31 Aug 16 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Press Releases, Statements
Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab (Photo: The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy)
Playwright David Hare, author Monica Ali, comedian Shazia Mirza, MP Keir Starmer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka are among those who have written to Prime Minister Theresa May asking the UK government to call on Bahrain to release a campaigner imprisoned for just tweeting his opinions.
Nabeel Rajab has been in pre-trial detention in Bahrain since July. He has been held largely in solitary confinement, and for the first two weeks after his arrest was held in a filthy police cell that aggravated heart and other health issues.
Rajab was arrested for expressing opinions. He did not advocate or condone violence, nor is he accused of any violent act. Some of the “criminal” communications he is charged with include retweets of his support for organisations like Index on Censorship, which organised the letter. Rajab is also accused of “insulting“ Bahrain’s ally Saudi Arabia. He faces up to 15 years in prison for his “crimes”.
Rajab is a former winner and judge of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards and those who signed the letter included former fellow winners and judges.
“Free expression is under severe threat in Bahrain and the region,” said Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “It is vital that Bahrain’s democratic allies make clear to Bahraini authorities that their behaviour is unacceptable. The US State Department has already publicly called for Nabeel’s release. The British government should do the same.”
September 1, 2016
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to ask you to call publicly for the release of Nabeel Rajab. One of the Gulf region’s best-known human rights defenders, Mr Rajab has been in pre-trial detention since July. He has been held largely in solitary confinement, and for the first 15 days after his arrest on 13 June was held in a filthy police cell that aggravated heart and other health issues.
Mr Rajab was arrested simply for expressing opinions. He did not advocate or condone violence, nor is he accused of any violent act. Indeed, some of the “criminal” communications he is charged with include retweets in his support from international civil rights organisations like Index on Censorship. He is also accused of “insulting” Bahrain’s ally Saudi Arabia. He faces up to 15 years in prison for his “crimes”.
Free expression is under severe threat in Bahrain and the region. It is vital that Bahrain’s democratic allies make clear to Bahraini authorities that their behaviour is unacceptable. The US State Department has already publicly called for Nabeel’s release. We ask Britain to do the same.
Yours sincerely,
Index on Censorship former winners and judges
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Index on Censorship
Keir Starmer MP
David Hare, playwright
Monica Ali, author
Howard Brenton, playwright
Maureen Freely, author
Shazia Mirza, comedian
Charlie Smith, GreatFire.org, China
Rafael Marques de Morais, journalist, Angola
Serge Bambara, musician, Burkina Faso
Shazad Ahmed, campaigner, Pakistan
Yoav Shamir, director, Israel
Tamas Bodoky, campaigner, Hungary
Sanar Yurdatapan, composer, Turkey
Rakesh Sharma, filmmaker, India
Maria Teresa Ronderos, journalist
Farieha Aziz, campaigner, Pakistan
Safa Al-Ahmed, journalist, Saudi Arabia
Jean Hatzfeld, journalist and author, France
Mahsa Vahdat, artist, Iran
Murad Subay, artist, Yemen
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, House of Lords
Wole Soyinka, playwright and poet
Zaina Erhaim, journalist, Syria
Mouad Belrhouate, musician, Morocco
For more information, please contact Sean Gallagher at [email protected] or +44 (0)207 963 7262
22 May 15 | Campaigns, Europe and Central Asia, mobile, Statements, United Kingdom
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
13 May 15 | Campaigns, Counter Terrorism, News and features, Statements, United Kingdom
Home Secretary Theresa May appeared on BBC Radio 4 Today programme. View the video. (Photo: BBC)
The UK Home Secretary’s preview of a proposed new counter-extremism bill raises the stakes for freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. Index on Censorship is disturbed by the potential impact on free speech embedded in the proposals.
“While the exact wording of the law remains to be seen, it is unclear why new legislation is needed. Current laws on incitement to violence and hatred can already be applied to extremist individuals or groups. New laws risk simply stifling a far broader range of speech”, Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.
Under previous proposals put forward by Theresa May, extremists would have been banned from TV and stricter controls on what could be said on the internet would have been imposed.
May’s insistence that the proposed law would be applied to those seeking to undermine vaguely defined “British values” is a broad brush that could end up being applied to anyone who simply disagrees with the government. As Index said in October 2014, the proposals smack of the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s in the United States.
According to May, the UK already has the world’s toughest anti-terrorism legislation. Adding to this body of laws is unnecessary. Index remains convinced that driving debate underground is not the answer in tackling extremism or terrorism.
