[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”113272″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/indexawards20live/”][vc_column_text]A Russian artist currently under house arrest for her work on gender and sexual equality and one of the first free investigative journalism and fact-checking websites in Poland are among the winners of the 2020 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards. The winners, who were announced today on Twitter as part of a digital gala hosted by BBC presenter Timandra Harkness, also include a prominent lawyer fighting for the release of activists and journalists unlawfully detained in Turkey, a Bahraini activist living in exile in the UK and an Arab non-profit promoting digital rights of Palestinians.
Awards were presented in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism and journalism. 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).
Selected from hundreds of nominations from across the globe – a list of some of the most inspiring and courageous individuals and organisations operating today – the winners of the awards represent those who have had a significant impact fighting censorship. Now celebrating their twentieth year, previous recipients of the awards include activist Malala Yousafzai, Chinese author Ma Jian and journalists Anna Politkovskaya, Rafael Marques de Morais and Mimi Mefo.
“Today we acknowledge the winners of the Index 2020 awards as amazing people who do amazing things, while overcoming incredible challenges in difficult times. They fight for freedom of expression when others can’t,” said Rachael Jolley and Matt Townsend from Index on Censorship.
“This is the 20th year of the Index on Censorship awards, and we would also like to mark the winners of the previous ceremonies here today. It’s a highly unusual ceremony this year. We were forced to move online at the last minute, but it has meant that people from across the globe can join us today in noting the work that our winners 7amleh, Veysel Ok, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Yulia Tsvetkova and OKO Press have done,” they added.
Each winner is now part of a year-long fellowship, which involves them working closely with Index who offer long-term, structured support. The goal is to help winners maximise their impact, broaden their support and ensure they can continue to excel at fighting censorship and free expression threats on the ground.
This year’s panel of judges included New York-based artist Molly Crabapple, award-winning Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman and Cindy Gallop, founder of social sex video platform MakeLoveNotPorn. Speaking on the awards, Gallop said:
“I am in awe of all of the candidates we were asked to review for these awards and just blown away by what they are doing around the world. And I am thrilled that the Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate that courage and those triumphs at a time when the need could not be greater.”
All of the winners spoke of how the awards had given them hope.
“It shows that our work has found support from the international community,” Ok said, while Nadim Nashif of 7amleh said the award would motivate them “to work more to advance digital rights and to achieve our vision of a safe, fair and free digital world”.
“The award pretty much reminds me that not everything is that bad. That there are still people who believe that [what I do] is important. For me, it changes pretty much everything. So thank you,” said Tsvetkova, who explained that over the last year she had received death threats and found it hard to focus on why what she was doing was important.
They also spoke about the greater challenges posed as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Alwadaei said:
“During the coronavirus crisis, I would like to pay tribute to those imprisoned in Bahrain for speaking out against the regime. This award is very special to me because my dear friend, Nabeel Rajab, was awarded this prize in 2012. Nabeel is currently serving 5 years in prison for criticising the government on Twitter.”
He added: “In these difficult times, it is more important than ever that freedom of speech is protected and that independent, critical voices are heard.”
But looking ahead OKO Press sounded a note of optimism:
“We believe the danger will wane, both epidemic and political. We will wake up in a healthier world.”[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”113163″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Winning in the Arts category was Yulia Tsvetkova, a Russian artist and activist promoting women’s well-being and LGBTQ awareness. Her work has brought about positive change in discussions towards body positivity and gender stereotypes in Russia. But this acclaim has also made her a target. In 2018 she began a campaign promoting body positivity which resulted in her being named a suspect in a criminal pornography distribution case. Tsvetkova, currently under house arrest, could face up to six years in prison if convicted. In March 2019, her youth arts festival was cancelled after officials accused Tsvetkova of illegally trying to hold a gay pride event under the guise of a youth theatre festival.
