let alone to anticipate the unprecedented international crisis generated in the months that followed. I do not think I was naive – as an LBC radio reporter suggested when she interviewed me at the first public reading from The Satanic Verses in June 1989. On the contrary, I can claim more than many that I am able to understand what Mr Rushdie was trying to say in his book, and the way the crisis has developed. Like Mr Rushdie, I am a British writer, born to a Muslim family. Born in Egypt, I was educated and am employed in Britain, and have been preoccupied and engaged, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, with the issues that Mr Rushdie has fought for and with which he seemed to be very much concerned in his book.

Read the full article


Azerbaijan - February 1991

Azerbaijan, the February 1991 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

 

My decision

Salman Rushdie

February 1991, vol. 20, issue 2

A man’s spiritual choices are a matter of conscience, arrived at after deep. reflection and in the privacy of his heart. They are not easy matters to speak of publicly. I should like, however, to say something about my decision to affirm the two central tenets of Islam — the oneness of God and the genuineness of the prophecy of the Prophet Muhammad —and thus to enter into the body of Islam after a lifetime spent outside it. Although I come from a Muslim family background, I was never brought up as a believer, and was raised in an atmosphere of what is broadly known as secular humanism. I still have the deepest respect for these principles. However, as I think anyone who studies my work will accept, I have been engaging more and more with religious belief, its importance and power, ever since my first novel used the Sufi poem Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-din Attar as a model. The Satanic Verses itself, with its portrait of the conflicts between the material and spiritual worlds, is a mirror of the conflict within myself.

Read the full article


20th Anniversary: Reign of terror, the June 1992 issue of the Index on Censorship magazine.

20th Anniversary: Reign of terror, the June 1992 issue of the Index on Censorship magazine.

Offending the high priests

Gunter Grass

June 1992, vol. 21, issue 6

When George Orwell returned from Spain in 1937, he brought with him the manuscript of Homage to Catalonia. It reflected the experiences he had gathered during the Civil War. At first, he was unable to find a publisher because a multitude of influential, left-wing intellectuals had no wish to acknowledge its shocking observations. They did not want to accept the Stalinist terror, the systematic liquidation of anarchists, Trotskyists and left-wing socialists. Orwell himself only narrowly escaped this terror. His stark accusations contradicted a world image of a flawless Soviet Union fighting against Fascism. Orwell’s report, this onslaught of terrible reality, tarnished the picture-book dream of Good and Evil. A year later, a bourgeois Western publisher brought out Homage to Catalonia; in the areas of Communist rule, Orwell’s works – among them the bitter Spanish truth – were banned for half a century. The minister responsible for state security= in the German Democratic Republic, right to its end, was Erich Mielke. During the Spanish Civil War, he was a member of the Communist cadre to whom purge through liquidation became commonplace. A fighter for Spain with an extraordinary capacity for survival.

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Russia's choice, the November-December 1993 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Russia’s choice, the November-December 1993 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

The Rushdie affair: Outrage in Oslo

Hakon Harket

November 1993, vol. 22, issue 10

The terrorist state of Iran must face the consequences of refusing to lift the fatwa that condemns Salman Rushdie, and those associated with his work, to death. When someone, in accordance with the express order of the fatwa, attempts to murder one of the damned, the obvious consequence is that Iran must be held responsible for the crime it has called for, at least until there is conclusive proof that no connection exists. The shooting of William Nygaard has reminded the Norwegian public of what the Rushdie affair is really about: life and death; the abuse of religion; the fiction of a free mind. This war of terror against freedom of speech is not one we can afford to lose. Since the nightmare clearly will not disappear of its own accord, it must be engaged head-on.

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New censors, the March 1996 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

New censors, the March 1996 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

From Salman Rushdie

March 1996, vol. 25, issue 2

This statement is not, of course, addressed to the Ayatollah Khomeini who, except for a handful of fanatics, is easily diagnosed as a sick and dangerous man who has long forgotten the fundamental tenets of Islam. It is useful to address oneself, at this point, only to the real Islamic faithful who, in their hearts, recognise the awful truth about their erratic Imam and the threat he poses not only to the continuing acceptance of Islam among people of all religions and faiths but to the universal brotherhood of man, no matter the differing colorations of their piety. Will Salman Rushdie die? He shall not. But if he does, let the fanatic defenders of Khomeini’s brand of Islam understand this: The work for which he is now threatened will become a household icon within even the remnant lifetime of the Ayatollah. Writers, cineastes, dramatists will disseminate its contents in every known medium and in some new ones as yet unthought of.

