06 Aug 21 | Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Hong Kong, India, Opinion, Ruth's blog
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”117177″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]There are moments as you’re watching the news when it feels as if the world is becoming an increasingly horrible place, that totalitarianism is winning, and that violence is the acceptable norm. It’s all too easy to feel impotent as the horror becomes normalised and we move on from one devastating news cycle to the next.
This week alone, in the midst of the joy and heartbreak of the Olympics, we have seen the attempted forced removal of the Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya from Tokyo by Lukashenko’s regime. Behind the headlines, the impact on her family has been obvious – her husband has fled to Ukraine and will seek asylum with Krystina in Poland and there have been reports that even her grandparents have been visited by KGB agents in Belarus.
This served as a stark reminder, if we needed one, that Lukashenko is an authoritarian dictator who will stop at nothing to retain power. And this is happening today – in Europe. Our own former member of staff Andrei Aliaksandrau and his partner Irina have been detained for 206 days; Andrei faces up to 15 years in prison for treason; his alleged “crime” – to pay the fines of the protestors.
In Afghanistan, reports of Taliban incursions are now a regular feature of every news bulletin, with former translators who supported NATO troops being murdered as soon as they are found and media freedom in Taliban-controlled areas now non-existent. Six journalists have been killed this year, targeted by extremists, and reporters are being forced into hiding to survive. As the Voice of America reported last month: “The day the Taliban entered Balkh district, 20 km west of Mazar e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province last month, local radio station Nawbahar shuttered its doors and most of its journalists went into hiding. Within days the station started broadcasting again, but the programming was different. Rather than the regular line-up, Nawbahar was playing Islamist anthems and shows produced by the Taliban.”
Last Sunday, Myanmar’s military leader, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, declared himself Prime Minister and denounced Aung San Suu Kyi as she faces charges of sedition. Since the military coup in February over 930 have been killed by the regime including 75 children and there seems to be no end in sight as the military continue to clamp down on any democratic activity and journalists and activists are forced to flee.
At the beginning of this week Steve Vines, a veteran journalist who had plied his trade in Hong Kong since 1987, fled after warnings that pro-Beijing forces were coming for him. The following day celebrated artist Kacey Wong left Hong Kong for Taiwan after his name appeared in a state-owned newspaper – which Wong viewed as a ‘wanted list’ by the CCP. Over a year since the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong the ramifications are still being felt as dissent is crushed and people arrested for previously democratic acts, including Anthony Wong, a musician who was arrested this week for singing at an election rally in 2018. Dissent must be punished even if it was three years ago.
And then there is Kashmir… On 5 August 2019, Narendra Modi’s government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status for limited autonomy. Since that time residents inside Kashmir have lived under various levels of restrictions. Over 1,000 people are still believed to be in prison, detained since the initial lockdown began, including children. Reportedly 19 civilians have died so far this year caught in clashes between the Indian Army and militants. And on the ground journalists are struggling to report as access to communications fluctuates.
Violence and silence are the recurring themes.
Belarus, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Kashmir. These are just five places I have chosen to highlight this week. Appallingly, I could have chosen any of more than a dozen.
It would be easy to try and avoid these acts of violence. To turn off the news, to move onto the next article in the paper and push these awful events to the back of our mind. But we have a responsibility to know. To speak up. To stand with the oppressed.
Behind every story, every statistic, there is a person, a family, a friend, who is scared, who is grieving and in so many cases are inspiring us daily as they stand firm against the regimes that seek to silence them. Index stands with them and as ever we shine a spotlight on their stories – so that we can all bear witness.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][three_column_post title=”You may also want to read” category_id=”41669″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
13 Jul 21 | Afghanistan, Media Freedom, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”117075″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]I was on a conference call with my colleague Ajmal Omari a while ago when we were briefly interrupted by what seemed like static. The disruption was no more than the usual challenges of internet connectivity one faces while working in Afghanistan, and we continued our conversation.
After the call, Ajmal texted me to inform me that the “interruptions” were actually a number of BM-1 rockets hitting the neighbourhood of his office. While he and his colleagues survived the attack, there was considerable damage to their building and vehicles parked outside. For Ajmal, a dedicated, talented Afghan reporter and journalist, this was yet another close call.
