Shahzad Ahmad accepting his award (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Shahzad Ahmad is one of the leading voices in the fight against online censorship in Pakistan. The country faces a deteriorating state of cyber freedom, as the government uses draconian censorship laws and increasing surveillance to police the internet.
Ahmad’s acceptance speech:
Thank you. I feel deeply honoured to be here today among the torchbearers of the freedom fighters. And I am truly humbled by this award. For there are so many who have struggled for our freedoms, for my freedom, crossing frontiers that I yet dream to cross.…they set the stage and I feel tiny next to their gigantic stature, their brave struggles and their monumental achievements. I stand here today, and speak as I speak, because of them.
And then there are all those who, like me, continue to struggle today. These are the unsung heroes of the human rights movement. And I would like to accept this honour, this award, on behalf of them, on behalf of each and every human rights defender who is putting his or her life and liberty at stake in trying to obtain the human rights we should all enjoy in this world.
We’re here today to celebrate our common struggle for the freedom of expression. Let me say, that to me this is the ultimate freedom: to me it means the freedom to live, to think, to love, to be loved, to be secure, to be happy. To be able to think as I do, and to be able to express what I think is inextricably linked with all my other freedoms. Hence my firm belief that Freedom of Expression forms the fountainhead from which flow all other freedoms. It is indeed the First Among Equals.
My personal struggle in Pakistan has been to bring this movement to the digital spaces – to contextualize our local predicament in light of the NSA and GCHQ revelations, for example. Censorship, surveillance, curbs on expression, and invasions of privacy in the digital spaces is rampant in my country now. The onslaught is led by government – but unfortunately extreme right leaning, and powerful lobbies are the other force that we have to contend with. These groups are violent, lawless, and often resort to vigilante action to try and silence us – while the states looks on. Either too fearful to intervene, or silently complicit.
Hence our struggle remains one both layered and complicated: on the one hand we resist the government’s infringements, and, ironically, on the other, we depend on the same government to protect our rights to life, liberty, security and freedom of expression against the very same vigilante action that continues unchecked throughout the country… We see it as our role to educate, and raise people’s awareness of their digital rights. We have to continue to provide the knowledge and language that can empower everyone to participate in this dialogue, in our country and globally, as technology evolves.
I want to thank many partners and networks who have helped and supported Bytes for All in carrying the torch in a such a hard and complex country. In particular, I would like to thank the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Privacy International, Citizen Lab, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Forum-Asia, IDRC, Media Legal Defence Initiative, Global Partners-Digital, Frontline Defenders and Tactical Tech. Without you, we would not be where we are today.
Roosevelt said, “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.” My inspiration and my goal remain embodied in these words.
Awards, like those presented by Index tonight, often say as much about the organisation who gives them as those who receive them. Index on Censorship plays a very important role in the UK in promoting and defending freedom of expression and as a result they are respected, considered a force to be reckoned with and serve as an example for many around the world. Giving the award to me tonight for our work in digital freedom says the same things about our work. It will inspire confidence in us to continue on this important path and illustrate to our government and fellow citizens that the future is here and that the world is watching. It also acknowledges the expertise, insight, commitment and capacity of those in Pakistan who will stand for nothing less than freedom and knowing this empowers us on the way forward.
Thank you for this important acknowledgement of our good work…it will serve as a great motivation and a sign of support for us all.
Welcome to our special coverage of the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2014. The awards ceremony kicks off with a reception at 18:00 GMT. Awards will be presented from 19:00 GMT. Follow live on Twitter @IndexCensorship or #IndexAwards2014
Shubhranshu Choudhary accepting his award (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary is the brain behind CGNet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh) a mobile-phone (no smartphone required) service that allows citizens to upload and listen to local reports in their local language.
CGNet Swara is a vital tool giving people who are deprived of a voice and platform in mainstream media, on the wrong side of the digital divide, a chance to have a say on and learn about the issues that affect them the most. Furthermore, CGNet Swara also manages to circumvent India’s strict broadcast licensing laws.
