30 Jan 13 | Uncategorized
A former CIA officer was sentenced on 25 January to more than two years in prison for leaking official information to the media. John Kiriakou had released the name of a covert officer to a reporter in 2007 in media interviews which were among the first to confirm the waterboarding of detainees, including al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah. Defenders say the former officer acted as a whistleblower to the CIA’s use of torture to interrogate detained terrorists, whilst prosecutors said his intention was purely to gain fame and status. He pleaded guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 2012, the first conviction under the law in 27 years. Kiriakou was initially charged under the World War I-era Espionage Act but swapped charges in a plea deal. The deal meant US district judge Leonie Brinkema was restricted to imposing a two and a half year sentence — which she said she would have extended if she could.
Poster for the play Behzti – Gurpreet Bhatti has faced censorship of another play by the BBC
Human rights defender Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested in Egypt on 29 January for allegedly defaming a judge. The political activist and 2012 Index on Censorship awards nominee was released on bail by Judge Tharwat Hammad on Tuesday, as part of a wider investigation into allegations against private satellite channels. Charges have been filed by 1,164 judges, who complained that TV station workers had invited guests on air who had criticised the judiciary. Abdel Fattah was charged with incitement against the military in October 2011 during the Maspero demonstrations in which 27 protestors were killed.
Playwright Gurpreet Bhatti said that her play scheduled for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 1 February has had lines removed from the script. During Index on Censorship’s arts conference Taking the Offensive at the Southbank Centre on 29 January, Bhatti told attendees that her play Heart of Darkness had been altered by broadcasters. The episode, due to be played on the Afternoon Drama slot, followed the investigation into the honour killing of a 16 year old Asian girl – a case investigators are told to handle sensitively because of her Muslim heritage. Bhatti’s play Behzti was axed from a Birmingham theatre in 2004 following protests from the Sikh community. The playwright denied the BBC’s compliance department accusations that lines were offensive in Heart of Darkness, saying “we live in a fear-ridden culture.”
Germany’s foreign minister said on 28 January that Russia’s draft bill banning “homosexual propaganda” could harm Russia’s ties with Europe. In a meeting on Monday evening, Guido Westerwelle told Russia’s ambassador in Berlin, Vladimir Grinin, that the law violated the European human rights convention and will harm Russia’s image and relationships within Europe. The draft legislation was passed by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on 25 January and prompted protests by the gay community, including a kiss-in protest by activists which was broken up by police on Friday. The law will ban the promotion of homosexuality amongst children and is alleged to intend consolidation of public support for President Vladimir Putin.
On 28 January, Twitter began censoring porn related searches on its video sharing app Vine yesterday, after a six-second porn clip was accidentally made editor’s pick. Searching for terms such as #sex and #porn came up with no results, but users could still access pornographic content if it had been posted under a different hashtag. The social networking site apologised for circulating the video of a graphic sex act on the app launched last week, blaming the slip-up on a “human error”. Vine was introduced to Twitter as a video programme similar to Instagram, where users can upload six second video loops, some of which proving to appeal to a more adult audience. Last week, Apple banned 500px, a photography app with a section dedicated to nudity, from its app store.
11 Dec 12 | Europe and Central Asia
On 8 December police entered the rented Minsk premises of the Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) and forced the actors and members of the 60-person audience to provide identity information.
The officers interrupted a performance of the BFT’s play Zone of Silence. After they had recorded the identities of everyone in the building, the show then went on.
The theatre troupe is used to police harassment. Saturday’s raid was the second police visit in 24 hours — the previous day police told manager Svetlana Sugako to prepare a list of the passport details of all BFT actors and staff.
The BFT is known for staging plays that reflect life in Belarus under the authoritarian rule of President Lukashenko, and for international campaigns protesting state repression and demanding the release of political prisoners. Index has worked with the theatre company over a number of years.
As the company is not licensed by the state, BFT performances must take place in secret. Prospective audience members receive text messages at short notice, directing them to spaces in the woods or temporarily rented houses. Audience members have been arrested, and actors frequently harassed. Nicolai Khalezin, the company’s Art Director who was forced to flee Belarus with his wife and fellow theatre member Natalia Koliada after the country’s rigged 2011 elections, told Index:
The police entering the theatre during the play is just the tip of the repressive iceberg as the most serious acts of repressions take place off stage. All our actors were sacked from state theatres, expelled from universities; most of them have been detained, arrested or included in travel ban lists by the Belarus authorities.
We are considered dangerous to Lukashenko’s regime as we are well-known abroad, and things we say about the real situation in Belarus are picked up by international media.
Mike Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship watched the Free Theatre perform in Minsk in 2010:
The Free Theatre have been targeted because their artistic dissent is one of the most internationally recognised voices against Lukashenko’s regime. The regime is attempting to curtail one of the last remaining spaces for free expression in Belarus.
Belarus Free Theatre – Numbers from IndexOnCensorshipTV on Vimeo.
Andrei Aliaksandrau is Belarus and OSCE Programme Officer at Index. He tweets at @aliaksandrau
10 Dec 12 | Europe and Central Asia
In Azerbaijan, it is not only journalists who face intimidation, arrests and violence: artists, musicians and writers also come under attack for exercising their right to artistic freedom. To coincide with the UN’s International Human Rights Day, Art for Democracy, a new initiative to support artistic freedom, was launched in Baku.
“Art for Democracy seeks to use all forms of artistic freedom of expression to promote democracy and respect for human rights in Azerbaijan, including to improve the climate for artistic freedom of expression itself”, said Art for Democracy‘s coordinator Rasul Jafarov. “It will also give artists a platform to come together and use their talents to promote democratic change”.
In May, Azerbaijani musician Jamal Ali fled the country in fear of his life after he reported that police tortured him in detention. The rapper had criticised President Ilham Aliyev during a concert. Musician and activist Azer Cirttan is also in exile.
It’s clear that, in addition to more traditional campaigns, including political engagement at the Council of Europe and organised demonstrations in Azerbaijan and around the world, a creative approach to promoting free expression in Azerbaijan is also needed. The campaign will also offer direct support to marginalised artists, who are often persecuted for their work.
Art for Democracy builds on the work of Sing for Democracy, which drew attention to the poor health of free expression in Azerbaijan in the run up to the Eurovision Song Contest, hosted in Baku in May. To celebrate the launch, free speech advocates, including Eurovision 2012 winner, Swedish pop star Loreen, recorded video messages of support.
Azerbaijan hosted the Internet Governance Forum, in November. In an open letter to President Aliyev prominent activist and journalist Emin Milli lamented the fact that citizens are “do not dare to speak out” against the dictator’s policies, “online or offline”. “You have successfully managed to silence them,” he added.
In this climate, Art for Democracy is an important, fresh voice that will draw together the country’s most important free expression experts, ensuring that a wider audience is informed about the very serious free expression crisis in Azerbaijan today.
Read Index’s fact file on Azerbaijan, Access Denied
To read Jamal Ali’s modern fable in the current issue of Index on Censorship magazine, subscribe now
28 Nov 12 | News and features
An artist is being sued for depicting Spanish dictator Francisco Franco jammed in a fridge. Miren Gutierrez examines the restrictions on art exploring the Spanish Civil War
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