DARK MATTER

Dark Matter the new edition of Index on Censorship magazine, which explores science and censorship.

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DEBORAH COHEN

Secret trials

FRED PEARCE

Open access now

MICHAEL HALPERN

Scientists under attack

TRACEY BROWN

Choking debate

HEATHER WEAVER

Creationists in the classroom

RICK PILTZ

Smog rules – how Obama let us down

The Art Issue

Anish Kapoor takes a stand for artistic freedom in ‘The Art Issue’, a special full-colour edition reporting on censorship in the contemporary art world. Subscribe to read an exclusive interview with the acclaimed sculptor and more.

Read about the return of the culture wars with contributions from star commentators, critics and artists. Celebrated Spanish artist Eugenio Merino salutes Andres Serrano’s controversial ‘Piss Christ’ and Turner Prize nominees Langlands & Bell write about their own brush with censorship.

Plus: Voina, Russia’s most provocative performance artists, and Yasmine El Rashidi discusses the role of graffiti in the Arab Spring.

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Privacy is dead! Long live privacy

Who needs privacy? It’s a human right that isn’t just a concern for the rich and powerful wishing to shield their private lives from the media. Today, it’s an urgent issue for anyone who communicates online. In Privacy is dead! Long live privacy, Index on Censorship assesses the threats to our data, considers the impact of tabloid exposés on press standards, explores the world of internet trolls and talks to the UK’s leading privacy judge about striking the balance.

With:
MR JUSTICE EADY on balancing acts
BIRGITTA JÓNSDÓTTIR’s online wake-up call
BRIAN CATHCART on the privacy invaders
GUS HOSEIN & ERIC KING on the age of insecurity

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THE NET EFFECT

As digital technology continues to transform the culture of activism and access to information – from revolution in Egypt to reporting on the secret services in Russia — Index on Censorship assesses the ways and means of using new media to get the word out and asks if the United States is internet freedom’s best friend.

Jillian C York Tools of resistance

Jamie Kirchick Surviving Lukashenko

Supinya Klangnarong Thai trials

David McNeill Pyongyang unwrapped

Saeed Valadbaygi Virtual community

Ivan Sigal Going local

Ashraf Khalil Route to revolution

Ben Bland Spring chill

AND

Maureen Freely The last days of Hrant Dink
Salwa Ismail Days of anger
David L Sobel WikiLeaks and the urge to classify
Kamila Shamsie Speak no evil
Charles Young Trouble in Malta
Martin Rowson’s  Stripsearch

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Speak no evil: the grip of religious extremism on Pakistan’s political culture

Pakistan’s blasphemy law is a tool for persecution and its tyranny reflects the grip of religious extremism on political culture, says Kamila Shamsie, in the upcoming issue of the Index on Censorship magazine

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BEYOND BARS

Beyond Bars

LETTER FROM THE OUTSIDE
Playwright Tom Stoppard on why he would never have been a writer in prison – and the importance of communicating with those who are

POWER OF THE PEN
Carole Seymour-Jones celebrates the achievements of 50 years of fighting for authors’ freedoms and explains why there is so much more work to be done

EYEWITNESS
Moris Farhi on Faraj Sarkoohi

TWO FOR THE ROAD
Maureen Freely on Harold Pinter and Arthur Miller’s infamous trip to Turkey and the pitfalls of intervening in another country’s troubles

SURVIVAL IN PRISON
Detained writers suffer from violence, humiliation and loneliness. Writing, often in secret, helps make sense of these terrible experiences, writes Anne Sebba

LIBERATING LANGUAGE
Mohamed Nasheed on how the Maldives has rejected the lexicon, along with the rule, of decades of dictatorship and rediscovered freedom of expression

DIALOGUE WITH DARKNESS
Arthur Koestler’s imprisonment marked a turning point in his thinking, writes Michael Scammell, and was one of the first campaigns to be a cause célèbre

DON’T TELL US WHAT TO WRITE
Margaret Atwood on why the mark of a truly free society is one that allows writers to speak with their own voice, not for causes, however worthy

WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS
As ideas move freely around the world, attacks on writers continue, reports Lisa Appignanesi