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Shadow of the Fatwa

Kenan Malik

December 2008, vol. 37, issue 4

The Satanic Verses was, Salman Rushdie said in an interview before publication, a novel about ‘migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death’. It was also a satire on Islam, ‘a serious attempt’, in his words, ‘to write about religion and revelation from the point of view of a secular person’. For some that was unacceptable, turning the novel into ‘an inferior piece of hate literature’ as the British-Muslim philosopher Shabbir Akhtar put it. Within a month, The Satanic Verses had been banned in Rushdie’s native India, after protests from Islamic radicals. By the end of the year, protesters had burnt a copy of the novel on the streets of Bolton, in northern England. And then, on 14 February 1989, came the event that transformed the Rushdie affair – Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa.’I inform all zealous Muslims of the world,’ proclaimed Iran’s spiritual leader, ‘that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses – which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the prophet and the Quran – and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents are sentenced to death.’

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The right to publish

Peter Mayer

December 2008, vol. 37, issue 4

As publisher of The Satanic Verses, Peter Mayer was on the front line. He writes here for the first time about an unprecedented crisis:

Penguin published Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses six months before Ayatollah Khomeini issues his fatwa. When we decided to continue publishing the novel in the aftermath, extraordinary pressures were focused on our company, based on fears for the author’s life and for the lives of everyone at Penguin around the world. This extended from Penguin’s management to editorial, warehouse, transport, administrative staff, the personnel in our bookshops and many others. The long-term political implications of that early signal regarding free speech in culturally diverse societies were not yet apparent to many when the Ayatollah, speaking not only for Iran but, seemingly, for all of Islam, issued his religious proclaimation.

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Emblem of darkness

Bernard-Henri Lévy

December 2008, vol. 37, issue 4

As publisher of The Satanic Verses, Peter Mayer was on the front line. He writes here for the first time about an unprecedented crisis:

Salman Rushdie was not yet the great man of letters that he has since become. He and I are, though, pretty much the same age. We share a passion for India and Pakistan, as well as the uncommon privilege of having known and written about Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Rushdie in Shame; I in Les Indes Rouges), the father of Benazir, former prime minister of Pakistan, executed ten years earlier in 1979 by General Zia. I had been watching from a distance, with infinite curiosity, the trajectory of this almost exact contemporary. One day, in February 1989, at the end of the afternoon, as I sat in a cafe in the South of France, in Saint Paul de Vence, with the French actor Yves Montand, sipping an orangeade, I heard the news: Ayatollah Khomeini, himself with only a few months to live, had just issued a fatwa, in which he condemned as an apostate the author of The Satanic Verses and invited all Muslims the world over to carry out the sentence, without delay.

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Global champions of free expression: 2019 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards shortlist announced

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  • Judges include investigative journalist Maria Ressa, one of Time magazine’s people of the Year 2018; actor Khalid Abdalla
  • Shortlist celebrates artists, campaigners and activists from Saudi Arabia to Serbia, Colombia to Cameroon

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]A self-exiled Saudi street artist who uses murals to challenge her homeland’s repression of women, a Nigerian organisation that fosters community radio, a group of digital activists tackling online trolls in Colombia, and a Serbian collective of investigative journalists exposing government corruption are among the individuals and organisations shortlisted for the 2019 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowships.

Drawn from more than 400 crowdsourced nominations, the shortlist celebrates artists, writers, journalists and campaigners fighting for freedom of expression against immense obstacles. Many of the 15 shortlisted nominees face regular death threats, others criminal prosecution or exile. Some are currently in prison for daring to speak out against the status quo.

“Free speech is the cornerstone of a free society – and it’s under increasing threat worldwide. That’s why it’s more important than ever to recognise the groups and individuals willing to stand up for it,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of campaigning nonprofit Index on Censorship.

Awards fellowships are offered in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism and journalism.

Nominees include exiled street artist Ms. Saffaa whose murals highlight women’s rights and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia; Nigeria’s Institute for Media and Society, which goes to great lengths to improve the country’s media landscape by challenging government regulation and aiding the creation of community radio stations in rural areas; Colombia’s Fundación Karisma, which fights back against internet trolls and promotes freedom of expression online; and The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS), an independent group of investigative journalists exposing corruption in the country.

Other nominees include ArtLords, a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan; P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism), a civil society organisation with an ambitious goal of neutralising censorship in Turkey; Mohammed al-Maskati, a Bahraini activist and digital security consultant who provides digital security training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa; and Mehman Huseynov, an imprisoned journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

Judges for this year’s awards, now in its 19th year, are award-winning investigative journalist and Rappler.com Editor-in-Chief Maria Ressa, actor and filmmaker Khalid Abdalla, computer scientist and author Dr. Kate Devlin, and writer and social activist Nimco Ali.

Abdalla said: “The abyss we are facing all over the world requires acts of courage and intellect capable of changing the terms of how we think and respond to the challenges ahead. We have to celebrate those who inspire us and lead by example, not just because they have managed to break barriers in their own contexts, but because some part of what they do holds a key for us all.”

