22 June: Changing the face of freedom: a half-day conference
Date: Friday 22 June
Time:10.30am-1pm
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Tickets: £5.95, available here
As the impact of the Arab Spring continues to reverberate around the world, we bring together LIFT international artists with artists based in the UK, from the Middle East, Burma and Belarus, to reflect on what happens to the creative vocabulary when the political landscape changes.
In a half-day conference of panel discussion and breakout sessions, we will explore how exile, expression, revolution and democracy variously constrain or simulate artistic freedom of expression.
This event is a partnership between Index on Censorship, Free Word Centre and LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), a biennial festival taking place every other summer in theatres, arts venues and sites across London. LIFT 2012 runs from 12 June to 15 July.
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19 June: launch of the Sports Issue of Index on Censorship magazine
Date: Tuesday 19 June
Time:6.30pm
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Tickets: Free, register here
Does morality have a place on the playing field? Renowned sports writer Mihir Bose and Olympic historian Martin Polley will join other speakers for this timely debate. They’ll tackle the political demands facing sportsmen and sporting bodies, the conflict between the expectations of human rights groups and the demands of the sporting schedule, the politics of the calls for boycott (from Bahrain to Belarus) and the impact of commercial sponsorship.
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26 May: Where do you draw the line?
Date: Sat 26 May
Time:4.30pm
Venue: Brighton Festival (Brighton Dome, Corn Exchange)
Tickets: here (more just released)
Open dialogue is the key to a healthy, cohesive society, but some fear the disruptive, dangerous potential of truly free speech.
Inspired by themes of DV8’s show Can We Talk About This? (see Dance), the event presents an interactive conversation about how, when and why we censor ourselves. Chaired by Kenan Malik, author of From Fatwa to Jihad and regular guest on The Moral Maze, the discussion moves between panellists – DV8 choreographer and director Lloyd Newson, activist, author and broadcaster Maryam Namazie, Rabbi Elli Sarah, co-founder of women’s rights organisation Inspire Tahmina Saleem, Oxford University’s Jeremy Waldron and the audience using electronic polling terminals, with poll results screened live.
In association with Free Word.
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PAST EVENT: Media Freedom on the Internet: a round table discussion in Strasbourg
Date: 25 April
Time: 2.30-3.30pm
Venue: Meeting Room 5, Palais d’Europe, Strasbourg
BETWEEN RESPONSIBILITY AND REALITY: HOW CAN WE GUARANTEE FREE EXPRESSION ONLINE?
As the internet becomes a central feature of everyday life, opinion is still divided on how to make it work for the common good. Should governments monitor their citizens’ lives online in the name of security? Is it acceptable for new software to have inbuilt surveillance capacities? In this new landscape, how do we protect free speech online – and who can we count on to do so?
13.00 – 13.30 Reception hosted by UK Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in the Foyer of the Committee of Ministers Ambassador.
13.30 – 15.00 Panel discussion jointly organised by Index on Censorship and the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media and the UK Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers: Between responsibility and reality: how can we guarantee free expression online? with Bill Echikson (Google), Simon Milner (Facebook), and Felix Treguer (La Quadrature du Net), chaired by Kirsty Hughes (Index on Censorship).
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PAST EVENT: Jung Chang at the Southbank Centre
Date: 24 April
Time: 7:45pm
Venue: Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Tickets: £10 book here
In the continuing Southbank season celebrating Index on Censorship’s 40th birthday, Jung Chang will be in conversation with Isabel Hilton.
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans was published 21 years ago, and remains the most successful non-fiction book in British publishing history. The memoir travels from the early days of communist hope and struggle to the birth of a superpower at the end of the 20th century. As China looks set to dominate the world’s economy in the 21st century, over 13 million copies of the book have been sold in 36 languages.
However it remains banned in China.
Topics for discussion at the event include Jung Chang’s writings, censorship and Chinese politics today.
Read the 40th anniversary issue of Index on Censorship magazine, including exclusive articles by Aung San Suu Kyi and Ariel Dorfman, here.
Search the Index on Censorship literary archive for free until 4 May.
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PAST EVENT: Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012
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PAST EVENT: 25 March: Putin’s Kiss film premiere
PUTIN’S KISS + Q&A with filmmaker Lise Birk Pedersen
Sunday 25 March 20.00, ICA (UK premiere)
Monday 26 March 18.40, Curzon Soho
Meet Masha, a 19-year-old who grew up in Russia under Putin, on her journey through the Nashi youth movement. This coming-of-age tale focuses on Masha’s personal political struggle, painting a grim picture of the Russian political climate. When Masha comes into direct contact with members of the opposition she begins to question Nashi, leading to a shocking event that pushes Masha to make her choice in the end.
Courtesy of Dogwoof.
(Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2012 and International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2011)
Lise Birk Pedersen—Denmark—2011—85m—doc
In Russian with English subtitles
http://ff.hrw.org/film/putins-kiss
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PAST EVENT: Nadine Gordimer at the Southbank Centre
Date: 14 March
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Tickets: £15, £12 – book here
In the first of a series of events between Index on Censorship and the Southbank Centre, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer will be speaking at the centre’s Literature and Spoken Word Festival on 14 March.
The 88-year-old writer, renowned for her activism, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. She published her first novel in 1953, and has since gone on to publish short stories, plays and criticism in over 40 books, including The Conservationist, which won the Booker Prize in 1974. Gordimer’s latest novel, published to coincide with the event, is No Time Like the Present.
The festival will run from January to March. Tickets can be booked online here.