RELUCTANT HEROES
International recognition offers a degree of protection to investigative reporters. But, writes Lydia Cacho, being in the limelight presents a new set of dilemmas

A LICENCE TO WRITE
Classroom rules provide first lessons in censorship. Ngugi wa Thiong’o looks back on a childhood debate and recalls his early brushes with a repressive regime

BLOGGING DANGEROUSLY
The next generation of censorship is in full force. Ron Deibert reports on new tactics and argues that only a global movement can protect free speech online

EYEWITNESS
William Boyd on Ken Saro-Wiwa

THE PRICE OF TRUTH
Following his release in May 2010, newspaper editor Lewis Medjo writes about the horrors of his 20-month ordeal in a Cameroonian jail

EYEWITNESS
Ania Corless on Uzbekistan

LONE STAR
As activists shift focus, Salil Tripathi reminds us that the battle for universal rights is not yet won

EYEWITNESS
Antonia Fraser on meeting Irina Ratushinskaya In selected extracts from her diary, written between 1986 and 1988, Lady Antonia Fraser recalls her involvement, together with her husband Harold Pinter, in PEN’s campaign for the release of the political prisoner Irina Ratushinskaya, a Russian poet and writer who was a prominent dissident in the former Soviet Union.

NEVER FORGOTTEN
In July 2010, several Black Spring dissidents were released after years in detention. Val Warner reflects on the highs and lows of writing to Cuban prisoners and former Cuban prisoner Léster Luis González Pentón reflects on the The darkest of places

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New issue: Smashed Hits 2.0

Don’t Stop The Music!

Read about the songs they tried to ban, the musicians stopped from playing live, and the singers who are put on trial, in the bumper SMASHED HITS issue of Index

DANIEL BARENBOIM Bring music, bring life: An exclusive interview by Clemency Burton-Hill

COLIN GREENWOOD Set yourself free : Technology brings Radiohead closer to their fans

WILL SELF Words and music: God Save the Queen

FEMI KUTI Words and music: Beng Beng Beng

LAPIRO DE MBANGA Voice to the voiceless : The Cameroonian musician speaks to Index from prison

KAYA GENÇ Coffee-house blues: Kurdish musicians are battling against prejudice

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To listen to exclusive contributors’ playlists go to www.indexoncensorship.org/music

Brave new words

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DISPATCHES

SECRET HISTORIES
Maureen Freely: Turkey is being forced to confront its past

TELEVISION PREMIER
Documentary maker Erik Gandini tells Giulio D’Eramo why appearance matters more than truth in Italy

BRAVE NEW WORDS

The good, the bad and the ugly: what technology did for freedom of expression

GOOGLE RULES
Rebecca MacKinnon talks to David Drummond about privacy, censorship and China

CYBERSPACE
Citizens, states and corporations are battling for online space. What happened to the dream of global communication? Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski report

LORDS OF MISRULE
Xiao Shu: China’s internet reflects the political system – repressive and chaotic. Big brother is everywhere. Preview here

THE ART OF CENSORSHIP
Wen Yunchao: How China wields control online

NO HIDING PLACE
Gus Hosein: Privacy is a political right

KREMLIN.COM
Andrei Soldatov: The internet is democracy’s front line

GATE TO FREEDOM
Mohamed Khaled: Egyptian bloggers have transformed the landscape

BEWARE SELF-REGULATION
Ian Brown: Short-sighted government and industry action is threatening online freedom

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND
Joe McNamee: Blocking child abuse websites won’t solve the problem. Preview here

RED LINES
Manlio Cammarata: Online censorship in Italy reflects a dismal record

COPYRIGHT REVOLT
David Allen Green: The internet has subverted the laws of intellectual property

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Roger Dingledine:The options for beating online censorship

POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Saeed Valadbaygi: Iran will not succeed in crushing popular dissent

RINGING IN CHANGE
Jillo Kadida: The Kenyan government has mobile phones in its sights

MARTIN ROWSON’S STRIPSEARCH

AGAINST TYRANNY

FREEDOM IS NOT A LUXURY
Michael Scammell: The founding of Index on Censorship

BEHUD: A WRITER REPLIES
Lisa Goldman: Offence, censorship and the theatre

BEHUD
An extract from Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s new play