Winners, who will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on 4 April, become Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellows and are given year-long support for their work, including training in areas such as advocacy and communications.

“Many of the things that I dreamt of happening one day, in an idealistic way, have become reality, all thanks to Index,” Wendy Funes, 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Journalism Fellow, said. “Solidarity, love and friendship are really the things that can move this world, and that is what Index is made of with all of the support they have extended to me.”

This year, the Freedom of Expression Awards are being supported by sponsors including SAGE Publishing, Google, Private Internet Access, Edwardian Hotels, Vodafone, France Médias Mondes and Psiphon. Illustrations of the nominees were created by Sebastián Bravo Guerrero.

Notes for editors:

  • Index on Censorship is a UK-based non-profit organisation that publishes work by censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide.
  • More detail about each of the nominees is included below.
  • The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 4 April.

For more information, or to arrange interviews with any of those shortlisted, please contact Sean Gallagher on 0207 963 7262 or [email protected]. More biographical information and illustrations of the nominees are available at indexoncensorship.org/indexawards2019.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards nominees 2019″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

Arts

for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104530″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]ArtLords

Afghanistan

ArtLords is a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan who encourage ordinary citizens, especially women and children, to paint the issues that concern them on so-called blast walls: walls the country’s rich and the powerful have built around themselves to protect them from violence while the poor fend for themselves. Their work has turned a symbol of fear, tension and separation into a platform where social issues can be expressed visually and discussed in the street. ArtLords has completed over 400 murals in 16 provinces of Afghanistan. In March 2018, for International Women’s Day, ArtLords painted a tribute to Professor Hamida Barmaki, a human rights defender killed in a terrorist attack six years ago.

Zehra Doğan

Turkey

Zehra Doğan is an imprisoned Kurdish painter and journalist who — denied access to materials for her work — paints with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and uses newspapers and milk cartons as canvases. When she realised her reports from Turkey’s Kurdish region were being ignored by mainstream media, Doğan began painting the destruction in town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media. For this she was arrested and imprisoned. Imprisonment hasn’t stopped her from producing journalism and art. She collects and writes stories about female political prisoners, reports on human rights abuses in prison, and paints despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.

ElMadina for Performing and Digital Arts

Egypt

ElMadina is a group of artists and arts managers who combine art and protest by encouraging Egyptians to get involved in performances in public spaces, defying the country’s restrictive laws. ElMadina’s work encourages participation — through story-telling, dance and theatre — to transform public spaces and marginalised areas in Alexandria and beyond into thriving environments where people can freely express themselves. Their work encourages free expression in a country in which public space is shrinking under the weight of government distrust of the artistic sector. ElMadina also carry out advocacy and research work and provide a physical space for training programmes, residencies and performances.

Ms Saffaa

Saudi Arabia / Australia

Ms Saffaa is a self-exiled Saudi street artist living in Australia who uses murals to highlight women’s rights and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. Collaborating with artists from around the world, she challenges Saudi authorities’ linear and limited narrative of women’s position in Saudi society, and offers a counter narrative through her art. Part of a new generation of Saudi activists who take to social media to spread ideas, Ms Saffaa’s work has acquired international reach. In November 2018, she collaborated with renowned American artist and writer  Molly Crabapple on a mural celebrating murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that read, “We Saudis deserve better.” [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Campaigning

for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104531″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Cartoonists Rights Network International

United States / International

Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a small organisation with a big impact: monitoring threats and abuses against editorial cartoonists worldwide. Marshalling an impressive worldwide network, CRNI helps to focus international attention on cases in which cartoonists are persecuted and put pressure on the persecutors. CRNI tracks censorship, fines, penalties and physical intimidation – including of family members, assault, imprisonment, and even assassinations. Once a threat is detected, CRNI often partners with other human rights organisations to maximise the pressure and impact of a campaign to protect the cartoonist and confront those who seek to censor political cartoonists.

Institute for Media and Society

Nigeria

The Institute for Media and Society (IMS) is a Nigerian NGO that aims to improve the country’s media landscape by challenging government regulation and fostering the creation of community radio stations in rural areas at a time when local journalism globally is under threat. Three-quarters of television and radio stations in Nigeria are owned by politicians, and as a result they are divided along political lines, while rural communities are increasingly marginalised. IMS’s approach combines research and advocacy to challenge legal restrictions on the media as well as practical action to encourage Nigerians to use their voices, particularly via local radio. IMS also tracks violations of the rights of journalists in Nigeria.

Media Rights Agenda

Nigeria

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) is a non-profit organisation that has spent the last two decades working to improve media freedom and freedom of expression in Nigeria by challenging the government in courts. While the constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, other laws – including the sections of the Criminal Code, the Cybercrimes Act and the Official Secrets Act – limit and even criminalise expression. Through its active legal team, MRA has initiated strategic litigation targeting dozens of institutions, politicians and officials to improve the country’s legal framework around media freedom. Its persistent campaigning and lawsuits on freedom of information have helped improve access to government-held data.

P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism)

Turkey

P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) is a civil society organisation that aims to neutralise censorship in Turkey — a country in which speaking freely courts fines, arrest and lengthy jail sentences. P24’s pro bono legal team defends journalists and academics who are on trial for exercising their right to free expression. It also undertakes coordinated social media and public advocacy work that includes live-tweeting from courtrooms and campaigning through an array of websites, newsletters and exhibition spaces. Its latest effort aims to provide spaces for collaboration and free expression in the form of a literature house and a project connecting lawyers and artists. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Digital Activism

for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104532″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Fundación Karisma

Colombia

Fundación Karisma is a civil society organisation that takes on online trolls by using witty online ‘stamps’ that flag up internet abuse. It’s an initiative that uses humour to draw attention to a serious problem: the growing online harassment of women in Colombia and its chilling effect. The organisation offers a rare space to discuss many issues at the intersection of human rights and technology in the country and then tackles them through a mix of research, advocacy and digital tools. Karisma’s “Sharing is not a crime” campaign supports open access to knowledge against the backdrop of Colombia’s restrictive copyright legislation.

Mohammed Al-Maskati

Middle East

Mohammed al-Maskati is a digital security consultant who provides training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa. Working as Frontline Defenders’ Digital Protection Consultant for the MENA Region, Mohammed teaches activists – ranging from vulnerable minorities to renowned campaigners taking on whole governments – to communicate despite government attempt to shut them down. He educates them on the use of virtual private networks and how to avoid falling into phishing or malware traps, create safe passwords and keep accounts anonymous. As governments become more and more sophisticated in their attempts to track and crush dissent, the work of people like Al-Maskati is increasingly vital.

SFLC.in

India

SFLC.in (Software Freedom Law Centre) tracks internet shutdowns in India, a crucial service in a country with the most online blackouts of any country in the world. The tracker was the first initiative of its kind in India and has quickly become the top source for journalists reporting on the issue. As well as charting the sharp increase in the number and frequency of shutdowns in the country, the organisation has a productive legal arm and brings together lawyers, policy analysts and technologists to fight for digital rights in the world’s second most populous country. It also provides training and pro-bono services to journalists, activists and comedians whose rights have been curtailed.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Journalism

for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104534″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Bihus.info

Ukraine

Bihus.info is a group of  independent investigative journalists in Ukraine who – despite threats and assaults – are fearlessly exposing the corruption of many Ukrainian officials. In the last two years alone, Bihus.info’s coverage has contributed to the opening of more than 100 legal cases against corrupt officials. Chasing money trails, murky real estate ownership and Russian passports, Bihus.info produces hard-hitting, in-depth TV reports for popular television programme, Nashi Hroshi (Our Money), which illuminates discrepancies between officials’ real wealth and their official income. One of the key objectives of the project is not just to inform, but to involve people in the fight against corruption by demonstrating how it affects their own well-being.

Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS)

Serbia

Investigating corruption is one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism: three investigative reporters have been murdered in the European Union in the past year alone. In Serbia, journalists face death threats and smear campaigns portray investigative journalists as foreign-backed propagandists. Against this backdrop, Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) stands out as one of the last independent outlets left amid an increasingly partisan media. Using freedom of information requests, the CINS has created databases based on thousands of pages of documents to underpin its hard-hitting investigations. These include stories on loans provided to pro-government tabloids and TV channels. CINS also provides hands-on investigative journalism training for journalists and editors.

Mehman Huseynov

Azerbaijan

Mehman Huseynov is a journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, consistently ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom. Sentenced to two years in prison in March 2017 after describing abuses he had suffered at a police station, Huseynov has put his life in danger to document sensitive issues. His work circulated widely on the internet, informing citizens about the real estate and business empires of the country’s government officials, and scrutinising the decisions of president Ilham Aliyev. Huseynov is still in prison and remains defiant, saying: “I am not here only for myself; I am here so that your children are not in my place tomorrow. If you uphold the judgement against me, you have no guarantees that you and your children will not be in my place tomorrow.”

Mimi Mefo

Cameroon

Mimi Mefo is one of less than a handful journalists working without fear or favour in Cameroon’s climate of repression and self-censorship. An award-winning broadcast journalist and the first-ever woman editor-in-chief of private media house Equinoxe TV and Radio, Mefo was arrested in November 2018 after she published reports that the military was behind the death of an American missionary in the country. Mefo reports on the escalating violence in the country’s western regions, a conflict that has become known as the  “Anglophone Crisis” and is a leading voice in exposing the harassment of other Cameroonian journalists, calling publicly for the release of those jailed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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