Burma has made significant advances during the transition period, with progress across all the categories of this report: politics & society, media freedom, artistic freedom and digital freedom. The situation in the country has significantly improved since the beginning of the transition.
Underpinning the increased freedom of expression are the significant political changes that have seen the release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and the election of NLD parliamentarians during the 2012 by-elections. The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the regime’s most high-profile critic and political opponent, and other political prisoners was seen as a public signal to the Burmese people and civil society that the transition to civilian government was a possibility and that the government would tolerate dissent to greater latitude than in the past. Beyond this, a number of concrete advances have been made for freedom of expression including the abolition of the censorship boards, the end to the filtering of social networks and VOIP telecommunications, the return of daily newspapers and the greater latitude given to political expression, press comment and artistic expression by government officials.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has called for more stringent EU data protection rules, after allegations that US surveillance programmes have also impacted EU citizens. Sara Yasin reports
In an interview with ARD television yesterday, the German leader called for privacy rules that apply to all member states, as online companies are currently only required to follow legislation where they are registered. Facebook, for example, is registered in Ireland and is only required to follow Irish privacy laws.
Merkel also told ARD that she expects the United States to abide by Germany’s privacy laws in the future.
While Merkel has claimed that she learned of US mass surveillance from the media, German daily Bild reported that the country’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) knew about the programme as well as storage of German data for many years now. Bild also reported that data stored was also used by German intelligence to locate citizens kidnapped abroad.
Index, along with English PEN, Open Rights Group, and Article 19 have called on the European Parliament “to support a Data Protection Regulation that helps people regain control of their personal data.”
In a letter sent to Sarah Ludford MEP, a shadow rapporteur on the European Parliament’s data protection dossier, the organisations stressed the importance of control over personal data:
Too often, people do not know how their information will be used, where it will be processed or who will have access to it. This is partly because the principles of the current data protection laws are insufficiently implemented. We believe the new Data Protection Regulation could give people more control over what happens to their information, and ensure those that collect and use data adhere to the rules.
The European Parliament has ordered a probe into allegations that the United States has spied on EU citizens and diplomats. The Civil Liberties Committee will hold an inquiry, and plans to release a report by the end of this year.
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin
19 July: What surveillance means to YOU
Join us 19 July for a live Google hangout with Index on Censorship as Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Rebecca Mckinnon of Gloval Voices discuss what mass surveillance means to all of us as individuals. Hosted by Padraig Reidy of Index, the hour-long event will delve in the issues around government surveillance of innocent civilians.
(More information)
INDIA Impediment of Speech and Imbalance of Justice
In March 2013 Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was invited by some pro-business, pro-industry students at an American university to give a keynote address via video conference.
(Dissident Voices)
RWANDA Rwandans Consider Their Media Free – Survey
A Rwanda Media Barometer (RMB) survey carried out by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) and consultants from Transparency International Rwanda has shown that media freedom in the country, in the perceptions of its population, was at its highest.
(AllAfrica)
TURKEY Turkish journalists join up against censorship and violence
Protests against the Turkish government continue, with journalists and artists now joining the fold. They’re speaking out against the violence against journalists and censorship of the press that takes place in Turkey.
(DW)
UNITED KINGDOM UK Ideological Travel Ban Helps Hate
So, this sounds like as good a time as ever to make a counterintuitive argument. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer—two notable critics of “creeping sharia” and the “Islamization” of America—were invited to speak at an English Defense League (EDL) rally in Woolwich, the city where a British soldier was brutally murdered in May in what has been described by authorities as a terrorist attack. The EDL is a far-right nativist street protest group, formed out of the soccer “hooligan” subculture in Britain. It is frequently identified as a “hate group.”
(ACLU)
UNITED STATES Should we have a list of words for self-censorship?
The other day, a young child scolded her father for using the “S” word. She further explained her teacher had told her class not to call people the “S” word, From this information the word might have been “stupid” or “silly,” adjectives important today.
(Delaware Online)
Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban for fighting for girls’ education, will address the United Nations today.
The speech will be her first public appearance since the attack in October 2012. Malala, who won Index on Censorship and Doughty Street chambers Advocacy award this year, was shot in the head and chest by an unknown assailant while she was on her way home from school. The Pakistani Taliban spokesman took responsibility for the attack, saying that the young girl was “anti-Taliban and secular”.
Watch Malala’s speech live here:
At 11, Malala began blogging anonymously for BBC Urdu about living in Swat, a Taliban-controlled district in Pakistan. She eventually became an outspoken advocate for girls’ education, and brought international attention to the importance of education for children. Since her attack, she has established the Malala Fund, an organisation that demands education for all.
UNESCO has called the right to education a “fundamental human right”, that serves as a foundation for all other rights, including freedom of expression. With 200 million children denied the basic right to an education around the world, Malala’s fight is important now more than ever.
Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, accepted the Index award on his daughter’s behalf saying: “I want to give a message to the world. I didn’t do anything special. As a father, I did one thing, I gave her the right of freedom of expression. All fathers and mothers, give your daughters and sons freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a most important right. The solution of any conflict is to say the right thing, to speak the truth.”
Listen to what Malala’s father had to say at this year’s Index awards:
Whatever happens to the NSA whistleblower, the repercussions of his actions will endure
Edward Snowden placards at a protest in Berlin (David von Blohn/Demotix)
This is a guest post by Daniel Keane
Edward Snowden’s leaks have exposed an ideological chasm between the partisans of free information and liberty and the guardians of state security. They have also asked demanding questions of the public at large: when does intelligence gathering become an unwarranted intrusion into private lives? Is the first responsibility of an intelligence agent to the country he serves or to a — self defined — greater good? Can we have a free society without people who do dirty work like spying on our emails?
