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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”97306″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Join Index on Censorship in an underground nuclear bunker for an exploration of propaganda past and present, as part of Essex Book Festival’s “The Nuclear Option”, a mini-festival taking place after-hours in the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, a labyrinthine evening of talks, workshops, performances and screenings.
Built in the 1950s, the bunker would have been home to government and military leaders, including possibly even the prime minister, in the event of a cold war nuclear attack. The perfect setting for this panel discussion by Index on Censorship bringing together leading voices looking at the different stories from history, technology and media about how and why propaganda is used to persuade the public.
Speakers include author Jamie Bartlett (Radicals, The Dark Net, Orwell vs the Terrorists) detecting new cunning methods of misleading, journalist David Aaronovitch, who knows first hand about how party propaganda works, growing up in a British Communist family (Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists) and journalist and writer Xinran (The Good Women of China) who challenged Chinese Communist Party propaganda and taboos as the presenter of the first late night talk show aimed at women in China. The session will be chaired by Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, which published a special edition looking at propaganda techniques through the ages and how they have affected public understanding.
To complement the panel discussion, Index have partnered with Essex University drama department and the Lakeside Theatre to create an immersive performance, ‘Propaganda: Hits from History’ tracing the political rhetoric that makes up propaganda, with some surprisingly persuasive speeches.
Your £10 ticket entitles you to access the evening panels and discussions from 5:30-9pm, more details here. A separate entrance fee of £7.50 payable in cash is required for entrance to the venue and includes a tour of the bunker.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”David Aaronovitch” profile_image=”95061″]Chair of the Index on Censorship board of trustees, Times columnist David Aaronovitch is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Jamie Bartlett” profile_image=”97290″]Jamie Bartlett is a journalist and tech blogger for The Telegraph and director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media for Demos.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Xinran” profile_image=”95586″]Xinran is a popular radio personality in China, who had a call-in programme named Words on the Night Breeze from 1989 to 1997. She is also the author of several bestselling books, including The Good Women of China, China Witness and Buy Me the Sky.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Rachael Jolley” profile_image=”90098″]Rachael Jolley is the editor of Index on Censorship magazine.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Veteran Belgian journalist and author of Terrorism and the Media, Jean-Paul Marthoz delivered the following remarks on 5 December 2017 at a round-table debate in the European Parliament hosted by MEPs Barbara Spinelli and Curzio Maltes:
Democracy, journalism and literacy in the era of post-truth
Everything has been said on fake news. Since the word ‘post-truth’ was chosen as the word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford dictionary there is not one day without an evocation of the ‘new kingdom of lies’.
Fake news however, as it is currently understood, is not any kind of lie. It is a deliberately mendacious or misleading information, specifically designed to have a disrupting impact (on society, geopolitics, etc.) and to become viral in the media and on social networks.
The word has taken on an eminently political connotation with Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The unexpected candidate of the Republican Party turned it into a brand, not only by filling his speeches and tweets with approximative or even false facts but also by accusing quality media of being the ones producing fake news.
The word has taken on a strategic dimension with accusations of Russia’s intervention in the US electoral campaign. In the current remodeling of the world, fake news is part of strategies of influence and belongs to the arsenal of asymmetrical warfare.
Migration has been none of the privileged targets of these rogue concepts of information. During his campaign Donald Trump lambasted Mexican ‘bad hombres’. The Brexit campaign was polluted from end to end by made-up stories on Syrian refugees and Polish plumbers.
Migrations have always lead to fabrications and exaggerations. Before the word fake news even appeared, many media, UK tabloids in particular, exploited the vein, with extravagant headlines on migrants. It was a banal case of media sensationalism. Today however the theme of migrations is used strategically in order to sow confusion within European countries and to support populist movements who, nearly everywhere in Europe, question the foundations and values inscribed in EU treaties. It is one of the most efficient levers of populism and far right extremism.
Such strategy benefits from an exceptional soundboard in social networks. These are not only used by millions of citizens who intervene, sometimes wisely, sometimes through their hat, in information flows and public debates, but also by organized, and at times even robotised, groups who pursue a deliberate policy of occupation and agitation on the social networks.
Some have made disinformation a business, like these Macedonian kids who had their moment of fun when they informed about the Pope’s endorsement of Donald Trump, leading to millions of clicks and thousands of dollars of ad money. But this is an epiphenomenon, an anecdote, when compared with the political strategies that have been put in place.
