Philip Pullman, Jimmy Wales, and Steve McQueen join call for Angola to drop charges against investigative journalist

02 Jun 15 | Africa, Angola, mobile, News and features, Statements

Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

International signatories from the worlds of technology, journalism, publishing, theatre, film and business, including jewellers Tiffany & Co, called on Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos on Tuesday to drop the prosecution of award-winning investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais.

Marques was last week given a six-month suspended sentence following a trial in which he faced criminal defamation charges over his 2011 book on blood diamonds, which was published for the first time in English on Tuesday.

“Rafael’s trial was a sham. He was told charges would be dropped, only for him to be hit with new charges out of the blue, and he was not allowed to present his evidence or call witnesses,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of freedom of expression group Index on Censorship, which organised the letter.

“Rafael is a courageous journalist, working with little support to expose corruption in Angola. This absurd trial and verdict is meant to stop him from speaking out. We want to make sure that does not happen.”

Marques was awarded an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award in March for his work. Signatories to the letter include jewellers Tiffany & Co.; tech entrepreneurs Martha Lane Fox, one of the judges of the awards, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales; authors Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman and Elif Shafak; actors Janet Suzman, Juliet Stevenson, and Simon Callow; playwrights Howard Brenton and Timberlake Wertenbaker; as well as Steve McQueen, director of Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave. Other signatories included journalists Sir Harold Evans and Christina Lamb; and artists and writers with direct experience of censorship, such as Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat and Azerbaijani journalist Idrak Abbasov.

The letter will be delivered by Index on Censorship to the Embassy of Angola in London on Tuesday, June 2.

For more information, contact David Heinemann on 0207 260 2664 or email [email protected].

The letter

We, the undersigned, call on Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos to drop the prosecution of journalist Rafael Marques de Morais.

Marques’ vital investigations into human rights abuses should not be impeded by the threat of jail, which is set to loom over him for two years under the court’s terms.

His conviction and six-month suspended sentence are a clear violation of the rights to free expression, to a free press and to a fair trial.

Marques’ reporting is fundamental not only to Angola, but to the world at large.

We call on you to ensure standards of international law are applied during the appeal process.

Yours faithfully,

 

Ali Ferzat, cartoonist

Angela Quintal, editor, Mail & Guardian, South Africa

Dame Ann Leslie, journalist

Anthony Barling, lawyer

Art Kaufman, World Movement for Democracy

Bob Fu, founder and president, ChinaAid

Brilliant Earth Jewellery

Carl Gershman, president, National Endowment for Democracy

Chantal Uwimana, Transparency International

Chie Murakami, director general, Diamonds for Peace, Japan

Christopher Hird, film producer

Christophe Deloire, secretary-general, Reporters Without Borders

Christina Lamb OBE, journalist

David Aaronovitch, columnist

David Harewood MBE, actor

David McCune, publisher

David Schlesinger, founder, Tripod Advisors

Dreda Say Mitchell, author

Edward Fitzgerald CBE QC, lawyer

Elaine Potter, journalist

Elif Shafak, author

Geoffrey Hosking OBE, historian

Grigory Pasko, journalist

Sir Harold Evans, journalist

Howard Brenton, playwright

Idrak Abbasov, journalist

Janet Suzman, actor and director

Jesper Højberg, executive director, International Media Support

Jeffrey Smith, Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice & Human Rights

Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia

Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive, Index on Censorship

John Witherow, editor, The Times, UK

Juliet Stevenson, actor

Kamila Shamsie, author

Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist

Lara Pawson, author of In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre

Larry Kilman, secretary-general, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

Leber Jeweler Inc

Lee Hirsch, film director

Lindsey Hilsum, journalist

Louise Redvers, journalist

Mariane Pearl, journalist

Mark Stephens CBE, senior member, Howard Kennedy LLP

Martha Lane Fox CBE, House of Lords

Mary Lawlor, executive director, Front Line Defenders

Maya Wolfe-Robinson, journalist

Matthew d’Ancona, journalist

Matthew Parris, journalist

Mohamed Al-Dharadji, film director

Neil Gaiman, author

Paul Webster, film producer

Peter Oborne, journalist

Peter Kellner, president, YouGov

Peter Pomerantsev, author

Peter Tatchell, director, Peter Tatchell Foundation

Philip Pullman, author

Rahim Haciyev, editor, Azadliq, Azerbaijan

Richard Sambrook, director, Centre for Journalism, Cardiff University

Ronald Deibert, academic

Robert McCrum, writer and editor

Sanar Yurdatapan, Initiative for Freedom of Expression, Turkey

Shubhranshu Choudhary, journalist

Simon Callow CBE, actor

Steve McQueen CBE, film director

Sue Woodford-Hollick OBE, businesswoman

Sue Valentine, Committee to Protect Journalists Africa Programme

Suzanne Nossel, executive director, PEN American Centre

Stephen Hull, editor-in-chief, Huffington Post UK

Thomas Hughes, executive director, Article 19

Tiffany & Co.

