Archive for August, 2011
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Date: Thursday 15 Sept
Time: 5.30 – 9pm
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Tickets: Click here (valid for both parts of the evening, £5 / £3 concessions)
Index on Censorship, Article 19 and Culture + Conflict present an evening focusing on The Freedom Theatre, the extraordinarily inspirational and courageous cultural initiative based in the Jenin Refugee Camp on the West Bank.
The artistic director Juliano Mer Khamis was assassinated in Jenin on 4 April 2011, but the theatre continues its work. We are privileged to welcome film-maker Ahmad Alaraj from the Theatre, who will present Arna’s Children and a series of short films. He will appear in conversation with the new director of the Free Word Centre, Rose Fenton, co-founder and former co-director of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT).
The evening will be in two parts, with a single ticket, which is valid for both.
5.30 – 7.00: Arna’s Children (2003, 84 min) directed by Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel, a documentary about the children’s theatre group established by Arna Mer-Khamis, Juliano’s mother, an Israeli Jewish political and human rights activist. This moving film, which won Best Documentary Feature at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, follows the lives of Arna and the members of the theatre.
7.30 – 9.00: Ahmad Alaraj of the Freedom Theatre will present and discuss four short films about the continuing work of the Theatre today with Rose Fenton: the challenges it faces working with young people in Jenin and the transformative effect it has on their lives. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion with Ahmad.
Food and refreshments will be available.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Internet access in educational institutions
must be under control, said
Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko as he addressed educators on 29 August. Lukashenko said they and teachers should pay close attention to communication among young people online, primarily on social networks, which he labelled “a dangerous weapon” that could be used for “destructive purposes.”
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Courts in the
Brazilian state of Ceará have
blocked access to 140,000 USD in the accounts of Google Brazil after the internet giant refused to take down a series of blogs with content deemed “offensive” toward the mayor of Várzea Alegre. The blogs in question accuse the mayor of corruption and diverting public funds, although no sources have been cited for the accusations. The mayor has reportedly said the blogs’ anonymous messages smear his image.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Following the publication of
stories in the Washington Post earlier this month that allege former Colombian president
Álvaro Uribe Vélez may have been involved in illegal actions using the national intelligence service with the help of the US, the former leader
accused the articles’ writers of being sympathisers of terrorism and accomplices of leftist guerrillas. The journalists in question are
Juan Forero, the Washington Post’s Andean region correspondent, and
Claudia Julieta Duque, a reporter who works in
Colombia.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
A rights activist and RFE/RL correspondent in
Kazakhstan is being sued for libel after she alleged children at a special needs school were being abused. In an article published in a local newspaper in May,
Alima Abdirova said children at the boarding school in the western city of Aqtobe were subject to beatings and neglect. Abdirova is due to appear in court in the city on 27 August after the former director of the school took legal action. She is being sued as a member of the independent Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights group, and not as a journalist.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Elena Bondar, an Uzbekistani freelance journalist who was
briefly detained at Tashkent airport last week, has been notified that
she is to be prosecuted for not declaring the professional material that was seized from her at the time, and that it will be examined by a censorship committee. When interrogated again for three hours on 27 August, Bondar was told that she is to be prosecuted under articles of the customs law and the civil code for failing to declare the four USB flash drives, three CDs and two video cassettes that were taken from her when she landed in the Uzbek capital on 22 August. She is facing a possible fine on these charges.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
A judge has this week
lifted a week-old court ruling banning the distribution of a
Venezuelan magazine after it published a satirical article featuring government officials portrayed as cabaret dancers, which had been deemed offensive to women and public officials. However, the weekly, 6to Poder, was still prohibited from referring to the case in print or from publishing similar content. The paper’s owner and a top executive were charged last week with inciting hatred, insulting a public official, and publicly denigrating women. The criminal cases against them are ongoing.
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Khagendra Basnet, distributor of a local daily called Nigarani,
was threatened on 22 August in eastern
Nepal. According to reports, the individual harassed Basnet and threatened to burn down the daily’s facilities on the account of a cartoon published in the newspaper’s satirical section, Gaijatre. The section is named after the
Gaijatre festival, also known as the festival of cows, in which important and powerful members of society are mocked.