The award for Campaigning went to two individuals. The first is Veysel Ok. Ok is a prominent Turkish lawyer providing pro-bono legal support to journalists, activists and academics who have been subjected to intimidation, surveillance, smear campaigns and harassment. His work has been instrumental in the release of several unlawfully detained journalists and writers. Ok is one of the first to challenge the Turkish laws of accreditation which determine whether a journalist meets official requirements to do their job. As part of his work, he received a five month suspended sentence for criticising the independence of the Turkish judiciary. He has been subject to surveillance and harassment ever since.
The second winner in the Campaigning category is Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a Bahraini activist currently living in exile in the UK. He was forced to flee Bahrain in 2011 after being arrested for taking part in anti-government protests. The Bahraini government revoked his citizenship and launched a smear campaign labelling him a terrorist. As the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, his work has become a vital resource for international media and NGOs. One such case was the discovery that institutions supported by UK taxpayers have been implicated in torture and other human rights abuses. Despite the danger faced by him and his family, Alwadaei continues his work as a prominent critic of the Bahraini government.
The Journalism award and Digital Activism award both went to organisations doing invaluable work in the digital sphere. One of the first free investigative journalism and fact-checking websites in Poland, OKO Press picked up the journalism award. OKO investigate and evaluate statements made by politicians, monitor public spending and fight for access to public information. In so doing they’ve paved the way for other news sources to follow suit. This has contributed to a safer and stronger public sphere, fighting for immunity from government propaganda.
Their work also supports grassroots activism; crucial in Poland, a country which is sliding further and further into authoritarianism and censorship. Indeed, the environment in which they work is becoming increasingly hostile. Political polarisation, lack of transparency, suspicion, threats and withholding of information are common. In the face of this, OKO Press shows resilience and determination. As they said in their acceptance speech:
“We are honoured to receive the award, but also humbled but the fact that other nominees, from Hong Kong, Venezuela and Burundi are acting in much harder circumstances. Friends, we admire your courage, determination and quality of work.
Kaczyński is no Maduro, Nkurunziza, Putin, or Erdogan, but apparently he takes his inspiration from them. We are not a dictatorship yet, though we are close to the so-called electoral authoritarianism, where all forms of public scrutiny, besides the elections, are being suppressed.”
Finally, the Digital Activism award went to the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, or 7amleh as they’re known, a non-profit organisation focused on protecting the human rights of Palestinians in the online space. As Israel increases online monitoring, Palestinians are taking to social media to express disdain. 7amleh’s work protecting online safety and digital rights has been crucial. Through capacity building, research, advocacy and campaigning, 7amleh works to ensure that policies and companies are complying with human rights and are working towards greater accountability. Their campaign work with NGOs has seen huge numbers of participants. They’ve worked towards amendments in the Palestinian Authority’s Cybercrimes Law, the development of the first Arabic Digital Security Manual and digital training being implemented into the Palestinian education system.
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“Music gives me a voice and the power to survive physically and mentally,” rapper Khaled Harara tells Index on Censorship.
In 2003, 16-year-old Harara was a refugee living in Gaza. The Israeli occupation of the territory was in full force. Food was in short supply due to a lack of aid shipments. Then US president George W. Bush pledged a “personal commitment” to peace between Israel and Palestine. A new Palestinian prime minister was appointed. There were peace talks and a 7-week ceasefire, but they were disrupted by the killing of a senior Hamas leader. Throughout everything, there were reports of more suicide bombings and Israeli invasions.
Driven by the chaos around him, Harara began rapping to reflect his feelings and thoughts.
As one of the first rappers in Gaza city, he says the music gave him a unique place in society.
Rap “gave me a character, not just only a number like many people living inside the community suffering from occupation and unlivable circumstances,” he said.
Harara’s music revolves around the political situation in Palestine. He often criticises the lack of freedom of expression and the suffering of Palestinians under Hamas rule.
His activism didn’t go unnoticed. Harara’s group, Palestinian Unit, was banned by the Hamas government, along with hip hop workshops that he organised for Palestinian youth.
Because of his involvement with the Palestine Liberation Organsation before Hamas came to power in 2006, and his outspoken music, Harara was detained and jailed by the government on multiple occasions.
In 2013, Harara was able to relocate to Denmark and later Sweden, where he has been based ever since.