Timberlake Wertenbaker, playwright

Turi Munthe, founder, Demotix

Yoav Shamir, filmmaker

Ziyad Marar, publisher

15-16 June: Conference on journalists’ safety, media freedom and pluralism in times of conflict

01 Jun 15 | Events, mobile

The past years have been among the deadliest for members of the media. In 2014, 61 journalists lost their lives while reporting from armed conflicts around the world.

Journalists covering conflicts — both international correspondents and local reporters — face grave threats and often risk their own lives to get information out. Their presence is all the more important at a time when information battles and propaganda accompany bombings, explosions and killing.

In 2014, Index on Censorship magazine looked at the new information war between Russia and Ukraine. While propaganda in times of war is nothing new, the amount of content produced and the speed with which it can be disseminated makes it hard to track all lies and expose all fake stories. As a result, disinformation can affect people both on and beyond the battlefield.

Index will be at the conference on journalists’ safety, media freedom and pluralism in times of conflict, hosted by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic. The conference will focus on:

  • Best practices and the development of practical tools on issues of conflict and war reporting
  • ​Journalists’ safety and journalism ethics
  • Measures to deal with propaganda for war and hatred, and the information war
  • Media regulation
  • ​Confidence building measures among journalists from different parties to conflicts​

Pre-vetting broadcast content? That’s what dictatorships do, not democracies

22 May 15 | Campaigns, Europe and Central Asia, mobile, Statements, United Kingdom

Home Secretary Theresa May (Photo: Policy Exchange/Flickr/Creative Commons)

Home Secretary Theresa May (Photo: Policy Exchange/Flickr/Creative Commons)

Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, would — apparently — like to pre-approve programmes before broadcast that may include “extremist” content. We know this thanks to a leaked letter to the prime minister from the former Culture Secretary Sajid Javid who expressed his objection to the plans of his fellow cabinet minister.

Javid pointed out, quite rightly, that such a move could (and would) have a damaging effect on free speech — a freedom that David Cameron himself identified earlier this month as being part of the “British values” he wants to protect (values and freedoms that are systematically being attacked by the current government though proposed measures such as the Snoopers Charter and planned abolition of the Human Rights Act).

The world’s most repressive regimes largely have no need to pre-vet content. This is simply because they control all media outlets, and thus the messaging of the broadcasts and press. Why bother pre-vetting content when you’ve decided everything that goes out in the first place. If you can’t do that, pre-vetting is the next best step for an authoritarian government. China, which has one of the most sophisticated and far-reaching censorship regimes in the world, pre-censors TV documentaries, as well as non-fiction films, and has strict guidelines for broadcasters — including online companies — that forces them to self-censor huge swathes of content. Burma, whose military dictatorship finally ended in 2011, had pre-publication censorship for more than four decades.

As Javid himself notes in his letter: “It should be noted that other countries with a pre-transmission regulatory regime are not known for their compliance with rights relating to freedom of expression and government may not wish to be associated with such regimes.”

Yet with every step Theresa May makes she seems — under the guise of protecting our national security — to be bringing us closer and closer to the practices of countries who restrict the rights of their citizens to speak openly, countries who spy on their people indiscriminately, and countries who issue vague and obscure directives about the kinds of people and opinions deemed “unacceptable”.

We already have plenty of laws in Britain dealing with incitement to violence and the promotion of terrorism. We also have strict broadcasting rules addressing these areas. But the idea that the government should have a role in assessing content before it is broadcast, or in developing lists of speakers banned, not for inciting violence or hatred, but because their ideas are extreme, should set alarm bells ringing.

This article was posted on 22 May 2015 at indexoncensorship.org

Angola: Trial of investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais postponed

23 Apr 15 | Africa, Angola, mobile, News and features

Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

The trial of Rafael Marques de Morais, the investigative journalists who has exposed corruption and serious human rights violations connected to the diamond trade in his native Angola, will restart on 14 May. He was initially set to appear in court again on 23 April, but was informed of the postponement late in the evening on 22 April.

Marques de Morais is being sued for libel by a group of generals in connection to his work. The parties will be negotiating ahead of 14 May, to try and find some “common ground”, Marques de Morais told Index.

“In the interest of all parties and for the benefit of continuing work on human rights and for the future of the country, it is a very important step to be in direct contact,” he said.

“Rafael’s crucial investigations into human rights abuses in Angola should not be impeded by this dialogue. Index stresses the importance of avoiding any form of coercion,” said Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg.

Marques de Morais originally faced nine charges of defamation, but on his first court appearance on 23 March was handed down an additional 15 charges. The proceedings were marked by heavy police presence, and five people were arrested. This came just days after he was named joint winner of the 2015 Index Award for journalism.

The case is directly linked to Marques de Morais’ 2011 book Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola. In it, he recounted 500 cases of torture and 100 murders of villagers living near diamond mines, carried out by private security companies and military officials. He filed charges of crimes against humanity against seven generals, holding them morally responsible for atrocities committed. After his case was dropped by the prosecutions, the generals retaliated with a series of libel lawsuits in Angola and Portugal.

“Despite major differences, there is a willingness to talk that is far more important than sticking to individual positions. But this cannot impede work on human rights, freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” Marques de Morais added.

This article was posted on 23 April 2015 at indexoncensorship.org