Fake news is a direct attack against the democratic ethos. It aims at polluting the agora, leading, in Matthew D’Ancona’s words in his book Post Truth (Ebury Press, 2017, p. 2) to ‘the infectious spread of pernicious relativism disguised as legitimate skepticism’.
The labelling of prestigious media as ‘fake news’ outlets by those who are the major emitters of fake news is part of a determined attack against the system of checks and balances which define and protect liberal democracy. The purpose is to delegitimize the ‘elites’, the ‘Establishment’. It is to weaken counter-powers and in particular legacy media which in the US case constitute one of the brakes on the impulsive matamorism of Donald Trump. In Germany too, attacks against the « lying press », a reminiscence from the Nazi years, or in France, the denigration of ‘merdia’ and ‘presstitute’ have a strategic aim: to discredit those who decode and denounce the lies of surging populist leaders and movements.
Fake news is also a revealer of our societies and their drifts. It is part of a digital universe which is at the same time fascinating and destabilizing. Words like phishing, spoofing, hacking, filter bubbles, testify to the anxiety which corrodes a digitalized world that cannot just be candidly described as liberating and empowering.
Fake news also reveals the state of opinion. It measures its knowledge and critical sense, or the lack of it. Post truth, writes the Oxford Dictionary, means that ‘objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. One of the problems lies in the fact that part of public opinion does not seem to care about lies from personalities that it supports. Fact-ckecking bumps into a wall of mistrust and dogmas which the unquestionable presentation of verified facts cannot shake.
Much more fundamentally, as EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel in charge of digital economy and society, said in an interview with Le Soir, ‘disinformation is also a political and a societal problem. Our societies’ vulnerabilities open the doors to disinformation. I am referring to unequalities, social fractures, mistrust in society and the rejection of elites’.
How can we explain the resurgence, especially among the young, of conspirationism, of an attraction for suspicious explanation of events? This phenomenon is the barometer of a loss of trust in institutions and not only in the education system and the media. It should lead to reflecting on the profound reasons of such disorientation and disarray. ‘Is not fake news a symptom rather than a cause of our crumbling democracies?’, asked François-Bernard Huyghe, founder of the Observatoire géostratégique de l’information en ligne (Paris).
Fake news also exposes the vulnerabilities and failings of our media system. In fact it should seriously alert us about significant developments in a sector which is crucial to democracy. The malaise which has gripped legacy media, deprived of a business model, the migration of a great part of the audience, the youth in particular, towards platforms like Facebook, threaten a media system which remains a crucial element in the democratic accountability process.
The focus on fake news, to the extent that it is described as information disseminated by adversaires or enemies, entails another risk: intolerance towards sources of information or opinions which we don’t like or find inconvenient.
RT and Sputnik news, for instance, are undoubtedly state media, of an authoritarian state, Russia, which has suffocated freedom of expression internally. They are undoubtedly tools of Russia’s strategy of influence with regard to the West. But should they be targeted by special measures aimed at excluding them from the democratic agora? Let us remember that authoritarian states, like terrorist or far right organizations, endeavor systematically to demonstrate that liberal democracy is a sham, a thin veneer covering a system of domination and exploitation. Banning them would be entering into a trap. The risk of witch hunts is never far away.
The rigorous assessment of the reach of fake news is a precondition to any reasoned and efficient response. Studies disagree on the place and the real impact of fake news. Their mode of production, their strategies of dissemination and the way they are received should be thoroughly and serenely studied.
The appeal to the responsibilisation of digital platforms appears evident. Some governments have put pressure on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and others to push them to police what remains their private domain and to excise the most extreme forms of disinformation. But there is a limit and a danger: converting these platforms in private censors, beyond the norms and guarantees of the rule of law. In September 2017, for instance, the World Socialist Website, a trotskyist media, estimated to have lost 70% of its search engine-led traffic because of a change introduced in April by Google.
Such risks imply a need to seriously question the hegemony of these platforms, which is, as much as or even more than fake news, a threat for democracy.
Fact-checking has become a household word in journalism. It is surprising that it is sometimes presented a specialized form of journalism where it should be a banal, obvious, element of all forms of journalism. It is undoubtedly more necessary today because of the bulk and the speed of information but if the purpose is to convince the gullible, it might not be efficient since it is being practiced mostly by these ‘stenographers of power’ who are accused by populists of ‘hiding the truth’.
Media literacy is again without doubt a crucial element. Most of the public does not master the media codes. It does not acknowledge the silos of certainties in which it encloses itself. Such media education, however, must cover all the media, even the video games, and should start very soon, with young children. And it must be part of a more comprehensive approach to education as such, of a permanent learning system and process which in all its expressions develops critical thinking, judgment and openness to diverse opinions. To scotch media literacy programs on failing or dogmatic schools will be vain.
