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Index celebrate the 20th year of their awards with an online ceremony hosted by BBC journalist Timandra Harkness. The winners are Russian artist Yulia Tsvetkova (arts); Turkish lawyer Veysel Ok and Bahraini activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei (campaigning); Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, also known as 7amleh (digital activism); and OKO Press (journalism).
The United States’ history of protecting free expression and defending and protecting the rights of journalists is much admired beyond U.S. borders. This is born out of a recognition that journalists serve as independent monitors of social and political developments, and are essential to democracy, transparency, and accountability.
Attacks on journalists in the U.S. threaten to undermine this commitment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has received reports of at least 320 violations of press freedom across the country since protests demanding an end to police brutality and calling for social justice broke out on May 26. It is vital that state and local government officials take steps to ensure such violations never happen again, and that the perpetrators are held to account.
We call on you to send a clear and unambiguous message across the country and around the world about the importance of the press freedom and work of the press. Local leaders need to hear unambiguously from you that they have a responsibility to fully investigate these attacks, protect journalists, and ensure that they can work unobstructed and without fear of injury or reprisal.
Press freedom in the United States is critical to people around the world. Thousands of foreign correspondents are based in Washington D.C. and throughout the U.S., where they are tasked with telling the story of America to their publics back home. The ability of journalists to work freely in the U.S. creates a more enlightened global citizenry.
What happens in the United States also has repercussions for journalists around the world, including American correspondents. When the U.S. backslides it sends a green light to authoritarian-leaning leaders around the world to restrict the press and the free flow of information.
Authoritarian regimes in China, Iran, and Turkey have already opportunistically spoken out about the heavy-handed police tactics used here, using the crackdown on the press in this country to legitimize their own repression of independent journalism.
Instead of condemning journalists and the media, we urge you to commend and celebrate them as the embodiment of the First Amendment, which is the envy of so many countries around the world.
Sincerely,
Acclaim Nigeria Magazine (ANM)
Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC)
Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) Indonesia
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ)
ARTICLE 19
Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (Abraji)
Association for International Broadcasting
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
Bytes 4 All
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)
Canadian Media Lawyers’ Association
Cartoonist Rights Network International (CRNI)
Centre for Law and Democracy
Centre for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP)
Committee to Protect Journalists
Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE)
DW Akademie
Free Media Movement – Sri Lanka
Free Press Unlimited
Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI)
Fundación Gabo (Gabriel García Márquez Foundation)
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP)
Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)
Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN)
Global Voices
Hong Kong Journalists Association
Independent Journalism Center
Independent Journalism Center (IJC)
Index on Censorship
Initiative for Freedom of Expression – Turkey (IFoX)
INSI – international News Safety Institute
Institute for Regional Media and Information
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad Venezuela
International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)
International Federation of Journalists
International Media Development Advisers (IMDA)
International Media Support (IMS)
International Press Institute
International Women’s Media Foundation
Internews
Media Focus International (MFI)
Media Foundation for West Africa
Media Institute Southern Africa – Zimbabwe
Media Matters for Democracy (MMFD)
Media Watch
Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)
Metamorphosis Foundation
Newsgain
Norwegian PEN
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)
Pacific Islands News Association (PINA)
Pakistan Press Foundation
Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)
PEN America
PEN International
Press Union of Liberia
Project Syndicate
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Reporters Without Borders
Rory Peck Trust
Rural Media Network Pakistan
Samir Kassir Foundation – SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom
SembraMedia
Social Media Exchange (SMEX)
Somali Media Women Association (SOMWA).
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM)
The Center for Independent Journalism, Romania
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)
CC:
Vice President Michael R. Pence
Kayleigh McEnany, White House Press Secretary Ambassador
Kelly Craft, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
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Index welcomes the news that Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been freed from prison. Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award winner in 2012, had been held since 2016 and convicted of offences including “spreading fake news”.
Rajab had tweeted about torture in Bahrain’s jails and had criticised the war in Yemen. As Index wrote during one of his many appeals: “Those are not crimes. Opinions are not crimes.”
Rajab has suffered relentless harassment since his involvement as a peaceful activist during the Bahrain uprising in 2011, during which he was in and out of prison on numerous occasions. He was then in prison on a continual basis from June 2016, and was sentenced in all to seven years in prison across two separate trials. In February 2018 he was sentenced to five years in prison for tweeting, which was added to a two-year conviction in June 2017 for “broadcasting fake news” relating to television interviews he gave in 2015.
On Tuesday, Rajab’s lawyer said he would serve the remainder of his sentence in a non-custodial setting.
“This is amazing news. Index on Censorship has been pushing for this for a long time,” said Rachael Jolley, editor-in-chief at Index.