Choudhary estimates that there are some 100 million people in India for whom mainstream methods of communicating news don’t work, whether due to language barriers, low levels of literacy or lack of access to internet and newspapers among other things. This represents a serious barrier to their socio-economic development, as they are not updated on stories of importance to them, and their views and grievances and demands are not voiced and addressed.
CGNet Swara aims to solve this problem. It is a voice-based portal, freely accessible via mobile phone, that allows anyone to report and listen to stories of local interest. “Reporters” call a Bangalore number to upload a news item, and reported stories are moderated by journalists and become available for playback online as well as over the phone. They get around 500 messages per day. Fifty are recorded and about five are broadcast. The moderators are elected by the community, and therefore represent them.
“We are providing a new platform which the villagers can use to talk to each other and the outside world about issues that are important to them,” Choudhary said.
Human rights organisations suspect a live YouTube broadcast detailing abuses by the Indonesian government may have been the real reason behind “technical difficulties” at an environmental conference in Oregon.
Two Papua tribesmen had travelled to Oregon specially for the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Oregon, “the world’s most important environmental law conference.”
A live broadcast of the conference mysteriously went silent when the tribesmen started telling the audience about human rights violations by the Indonesia government, perpetrated in their homeland
The pictures on the slideshow, illustrating their points, were behind them and still visible, although their commentary was not audible to anyone listening from home.
Survivor International, who also sent a delegate to the conference, told Index on Censorship that they suspect the attack was a hack, and that their organisation has been targeted by Indonesian agents in the past.
“In 2010, our website was taken offline,” said Sophie Grig, South East Asia Researcher. “We had posted a video of Indonesian soldiers torturing Papuan trible people. Other groups who also posted the video were hacked.”
The attack lasted for two days, during which all websites who had posted the video were bombarded by thousands of requests from thousands of computers worldwide, and the German police began an investigation after one of the hacked groups, based in Germany, made a complaint.
At the time, Survival’s Director Stephen Corry commented ‘This isn’t a couple of geeks in a shed, it’s an expensive and sophisticated attack amounting to cyberterrorism. The damage to Survival International may be substantial but is of course nothing compared to that inflicted on West Papuan tribes.
He added “This is a struggle for the survival of the one million oppressed tribespeople in Indonesian West Papua.”
The two Papuans who attended the conference in Oregon, are members of the Amungme tribe, whose land is home to Grasberg, a mining facility operated by 19,500 employees.
“In the area around the mine, we’ve seen forced displacements, reports of torture and illegal detention by the Indonesian military” said Grig. “We also have strong concerns about the environmental impact.”
Positioned on Papua’s highest mountain, Grasberg is home to the largest gold mine in the world, as well as the third largest copper mine in the world. It produces around
Local charities, as well as international environmental charities, are concerned about the increasing number of land slides and acidifying waste products in local water sources, although the mines operators, Freeport and Rio Tinto, insist their operations fit within international regulations.
Indonesia has occupied Papua (the western half of the island of New Guinea) since 1963, and more than 100,000 Papuans are believed to have been killed since then, many at the hands of the Indonesian military. The government hold a 10% stake in one of the companies operating the mine.
Although it is unclear which software was used to execute this hack, according to Amnesty International in Indonesia, the Papuan military have already purchased invasive internet monitoring technology from Gamma International, a UK-based company. Gamma International manufacture FinnFisher, software which is capable of monitoring all internet communications in a country. The software has been used by repressive regimes including Bahrain, UAE, Turkmenistan, Egypt (under Mubarak, although it is unclear whether the software is still in use).
Andreas Harsono, Indonesia Researcher for Amnesty International, also told Index about some of the human rights abuses he regularly observes in Papua
“I mainly deal with cases where freedom of expression is being denied, as well as impunity amongst the military, police and prison wardens,” he said, “There are also extra judicial killings,” he adds.
There are believed to be over seventy political prisoners held in brutal Indonesian prisons – some serving up to twenty years.
Sophie Grig from Survivor International warned Index
“West Papuans are no strangers to having their voices silenced. Journalists are effectively banned from the region, other than in exceptional circumstances and where they are accompanied by Indonesian government minders. People are imprisoned when their only crime is to raise the banned West Papuan flag, or to speak out against military atrocities and the Indonesian rule of West Papua.”
