2016 Freedom of Expression Journalism Award winner Zaina Erhaim and Jake Hanrahan of Vice News (Photo: Elina Kansikas for Index on Censorship)
“The world is travelling in two directions: one is towards the narrowing of distances through travel, increasing interchange… the other is towards the shutting down of frontiers, the ever more jealous surveillance by governments and police of individual freedom.”
So wrote poet and Index founder Stephen Spender in 1972 – in the very first edition of Index on Censorship magazine. Four decades later, we take the same view as we did then: that faced with those who want to silence us, we must fight so all voices can be heard.
With your help, each year we are able to support more writers, journalists and artists at the free speech front line – wherever they are in the world – through Index Fellowships. These remarkable individuals risk their freedom, their families and even their lives to speak out against injustice, censorship and threats to free expression.
Your donation is needed to provide the bespoke assistance, training and public recognition that these outstanding individuals need to ensure their voices continue to be heard, despite the restrictions under which they are forced to live and work.
Your support will help award winners like Zaina Erhaim, the Syrian journalist who returned to Syria after war broke out to help train female citizen journalists. Index arranged for Zaina to headline at an event with veteran journalist Kate Adie earlier this year and campaigned on Zaina’s behalf after British authorities seized her passport.
“I can’t thank you enough for all the efforts you have put in to help me in the latest crisis. Feeling supported is surely the most effective cure for any problem a Syrian like me might face,” Zaina wrote after departing the UK.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Donate to Index on Censorship via your credit card or Paypal account.” color=”danger” size=”lg” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsupport-index-donate-now-annual-appeal%2F|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
“It is an extremely important year for publishing on freedom of expression issues, from Bangladesh to Mexico writers face threats and sometimes death just for writing something that someone disagrees with,” said Index on Censorship magazine editor Rachael Jolley after receiving a British Society of Magazine Editors’ award.
The British magazine industry gathered last night at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane Hotel in London for the annual BSME awards.
Jolley was awarded Editor of the Year in the special interest brand category for her work at the helm of a publication which has achieved a constantly high editorial quality within its sector over the past 12 months.
Jolley, who joined Index on Censorship in 2013, has commissioned special reports on issues as diverse as taboos, how Shakespeare can be used as protest and threats to anonymity.
She said: “There are also other challenges to freedom of expression, from ensuring there is academic freedom on campuses to governments using financial pressure to stop media reporting uncomfortable news, plus increasingly sophisticated social media propaganda techniques used to stop the public knowing the truth.”
“This award from the BSME recognises the importance of those stories, and that they, vitally, must continue to be published,” she added. “It is also a recognition of how hard the magazine team, from designer to sub-editors work on each magazine.”
Jeremy Leslie, founder of the magCulture magazine shop and one of the BSME judging panel, said: “This year’s BSME Awards, announced last night, reflect the rise of the small independents.”
Index on Censorship magazine, published by Sage, was created in 1972 and has a team of global contributing editors and regular correspondents. It has readers in 178 countries.
Ziyad Maher, Sage’s global publishing director, said: “We’re so proud of our long-standing relationship with Index on Censorship. Congratulations to Rachael and the team at the magazine for this well-deserved recognition.”
Each quarterly magazine is filled with reports, analysis, photography and creative writing from around the world. Index on Censorship magazine is published four times a year by Sage, and is available in print, online and mobile/tablets. You can subscribe here. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The current issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at the issue of anonymity and the pros and cons of masking identities. At the magazine’s launch at the offices of VPN provider Hide My Ass, Index readers and contributors gathered to listen to writer Cory Doctorow and tech journalist Geoff White lay out the importance of online privacy and protecting personal data.
Experienced hackers can attain such data in seconds as White, technology producer at Channel 4 News, demonstrated.
You can order your copy of the latest issue here, or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions. Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester), Calton Books (Glasgow) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.
The forthcoming issue of Index on Censorship magazine explores anonymity through a range of in-depth features, interviews and illustrations from around the world. The special report looks at the pros and cons of masking identities from the perspective of a variety of players, from online trolls to intelligence agencies, whistleblowers, activists, artists, journalists, bloggers and fixers. Contributors include former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, journalist John Lloyd, Bangladeshi blogger Ananya Azad and philosopher Julian Baggini,
Outside of the themed report, this issue also has a thoughtful essay by novelist Hilary Mantel, called Blot, Erase, Delete, illustrated by Molly Crabapple. Andrey Arkhangelsky looks back at the last 10 years of Russian journalism. Uzbek writer Hamid Ismailov explores how metaphor has taken over post-Soviet literature and prevented it tackling reality head-on. There is also poetry from Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky and Russian writer Maria Stepanova, plus new fiction from Turkey and Egypt, via Kaya Genç and Basma Abdel Aziz.
You can pre-order your copy here, or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions. Copies will be available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester), Carlton Books (Glasgow) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.
Index on Censorship magazine was started in 1972 and remains the only global magazine dedicated to free expression. Past contributors include Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Marquéz, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and many more.
