ISSUE: VOLUME 49.04 WINTER 2020

Masked by Covid

The underreported stories of 2020 that need to be heard

From the moment Chinese state media announced a novel coronavirus back in January, the whole world has been transfixed by news of Covid-19. News cycles that are almost exclusively on the virus has fed into the hands of dictators, who have not only used it as an excuse to clampdown on media freedoms, but also as a cover hoping in our distraction we won't speak up. Many stories that would otherwise have dominated headlines and angered the world have slipped through the cracks. Stories like the Nicaraguan leader pushing through a series of bills that will silence what little independent media is left. Bianca Jagger asks us why we haven't paid more attention. Stories like the Chinese government imposing Mandarin-Chinese language tuition on Inner Mongolian schools - a move with such grave implications for cultural autonomy that people have taken their lives. Stories like a new leader in Slovenia, who like Polish and Hungarian leaders is far-right and taking aim at journalists and minorities. With writing from people on the ground and area experts, we cover these stories in our special report. Outside the special report we have our very first debate on whether social media companies have a moral duty to ban anti-vaxx misinformation, the philosopher John Gray discusses whether John Stuart Mill has contributed to the culture wars, Nick Holdstock looks at the history of Xinjiang in China to shed light on the current atrocities there and in our culture section we publish poetry from Uighurs who have disappeared into the Xinjiang camps. CONTENTS