Despite much progress in the area of free speech and expression, particularly in the years that followed the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is a high-risk country for the journalists who work here. The risk is exacerbated for local reporters who face threats not only from the insurgent groups, but also from the strongmen and war lords that have gained power and influence in the country over the last two decades.
The situation has worsened since the US-initiated political settlement in 2019. The eventual deal that the US administration struck with the Taliban in February 2020 saw the start of a new chapter in violence in Afghanistan, one that was more bloody than anything this generation of Afghans had experienced.
Targeted violence, much of it coming from an emboldened Taliban, saw a spike in assassinations of civil activists, government officials and Afghan journalists. According to Human Rights Watch, “Taliban commanders and fighters have engaged in a pattern of threats, intimidation, and violence against members of the media”. At least 11 Afghan journalists were killed in 2020, and five more have been murdered this year, four of them women. Many others, in the meanwhile, have had several “close calls” like the one Ajmal witnessed.
Several journalists who have faced threats are seeking safe spaces in other countries, while those who can’t leave find themselves displaced internally. Over the last year, I have met and interviewed many Afghan journalists who are on the constant move to be able to survive the threats they face in their provinces. The violent threats they face are not only inhuman, but also a major blow to the Afghanistan’s free press.
One such journalist is Habibullah Sarwary, who has worked as a journalist for a decade and half in one of the most dangerous, albeit vibrant, places on Earth. Sarwary, whose name I have changed to protect his identity, is now in exile from his home in southern Afghanistan.
“I have covered everything, from war to development; I have exposed corrupt warlords and documented the rise of insurgency in the country. I have also reported on the more beautiful side of Afghanistan and its culture. But now I am a marked man,” Sarwary told me. While Sarwary is no stranger to threats arising from his profession, the murder of a colleague at the hands of the insurgent group forced him to take the threats more seriously.
Today, Sarwary is a displaced man, seeking to go home to his family. “I can’t return because the Taliban leaders have threaten to kill me if I do. My family has tried to negotiate with them but they won’t let me return,” he said, talking from a safe house where he has been holed up for the past 10 months.
As the violence in the south, and across the country, worsens, Sarwary’s hope of returning home fades further. Aside from the mental stress and physical discomfort he faces, Sarwary is also out of a job. “The south was my turf, it is my home and I am most familiar with its issues. Here I can’t do any useful work or make money to support my family back home,” he said. “I have run out of savings, and am surviving on the kindness of friends,” he added, the sadness evident in his voice.
He hopes the warring parties are able negotiate a political settlement that could reduce the violence. However, he urges the Taliban to allow him to return to his home so he can document the historical changes taking place in Afghanistan. “I should be there right now telling the story of Afghanistan,” he said.
There seems to be next to no hope of improvement in the near future. In the last three months, the withdrawal of US and Nato forces has furthered invigorated the Taliban who have launched increased military attacks on many districts across the country. Afghan journalists are risking their lives to report on these violent developments and often get targeted by warring parties who do not always provide the press the immunity they should.
The situation is worse for women in media, who not only face threats from the insurgent but also from the fundamentalist elements in society who disapprove of them. A recent report by the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee (AJSC) revealed that over 300 women in media—18 per cent of the total number of the country’s female press—quit journalism in a span of six months in 2020, reducing an already small community to the fringes of extinction.
The AJSC report also noted that nine of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan did not have a single female journalist employed by a news service. In a country where many social spaces remain gender-segregated, lack of women’s presence in media essentially means that women’s voices, concerns and issues from these areas are excluded from the national debate and discussions, not very unlike the days of the Taliban regime.
Today, as the Taliban attempts to control more territory and destabilise the rest of the country, Afghan journalists are very concerned over the future of free media in the country—a celebrated gain of the last two decades. Afghan media houses that have flourished since the fall of the Taliban had thrived because of the relatively unregulated media landscape, providing a unique platform for Afghans to vocalise their political, social and cultural diversity.
Their future in the country now remains uncertain, especially in parts where the Taliban already has some control. The insurgent group has never been one to encourage free and inclusive speech, and has often used its military might to suppress vanguards of freedom of expression. In many places, media businesses have already restrained their operations; in other regions they are withdrawing investments. The eventual fall out of this is bound to impact the unbiased, unrestricted flow of critical information. The information blackout will in turn contribute to suppressing civic and social rights of the Afghans.
