Posts Tagged ‘South Africa’
April 26th, 2013
South Africa’s parliament yesterday approved a controversial bill aimed at protecting state secrets. Dubbed the “secrecy bill” by its critics, the Protection of State Information bill was passed by 189 votes to 74. Campaigners against the bill warned of the “chilling effect” it could create for anyone fighting to bring government corruption to light.
The Right2Know campaign has been working against the bill since its introduction in 2010, and has vowed to continue fighting against the bill, which now must be signed by Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president, in order to go into effect. Although the bill was amended last year to include a clause on public interest, the campaign says that the modified bill still “only has narrow protection for whistleblowers and public advocates”. Right2Know also criticised the bill’s vague language — which they say could possibly endanger whistleblowers and journalists.
Writing for Index on Censorship last year, Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer said that the bill “must be discarded in its entirety.”
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May 30th, 2012
The website of a
South African newspaper has been
forced to remove an image of a controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma. City Press newspaper were put under pressure from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) who called for the website to be boycotted until the “insulting portrait” was removed. The image, which shows the president with his genitals exposed and is entitled The Spear, appeared as part of a satirical art exhibition at a gallery in Johannesburg, and has caused massive controversy, leading to Zuma taking
legal action to have the portrait removed.
May 28th, 2012
A controversial painting depicting
South African president Jacob Zuma exposing his genitals has been
vandalised at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. The image, which has prompted Zuma to
take legal action to have it removed from the gallery, has been covered in black and red paint. The painting — entitled The Spear — by provocative artist Brett Murray, has already been sold for $14,000 (£9,000). The vandals claimed the the painting is “disrespectful to President Zuma”.
May 22nd, 2012
South Africa’s president is taking
legal action after the showing of a painting displaying his genitals. Jacob Zuma is arguing that the painting of him by artist Brett Murray should be removed because it violates his right to dignity and makes a mockery of his office. The piece, entitled The Spear, is currently displayed in the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. Zuma claims that the piece portrays him as “a philanderer, a womaniser and one with no respect”. The African National Congress (ANC) has said the piece presents a crude stereotype of African male sexuality.
April 3rd, 2012
Robert McCrum considers Index’s role in the history of the fight for free speech, from the oppression of the Cold War to censorship online
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Tags: Tags: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, Andrei Sinyavsky, Anna Politkovskaya, Bertrand Russell, Brazil, Cecil Day-Lewis, Charter 77, Cold War, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Dostoevsky, George Orwell, George Theiner, Graham Greene, Greece, Henry Moore, Igor Stravinsky, Isaac Babel, JB Priestley, John Milton, John Twyn, Lord Byron, Michael Scammell, Nadine Gordimer, Osip Mandelstam, Pavel Litvinov, Portugal, Roa Bastos, Robert McCrum, Russia, samizdat, Samuel Beckett, South Africa, Spain, Stephen Spender, Tom Paine, United Kingdom, USSR, Vaclav Havel, WH Auden, Writers and Scholars International, Yehudi Menuhin, Yuli Daniel,
March 16th, 2012
Writer, activist and Nobel Prize literature prize winner Nadine Gordimer warns that new legislation will return South Africa to apartheid-era limits on free speech
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March 9th, 2012
To celebrate Index’s 40th birthday, our publisher SAGE is opening the archive to the public for 40 days from 26 March. It’s a unique literary heritage, a roll-call of the greatest authors in the 20th century canon standing up for free expression.
In 1994, South African writer, activist and Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer witnessed the end of apartheid in South Africa when the black population voted for the first time.
Nadine Gordimer will be speaking at the Southbank Centre on 14 March in the first of a series of events celebrating Index’s anniversary. Get tickets here.
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January 20th, 2012
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.