Despite being away, he’s still been involved in efforts back home. Using his experiences living in Gaza, Harara helped design and manage the Zouqaq project, which supports musicians in Gaza city so they can continue to make music. The project, begun in 2016 by a friend of Harara, also focused on training them to become music teachers and coaches. Harara developed the strategy for going into Gaza and implementing the initiative, and the team also built small studios inside schools using equipment from outside of Gaza.
The project, funded by the Swedish Postcode Lottery, was designed for conflict areas. He studied the risks in the area and focused on how to support artists and musicians directly without an on-the-ground organisation.
As part of the analysis Harara conducted, a Swedish journalist and colleague of his spoke with the cultural ministry and the education ministry in Gaza to ask them if they could begin sound engineering workshops in schools to teach music to hundreds of Palestinian children. Hamas more or less accepted, but UNWRA, which also operates schools in Gaza, did not.
Harara is also working on developing a cultural toolkit for other conflict areas to help organisations and individuals in those countries start effective and sustainable cultural initiatives like the Zouqaq project.
Leah Asmelash from Index on Censorship spoke with Harara about his music and the current situation in Gaza.
Index: Hamas considers you an enemy of the state and banned both your hip hop workshops and your music. What was your reaction to that?
Harara: I think Hamas considers anyone who doesn’t agree with their ideology an enemy of the state, and, to be honest, when Hamas banned the workshops that didn’t surprise us. They banned all the cultural activities that didn’t serve their cause. Hamas’ actions taught us how to work with different strategies to keep our music alive, and that gave me the experience I needed to now work in cultural project management in conflict areas.
In 2016 I launched the Zouqaq project to support music and culture in conflict areas, specifically in Gaza. It was a big success.
Working with culture in conflict areas gave me the experience I needed to understand and work with refugees that come to Europe. I am able to use culture and music as an integration tool and give them a way to communicate with the new community.
Index: Before Hamas took over, you were a soldier with the PLO forces. What was your experience like and how did that influence your music?
Harara: It’s a difficult question, and I do not know how to answer it in just a few short lines.
The most important lessons l learned at that time were that your true friend is the weapon you hold in your hands and that you should only trust your fellow soldier who is standing next to you at the checkpoint. I learned to never trust high-ranking officers, who sit in the office and give us orders to die defending our positions, while they get higher military ranks after our deaths.
I also learned not to trust politicians, no matter how much they pretend to love the country.
All these lessons opened my eyes to the bitter reality we live in Gaza, and that’s what I talk about in many of my songs.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/arSHRKBXOxU”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index: What was the tipping point when you knew you had to leave Gaza?
Harara: The tipping point happened when I lost hope of change in the situation of Gaza. I felt very frustrated in my country, like all the young people who suffer there.
The music was my hope, but it was the cause of my suffering as well. The community was against me because of the Western music that I make and the government was against me because of my political lyrics. My parents were against my music because they thought it was a waste of time and money, and that I should get a real job.
I felt that Gaza was too small for me and for my dreams. I felt helpless there. I had no choice but to leave.
Index: How has your move to Denmark impacted your work? How do you keep up to date with news in Gaza?
Harara: Moving to Denmark impacted my work because of the level of freedom of speech there. Also I improved my musical skills by working with several Danish and European musicians. In general my life turned upside down when I decided to live in Europe.
I have learned a lot about life differently. I have worked in many European countries in the field of music, and I have the chance to speak out loud about the suffering of artists in conflict areas.
I have been living in Sweden for the last five years, after I got accepted by the ICORN organisation for a 2-year scholarship. This scholarship has grown my abilities and put me on the right path to continue my work. I formed a big network of friends and people who work in the cultural and musical field.
I get updated about Gaza by following the daily news and being in contact with friends and relatives there.
Index: How popular is hip hop in Gaza? Why do you think Hamas saw your rapping as dangerous?
Harara: Hip hop is still not very popular in Gaza, but I hope by my work and the others’ work we will change that. We hope to open a university in Gaza for this music and all types of modern art and music.