But while we welcome news of his release and reunion with his family, we still demand that all charges are dropped against Rajab, as well as all others who are imprisoned in Bahrain simply for their views and advocacy.
This year, one of the co-winners of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Campaigning category was Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a Bahraini activist currently living in exile in the UK who is the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. As Alwadaei said when accepting the award in April:
“The price for expressing yourself in Bahrain remains very high. I myself ended up in prison for speaking to the press during the Arab Spring.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
As part of the Freedom of Expression fellowship week, we’ve become used to working with individuals or organisations who cannot get to London. Individuals who are imprisoned, for example, or those who have had their travel restricted. But this year’s global lockdown presented challenges on a different scale. As a result we did our first ever digital fellowship week.
“Because the fellows were not physically together, it has been harder to find times to work for everyone. Most fellows have internet access so we can keep in contact but communication can be difficult,” said Leah Cross, Index’s senior events and partnership manager, speaking about the challenges of creating the first online fellowship week for the winners of the Index 20th Freedom of Expression awards.
“It was a shame not to meet them in person but everyone has been quite flexible,“ she added.
This year more than ever, we have recognised that our Freedom of Expression Awards are not just about a single night in a London hotel. The coronavirus crisis meant we had to hold the awards ceremony online in mid-April rather than at The May Fair hotel but, in fact, even in other years when a physical awards ceremony was possible, the awards are more than just the symbolic handing over of a prize.
“We usually plan a week of activity including workshops, meetings with partners and other fellows and radio interviews. This year, the awards ceremony itself was held online and we have done the same with the fellows week,” said Cross.
In any normal year, the ceremony is just the central focus of a wider range of activities of awards week. All of the award winners become part of the Index Freedom of Expression Awards fellowship which celebrates individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world. Index works with the winners to provide longer-term assistance to help fellows maximise their impact and broaden their networks.
Cross said: “Despite the challenges, we are committed to working with the fellows throughout the year.”
This has meant using video-conferencing technology such as Zoom and Google Hangouts, as shown above.
The workshops last two to three hours and cover a range of practical skills that fellows can use as they widen their reach and continue their important work.
“The workshop topics are intentionally quite broad,” says Cross. “A few years ago, Index settled on digital security, business development and communications and branding as they are quite versatile and can be relevant to all the different fellows.”
This year things have been a little different, said Cross, “Because the fellows were not physically together, it has been harder to find times to work for everyone. Most fellows have internet access so we can keep in contact but communication can be difficult.”
She added, “Some of our fellows have been called away for professional commitments and, in some cases, to take part in ongoing legal battles. They are obviously doing incredibly important work.”
This week the fellows have participated in two workshops online: one on communications and branding led by freelance workshop leader Helen Walton and the other on business development led by Charlie Dawson at management consultancy The Foundation.
In the first, fellows chose between two exercises: a brand key exercise for establishing fellows’ product and brand, customer/audience and key things to communicate; or a strategic exercise to think holistically about individual strengths and weaknesses and how they match to what is happening in the environment in which the fellow operates. They then work through individual goals in a one-to-one session with the instructor.
Cross said: “The brand and communications workshop helps fellows crystalise their brand as much possible and let them identify what audiences they want to reach. Many fellows are known only in their own countries and need to gain interest from other parts of the world. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, one of the two campaigning fellows this year, works exclusively with Bahrain, for example. It is important for him to know there is an awareness around what he is doing. This workshop also gives fellows an opportunity to tell their personal stories. Yulia Tsvetkova, our arts fellow, found that incredibly helpful.”
In the second workshop, the aim is to look at how to raise funding and awareness; develop business sustainability, growing and networking; and improve international networks. It helps them establish what they need from external audiences – what they value and what matters to them, the problems they need to solve or the outcomes they want
The fellows will also take part in a digital security workshop led by open source personal virtual private network service Private Internet Access.
The value of the extended support fellow receive is clear from the feedback Index has received in previous years. Mimi Mefo, the 2019 journalism fellow, says, “It was an amazing and inspiring week. It was not just about the award, it was about building this strong bond we have today and sharing our experiences.”
Terry Anderson of Cartoonists Rights Network International, the 2019 campaigning fellow, said taking part in the week last year was “humbling, enlightening and energising in equal measure”.
Cross said, “The fellowship is hugely valuable and it is a real privilege to work with people who are doing such incredible work while facing threats such as imprisonment and torture. They show incredible courage in what they are doing and we are looking forward to seeing what support they need through the year and using Index’s network to help them in any way we can.”
Find out about all the 2020 fellows here.