Support to public interest media seems likewise essential. Now, in many European countries, public service broadcasting is on the defensive, when it does adopt itself populist practices which contradict their proclaimed values. However when they are well-conceived and protective of freedom, independence and pluralism, such support to media (public or private) « in the public interest » can really promote experiences and initiatives which go against the trends of disinformation and trivialization. Such measures should not benefit only legacy media but also to the web where the most decisive battles for the formation for public opinion are being fought.
Finally the fear of fake news should not become obsessive. It should not sub-estimate the capacity of citizens to identify falseness nor the capacity of journalism to renew itself, as has been demonstrated by the ICIJ (International consortium of investigative journalism) with its groundbreaking forms of collaborative transnational journalism projects.
It should not ‘relativise’ either the imperative for democracies not to over-react and the urgency to stay faithful to their most essential principles.
It has become banal to quote Benjamin Franklin’s famous (and contested) phrase: ‘those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety’. It has become banal to quote it because the temptation to give in to censorship or control is increasingly present.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1513269834820-b5b02dbd-a0e2-0″ taxonomies=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Welcome 2018 by celebrating the power of protest at the launch of the latest Index on Censorship magazine.”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”96748″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Join Index on Censorship and Bishopsgate Institute, home to one of London’s most inspiring radical history collections, as we get crafty with a free workshop celebrating the power of protest.
Led by artist Patrick Bullock, we’ll be creating protest objects inspired by some of the original Suffragette campaigning materials, looking at colours, slogans and aesthetics and exploring the importance of the right to protest and its impact on freedom of expression.
The workshop is part of the launch of the latest Index on Censorship magazine, looking at how now, more than ever, our right to assembly is under threat.
After the workshop, join us for the official launch celebration – more details and registration here.
By registering for this workshop you agree for Index on Censorship to share your contact details with Bishopsgate Institute.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”What price protest?” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2F2017%2F12%2Fwhat-price-protest%2F%20|||”][vc_column_text]Through a range of in-depth reporting, interviews and illustrations, the summer 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine explores the 50th anniversary of 1968, the year the world took to the streets, to look at all aspects related to protest.
With: Micah White, Robert McCrum, Ariel Dorfman, Anuradha Roy and more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”96747″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2017/12/what-price-protest/”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1481888488328{padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsubscribe%2F|||”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18 or just £1.49 in the App Store for a digital issue.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Welcome 2018 by celebrating the power of protest at the launch of the latest Index on Censorship magazine.”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”96748″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]In partnership with Bishopsgate Institute, home to one of London’s most inspiring radical history collections, we will be exploring the importance of protest and how, now more than ever, our right to protest is under threat.
Magazine editor Rachael Jolley will introduce the magazine in the context of 2018, which is also the anniversary of two watershed moments for the power of protest: 1918, when women over 30 finally were able to vote in Britain; and 1968, the year protest swept across the globe to challenge military and bureaucratic elites.
Bishopsgate Institute’s Special Collections and Archives Manager Stefan Dickers will lead us on a journey into the stories behind some of the archive’s most fascinating protest objects — from wetsuits to soup tins — as well as viewing some of the original Suffragette sashes and campaigning materials. Artist Patrick Bullock will take us through a game about expressing our (protest) rights. There will also be a performance, introduced by Thea Vigne, from protest choir Raised Voices.
Our special guest for the evening is the campaigner Peter Tatchell, speaking on why defending the right to protest is so essential — here in the UK and internationally — and how protest can have impact.
There will be a pop-up cash and card bar.
Ahead of the event, join us in the afternoon for a free workshop as we get crafty – more details and registration here.
With thanks to our event partners Bishopsgate Institute and publishers SAGE Publishing.
By registering for this event you agree for Index on Censorship to share your contact details with Bishopsgate Institute.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”What price protest?” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2F2017%2F12%2Fwhat-price-protest%2F%20|||”][vc_column_text]Through a range of in-depth reporting, interviews and illustrations, the summer 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine explores the 50th anniversary of 1968, the year the world took to the streets, to look at all aspects related to protest.
With: Micah White, Robert McCrum, Ariel Dorfman, Anuradha Roy and more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”96747″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2017/12/what-price-protest/”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1481888488328{padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsubscribe%2F|||”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18 or just £1.49 in the App Store for a digital issue.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]