05 Jul 13 | Digital Freedom
While the official Chinese reaction to Edward Snowden’s Prism leaks has been muted, ordinary Chinese have been quick to point out the US’ double standard on espionage, Alice Xin Liu writes
Snapshot of Boundless Information global heat map of data collection. The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). (NSA)
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02 Jul 13 | Volume 42.02 Summer 2013
The current issue of Index on Censorship magazine features a special report on the shifting world power balance and the implications for freedom of expression.
“The multipolar world can be one where universal human rights and freedom of expression are kept firmly on the agenda, and increasingly respected, if these democracies hold themselves and each other to account — and are held to account — at home and internationally,” write Index CEO Kirsty Hughes and London School of Economics professor Saul Estrin.
The issue also looks at press freedom in Italy, Burma, Mexico, Columbia and India as well as violence against journalists and arrests of those who expose uncomfortable truths. “Worldwide, on average only one in ten cases of murders of journalists ends in a conviction,” says Guy Berger, author of an article on the threats and dangers journalists encounter around the world. Instead of being reassured that the rule of law will be upheld, “the take-away lesson for everyone is: journalists can be killed with impunity”.
From the current issue
Global view: Who has freedom of expression? | The multipolar challenge to free expression | Censorship: The problem child of Burma’s dictatorship | News in monochrome: Journalism in India
Also in this issue:
- John Lloyd on how party politics have skewed Italian journalism
- Yavuz Baydar says Turkey’s media moguls must defend free speech
- Htoo Lwin Myo tells what was it is like to work as a writer in Burma
- Bharat Bhushan on “paid-for” news and the absence of marginal voices in the Indian media
- Lawrence Freedman and Benedict Wilkinson on the opportunities — and limits — of online activism
- A new play from Turkmenistani writer-in-exile Farid Tukhbatullin, whose wit offers a glimpse of life inside one of the world’s most closed and repressive countries.
- Find out more here | Subscribe now
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17 Jun 13 | Academic Freedom, Asia and Pacific
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has confirmed allegations that he was booted from his post at New York University, thanks to pressure from Chinese authorities on the university.
“As early as last August and September, the Chinese Communists had already begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University,” Chen said in a statement released today.
The university is currently planning to launch a campus in Shanghai in the autumn — and according to the New York Post, Chinese officials tied to the project were unhappy with Chen’s presence at NYU. The blind activist and self-taught lawyer joined NYU as a student in its US-Asia Law Institute in May 2012, following a heroic escape from house arrest to Beijing’s US Embassy last year.
Chen also warned that that pressure from China’s ruling party in US academic circles is “far greater than what people imagine”, adding that “academic independence and academic freedom in the United States are being greatly threatened by a totalitarian regime.”
NYU has rejected Chen’s claims, saying that his fellowship was always planned to be a year-long one, and that “its conclusion have had nothing to do with the Chinese government.”
Chen, a vocal critic of China’s one-child policy and forced abortions, was placed under house arrest in 2005 after bringing a class-action lawsuit against the authorities of Linyi, a city in the eastern province of Shandong for its enforcement of the policy. He was eventually given a four year and three month jail sentence on charges of disturbing public order in 2006. He was released in 2010 and placed under house arrest once more, before his escape last year.
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin.
13 Jun 13 | China, Digital Freedom
China has censored an image of Winnie the Pooh strolling with Tigger, after it went viral on popular Chinese microblogging site, Sina Weibo.
The image was circulated after bloggers noticed the similarities between a photo snapped this week of President Barack Obama and Chinese premier Xi Jinping and an illustration of the cartoon characters.
China’s censors are known for their lack of a sense of humour: earlier this month, censors deleted a photoshopped version of a famous picture showing a single protester standing before a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square, where the tanks were replaced with large rubber ducks.
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin
