PAST EVENT: 9 July: Tom Watson MP in conversation with Kirsty Hughes at Ways With Words Festival

Date: Monday 9 July
Time: 1pm
Venue: Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 6EL
Tickets: £9, available here

Phone-hacking, Murdoch and the Media

Interviewed by Index Chief Executive Kirsty Hughes, Tom Watson MP will tell the full behind-the-scenes story of the phone hacking scandal. He led the questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks when they appeared before the Select Committee in July 2011 and continues to be at the forefront of the investigation.

PAST EVENT: 27 June: Mass lobby for libel reform

Mass lobby for libel reform

Join high profile supporters of the Libel Reform Campaign in Parliament on Wednesday 27 June to ensure Parliamentarians and policy makers know there is public support for a public interest defence in the Defamation Bill

The Defamation Bill addresses some important issues, such as reducing libel tourism and providing protection for academic publication, but the Bill falls short in crucial areas. There is no worthwhile public interest defence and the Bill offers no restrictions on the ability of corporations to silence critics. Also, instead of bringing the law into the 21^st century by protecting website operators, the current draft of the Bill reduces their protection from being made liable for the words of others.

Unless these issues are addressed, libel threats and libel actions will still be used to bully newspaper journalists, scientists, bloggers, consumer groups, human rights activists and others.

The meeting will hear from supporters who have been part of the campaign since it started: Dara Ó Briain, Professor Brian Cox and Dave Gorman; organisations backing libel reform; the three charities at the heart of the Libel Reform Campaign (Index on Censorship, English PEN and Sense About Science); and victims of the libel laws including Simon Singh, Ben Goldacre and Peter Wilmshurst.

In this final push for a truly fair and effective Defamation Bill, we need your help:

Please write to your MP. You can find a template email and full instructions about contacting your MP on the Libel Reform Campaign pages.

Attend the meeting. Please come along to Committee Room 10 at 10.30am on 27 June. More details and directions can be found on the Mass Lobby event page.

And ask your MP to meet you there. After the meeting, you can arrange to raise your concerns about libel reform directly to your own MP. Details of how to arrange this are also on the Mass Lobby event page.

PAST EVENT: 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, available here

 

LIFT in association with Index on Censorship and Free Word Centre
As London plays host to theatre makers from around the world for LIFT 2012, we are bringing together visiting and UK based artists for a morning of discussion, debate and workshops  on how different political landscapes impact on what is sayable in the arts.

The panel discussion will include Lucien Bourjeily, Lebanese film-maker and theatre director, who brought improvised theatre to the streets of Beirut during the political turmoil in 2008; Natasha Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin co-founders of Belarus Free Theatre which performed underground until they were forced into exile in 2010; Monadhil Daood who founded the Iraqi Theatre Company in 2008 by to revive the dynamic theatre tradition of a country which was, until recent times, a theatrical powerhouse in the region; and Tim Etchells (UK) artistic director of Forced Entertainment who has been creating innovative work against the backdrop of the changing cultural climate in UK over 25 years.

We will discuss the influence of different political environments on artistic language and the extent to which the constraints and taboos on, and possibilities of expression are shaped by conflict, revolution, dictatorship, democracy.  We will look at how expression changes when the artist is forced into exile, or the oppressive government is overthrown, or in times of war, how artistic language develops to circumnavigate censorship and the role played by self-censorship.

These questions will be further explored in breakout sessions opening out the discussion to include other art forms and perspectives:

Malu Halasa is an editor and journalist covering the culture and politics of the Middle East will be talking off the record about hip-hop as the language of protest and the underground music scene in Tehran with two visiting artists.

Said Jama, founding member of Somali PEN Centre, scholar and writer, and Ayan Mahamoud director of Kayd, Somali Arts and Culture organisation will discuss, also off the record, the shift from freedom fighter to freedom writer and engaging with their community on issues of freedom of expression.

Farah Abushwesha, film-maker and writer, will talk about how the revolution in Libya has spawned new forms of expression, and her work to bring Libyan women’s stories to an international platform. Zoe Lafferty, associate director Freedom Theatre Palestine, will join her present extracts from her current work The Fear of Breathing, a verbatim portrayal of the on-going events of the Syrian revolution, telling the stories of those caught up in the unfolding crisis in their own words.

PAST EVENT: 20 June: The dynamics of digital freedom – a half day conference with GNI

Date: Wednesday 20 June
Time: 9am-1pm
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Places: This is a closed event. Please email eve@indexoncensorship.org to request a space.

The dynamics of digital freedom: freedom of expression in an age of security and surveillance

The Global Network Initiative and Index on Censorship are hosting a half-day conference to discuss the current challenges for freedom of expression online, and to review a forthcoming GNI  report on the balance between free speech, privacy, national security and law enforcement.

Confirmed speakers include Richard Allan (Facebook), Ian Brown (Oxford Internet Institute), Stephen Deadman (Vodafone), Kirsty Hughes (Index on Censorship),  Eric King (Privacy International), Douwe Korff (London Metropolitan University), Tom Smith (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) and David Sullivan (GNI).