It has never been more clear than it is now, that increasing attacks on Afghan media are an attempt to trigger an intellectual blackout of an entire generation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
05 Mar 21 | Afghanistan, Burma, Opinion, Ruth's blog
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Ma Kyal Sin aka Deng Jia Xi aka Angel (photo: Facebook)
Everything will be OK…
I really hope it is. But this week has been heartbreaking and it’s been women who have featured in the news paying the ultimate price for their beliefs, as they have stood tall against tyrants, as they refused to be silenced, as they demanded their rights and their freedoms. Brave, inspirational women. Women who were doing their bit to make our world just a little bit fairer, a little freer, a little better informed.
It’s hard to read the headlines. Three women journalists murdered in Afghanistan. A teenager among the 38 dead in Myanmar.
But it’s even harder to think about the reality behind the headlines. Of the person no longer with us, of the family grieving and the friends who are scared. The only thing we can really offer them as they grieve is our support and solidarity. We must bear witness, we must tell their stories, so that the world knows what happened to their loved ones. Our job is to make sure that the tyrants (whoever they are) don’t win and that they are ultimately held accountable.
So, we must not forget them. We have a responsibility to celebrate their lives, to know who they were. We need to know their stories.
Ma Kyal Sin, was known to her friends and family as Angel. A dancer from a family who just wanted to live in a democratic state. A teenager wearing a t-shirt which said “Everything Will Be OK”.
On Wednesday, she was shot dead by the police on the streets of Myanmar, while on a peaceful protest. She was one of 38 who died this week protesting against the military coup.
Mursal Wahidi, 23. Mursal had just started her dream job, that of being a journalist at the local TV station in Eastern Afghanistan (along with Sadia and Shahnaz). She was gunned down as she left her office on Wednesday.
Sadia Sadat, 21, worked at the same station in the dubbing department. Sadia was on her way home in a rickshaw when she and her colleague, Shahnaz, were ambushed and killed by a gunman on Wednesday evening near their homes.
Shahnaz Raufi, 21, who had fought for her right to be educated and who dreamed of going to university was murdered with Sadia as they travelled home together on Wednesday. Islamic State have claimed responsibility of these assassinations of young women. Women determined to be part of a free press.
On Monday, we mark International Women’s Day. This year the theme is Choose to Challenge. These women chose to challenge the status quo. They chose to stand up for their rights. They chose to believe in a better future.
In their memory – for Angel, Mursal, Sadia and Shahnaz, we need to choose to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. And we need to choose to remember them as the inspirational women they so clearly were.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][three_column_post title=”You may also want to read” category_id=”41669″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
05 Mar 19 | Awards, News and features
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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.
Three decades of war have changed Afghanistan’s social fabric dramatically. Violence and pressure from groups ranging from terrorists to government forces to drug lords has stoked fear in the population, fuelling self-censorship. Journalists, activists and artists have been threatened and killed. The ArtLords themselves have been threatened and accused of being spies.
According to Reuters, “some city streets have been turned into concrete canyons”. The ArtLords, whose name is in opposition to the warlords and drug lords at the root of many of Afghanistan’s problems, have turned these walls into canvases. Recurrent themes painted by citizens include anti-corruption, women’s rights and polio eradication.
In their most famous artwork, called I See You, the group painted eyes on the walls of the National Directorate of Security as a warning to corrupt officials. The painting mysteriously disappeared a few days after being completed, sparking public outcry.
Another mural takes a dig at the rich and powerful, depicting a black SUV with its windows tinted, and reads “What are you carrying, that your windows are black? You don’t have a license plate and don’t stop for searches.” Other paintings celebrated women who died serving Afghanistan and victims of random violence.
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.
The team has been threatened many times – they’ve been accused of becoming infidels, being CIA spies, standing against Sharia Law. ArtLords have also been indirectly targeted by the government because of their attempts to call out corrupt officials – and the government has whitewashed at least one of their murals.
ArtLords has completed over 400 murals in 16 provinces of Afghanistan, partnering with NATO, UNICEF, embassies and being covered widely in Western media. In March 2018, for International Women’s Day, ArtLords painted a tribute to Professor Hamida Barmaki, a woman human rights defender killed in a terrorist attack six years ago.
ArtLords is also collaborating on murals with the support Canadian Embassy in Kabul, UNICEF and the National Endowment for Democracy on themes such as tolerance, empathy and respect.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104691″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1551800428751-ed837da4-cccd-5″ taxonomies=”26925″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