Hamas sees any cultural activity not compatible with their political views as a danger, threatening their control or breaking the fear walls that they built around the community. My lyrics criticised their behaviour, and therefore my music was seen as a threat.
Index: How does the situation in Gaza shape the art people are making, and how have you seen it change?
Harara: Living under occupation gives artists solid material to shape their art. Artists get inspired by the daily problems and obstacles they face, and art gives them an area where they can discharge all their feelings and get strength to keep going.
Art is a mirror reflecting reality and everything happening in reality reflects in art. Every fluctuation in the Gaza situation is thus reflected in the art people produce.
Index encourages an environment in which artists and arts organisations can challenge the status quo, speak out on sensitive issues and tackle taboos.
Index currently runs workshops in the UK, publishes case studies about artistic censorship, and has produced guidance for artists on laws related to artistic freedom in England and Wales.
Learn more about our work defending artistic freedom.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1540979137842-f7d520ea-14c7-9″ taxonomies=”15469″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The killings of at least 40 unarmed Palestinian protesters by Israel Defense Forces marks a grave and horrendous assault on the right to protest. Reports say more than 1,700 people, including journalists, have been injured.
Index on Censorship demands the Israeli government halt its aggression toward the Great March of Return protesters and immediately take steps to deescalate the situation.
“We call on the Israeli authorities to commit to upholding the international agreements they are party to — specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — that uphold the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and the right to life. This is a dark day for the state of Israel and its standing in the world,” Rachael Jolley, Editor, Index on Censorship said.
Monday’s killings follow months of protests that began in March by Palestinians to highlight the loss of homes in the wake of founding of the state of Israel. In addition to the killing of at 40 protesters, photojournalists Yaser Murtaja and Ahmad Abu Hussein were killed covering the demonstrations before the 14 May bloodshed.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/WzJkJikmYe8″][vc_column_text]Abbad Yahya is a 29-year-old Palestinian novelist whose fourth novel Crime in Ramallah was banned by the Palestinian authority in the West Bank in 2017. The novel includes depictions of gay sex, as well as political commentary about fanaticism and religious extremism — subjects largely considered taboo in the region. All copies of the book were confiscated by the attorney general in February this year, on the grounds it contained texts that threatened public decency.
When the controversy arose, Yahya was abroad in Qatar. He was so afraid for his life that he did not to go back to his native Ramallah and spent time in other countries in the Middle East and Europe. Threats were issued to him and his family via social media and copies of the book burnt on the Gaza strip. The Public Prosecutor issued a summons for questioning against Yahya and detained the distributor of the novel.
Despite this, Yahya has spent the last year giving interviews to the international and Arab press and raising awareness of freedom of expression and the lives of young people in the West Bank and Gaza, particularly in relation to their sexuality.
“In my point of view, the most important impact of all of this, was raising the awareness amongst the youth and their decisions that are related to their sexual lives, as well as making a public discussion about the issue,” says Yahya.
Crime in Ramallah follows the lives of three young Palestinian men and the different ways they cope with living in the claustrophobic society of Ramallah. The passage in the novel most cited as causing outrage is when one of the characters sees a picture of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with a gun and imagines it as a penis.
The novel was criticised by some of Yahya’s own colleagues. According to AP, the head of the Palestinian Writers Union, Murad Sudani, said it was a: “silly novel that violates the national and religious values of the society in order to appease the West and win prizes.”
“The job of the writer in our occupied country is to raise the hope and enlighten people — not to break the national and religious symbols,” Sudani added. “My freedom as a writer ends when the freedom of the country begins.”
But Yahya does not agree. “Censors proclaim themselves to be the representatives of the public and their opinion, while present us as an obscure minority, insignificant in its voice and influence,” Yahya tells Index on Censorship. “This nomination proves the exact opposite, as it comes as a recognition of what we do and the things we stand for, and a proof that our voice is indeed heard. Freedom is contagious, and being one of the nominees strengthens my unshakable conviction in the ideals of freedom and freedom of expression.
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“The job of the writer in our occupied country is to raise the hope and enlighten people — not to break the national and religious symbols,” Sudani added. “My freedom as a writer ends when the freedom of the country begins.”