PAST EVENT: 19 June: launch of the Sports Issue of Index on Censorship magazine

Date: Tues 19 June
Time: 6pm for a 6.30pm start
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Tickets: Free, register here

‘In a league of its own: is sports above human rights?

A discussion followed by a screening of England vs Ukraine. To celebrate the launch of the latest issue of Index on Censorship, ‘Sport on Trial’, award-winning sports journalist Mihir Bose, Olympics historian Martin Polley and footballer Clarke Carlisle will discuss sport and ethics with editor Jo Glanville.

Refreshments and pub snacks will be available during the screening courtesy of SAGE Publications.

Mihir Bose is an award-winning sports journalist and author. He writes the weekly ‘Big Interview’ for the London Evening Standard, and also writes and broadcasts on social and historical issues for a range of outlets including the BBC, the Financial Times and Sunday Times. His books include ‘The Spirit of the Game’.

Martin Polley is one of the UK’s leading sports historians. Author of numerous books and articles, including The British Olympics: Britain’s Olympic Heritage 1612-2012, he is also consultant historian on the Free Word Centre’s Politics and Olympics exhibition, and Senior Lecturer in Sport at the University of Southampton.

Clarke Carlisle is a professional footballer, an ambassador for the Kick It Out campaign and is Chairman of the Management Committee of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

PAST EVENT: 11 June: Focus on Azerbaijan – Silenced Voices

Public Meeting
6.30–8.00pm, Monday, 11 June 2012
Committee Room 9, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend please RSVP to m.gassanly@gmail.com
 
Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship
Emin Milli, Azerbaijani dissident, blogger and writer; former prisoner of conscience
Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman, European Stability Initiative
Murad Gassanly, Director, Azerbaijan Democratic Association-UK

In May 2012 Azerbaijan played host to the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The event brought unprecedented international media attention to the country and the many problems it is facing – from the ongoing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno Karabakh region to the dire human rights situation and corruption. The government of President Ilham Aliev came under sustained criticism from domestic and international human rights and pro-democracy organisations over the issue of political prisoners, multiple violations of property rights, persecution of independent and opposition journalists, systemic violations of freedom of assembly and expression, and widespread corruption.

Can the situation in Azerbaijan change? Will the new interest and attention to the country translate into meaningful support for human rights in Azerbaijan? What can the international community and civil society do to facilitate democratic transformation in Azerbaijan, especially in view of major public relations and lobbying effort by President Aliev’s regime in Britain, wider Europe and the US?

By kind invitation of Paul Flynn MP, Azerbaijan Democratic Association-UK is pleased to invite you to a discussion of these and other issues, with Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, Emin Milli, Azerbaijani writer, blogger and dissident, former prisoner of conscience, Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman and analyst with the European Stability Initiative, and  Murad Gassanly, ADA-UK director.

TIME: 6.30pm – 8.00pm

DATE: 11 June 2012

VENUE: Committee Room 9, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

To attend please RSVP to: m.gassanly@gmail.com

Biographies:

Kirsty Hughes is the newly appointed Chief Executive of Index on Censorship. Her distinguished career has taken her from Chatham House to the IPPR and the European Commission. More recently, she was head of Global Public Policy and Advocacy at Oxfam. Currently Senior Associate Fellow, at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, Kirsty is also an experienced writer, policy analyst and journalist who has written extensively on European and international politics. http://www.indexoncensorship.org/

Emin Milli is a prominent Azerbaijani human rights campaigner and pro-democracy advocate. Writer, blogger and dissident, Emin is an outspoken critic of corruption and authoritarianism, and a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, having spent 17 months in prison in Azerbaijan on politically-motivated charges. He is about to complete his Masters at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. http://eminmilli.posterous.com/

Gerald Knaus is founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI). He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and Associate Fellow at the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where he lectured on state building and intervention as a Visiting Fellow in 2010/2011. Recently ESI published the report Caviar Diplomacy: How Azerbaijan Silenced the Council of Europe, available on www.esiweb.org.

Murad Gassanly is the Director of ADA-UK. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics and holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the School of European Studies, Cardiff University. He is currently studying for PhD at Cardiff University.

PAST EVENT: 3 June: Index at Hay Festival – Maziar Bahari talks to John Kampfner

Date: Sunday 3 June
Time: 7pm
Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage

Tickets: £6.25, available here

John Kampfner, former Chief Executive of Index on Censorship and current trustee, will interview the author Maziar Bahari about the experiences out of which his latest novel, ‘Then They Came For Me’, was born. The Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s presidential election, believing he’d return to his pregnant fiancée, Paola, in just a few days. In fact he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions while terrible threats were made to his family.

 

 

PAST EVENT: Where do you draw the line?

Date: Sat 26 May
Time:4.30pm
Venue: Brighton Festival (Pavilion Theatre, New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UG)

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.