Public reaction in the polls remains mixed, with a Huffington Post/YouGov’s poll this week finding that 38 per cent of Americans believe Snowden did the wrong thing, while 33 per cent believing the contrary. However a survey released by Quinnipiac showed that 55 per cent of Americans believed Snowden was a whistle blower rather than a traitor.
Snowden also denied in interviews published that he gave any information to the Russian or Chinese governments while in transit there. Allegations of leaking information to these authorities arose from the New York Times, which claimed China had ‘drained the contents of Snowden’s laptops’. Snowden claimed he “never gave any information to either government.”
Snowden also declared in an interview given before he left his home in Hawaii with German newspaper ‘Der Spiegel’ that the NSA is “in bed together with the Germans the same as with most other Western countries” and that the USA and Israel co-wrote Stuxnet, the malicious computer virus utilised against an Iranian nuclear site.
These revelations made by Snowden come as a shock to the public consciousness and this is certainly reflected in the activities of pressure groups in the US and the UK. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, based in Washington DC, has filed an emergency petition to the US Supreme Court in order to halt the NSA’s logging of the nation’s telephone records.
Meanwhile in the UK, human rights group Liberty has filed a claim to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal against the British Intelligence Services for their role in the PRISM or Tempora surveillance programmes. It remains to be seen, however, whether both of these attempts to halt or impair mass surveillance will be successful: the US Supreme Court is unlikely to do away with a programme seen as vital to domestic security, while the IPT makes its decisions in private leaving any reform in Britain largely improbable.
If he reaches asylum, possibly in Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia, Snowden could continue to leak crucial information regarding the NSA. The Obama administration finds itself in a crisis should he evade extradition: the inevitable slew of secrets weakening their international credentials.
Furthermore as Snowden reveals more regarding the collaboration of the US with Western European states, countries like Britain and France face a public dilemma as we learn more about the undermining of our personal liberties. These governments risk being whisked into undesirable public debate regarding the legitimacy of organisations such as GCHQ.
Even if Snowden returned to America to face trial the issue would not disappear. People will want to hear what he will say in court.
Many governments probably wish Edward Snowden was condemned to perpetual Limbo in Sheremetyevo Airport. But whatever happens, the repercussions of his actions are sure to endure for a long time as the debate between liberty and security rages ever on.
Venue Doughty Street Chambers,
54 Doughty Street
London, WC1N 2LS (map) Time 6.30pm RSVP[email protected] Space is limited, so please reserve a place early
Edward Snowden’s leaks about the US’s international mass surveillance programmes has prompted perhaps the definitive debate of our age: How free are we online? Can we ever trust technology with our personal details?
Have democratic freedoms been subverted by surveillance programmes such as PRISM and Tempora, justified on the grounds of security?
Join Index on Censorship and Doughty Street Chambers on 25 July to discuss these issues and more.
A Turkish student attacked while participating in anti-government protests died Wednesday. Ali İsmail Korkmaz suffered a cerebral haemorrhage after unknown assailants attacked him during a protest in the northwestern city of Eskişehir on 2 June.
Korkmaz is the seventh protester to die since the start of unrest on 28 May, when protesters first rallied against the government’s plan to turn Gezi Park — one of Istanbul’s important green spaces — into a shopping mall. The protest movement quickly snowballed, after police used tear gas to disperse the initial 50 protesters.
On 28 July, members of IFEX are calling on seven people to stand silently in front of Turkish embassies around the world for seven minutes at 12:00 PM, in solidarity with Turkey’s ongoing protests. The silent protest has become a symbol of Turkey’s peaceful protesters. Participants are asked to wear the names of those who have been killed.
Mass protests eventually overtook Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and protests were sparked across the country, after the government’s heavy-handed response.
June saw clashes between protesters and security forces, as both camps battled for control of the square. Riot police forced protesters out of Taksim Square during an overnight raid on 11 June.
The Turkish Ministry of Interior has reported over 4,900 protesters in custody, as well as over 400 policemen and 4,000 demonstrators wounded.
Read more here about the campaign, and for details on how to organise a protest.
A Russian Orthodox has launched a video game in which players attack members of punk feminist group Pussy Riot with a crucifix
According to Reuters, “Players use a mouse to move a cross over the screen and zap colorful cartoon representations of the women from Pussy Riot – each with a balaclava like those worn by the band members in their protest — as they try to enter a white church.”
Pussy Riot have declined to comment on the game.
Two of the punk group, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, are serving sentences in a penal colony after they staged a protest against Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s Christ The Saviour Cathedral in February 2012. A third, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal.
Index on Censorship met two members of the eight-woman strong collective in London last month. You can read the interview here.
BELARUS Praying in Homeless Shelter a Crime
A young Catholic layman, who turned his home into a shelter for homeless people with a prayer room, is being accused of leading an unregistered religious organization. Aleksei Shchedrov, who says he has helped about 100 local people since December 2011, is being investigated on criminal charges under Article 193-1. As a result, he now faces a maximum possible sentence of two years’ imprisonment.
(Canadian Free Press)
Censoring Canadian science
Last summer, a rally of over 2,000 researchers, scientists, and students gathered on Parliament Hill to protest a federal trend of scientific censorship that began when the Conservative party took control of the Federal government in 2006. For the protesters, the government had crossed the line with numerous budget cuts to environmental research programs, extensive job cuts to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and numerous restrictions on investigators’ communications with the media.
(McGill Daily)
GHANA Journalist freed in Ghana amid free speech concerns
A Ghanaian newspaper editor was released Thursday after serving a controversial 10-day jail term ordered by the west African nation’s supreme court for criticising the judges’ handling of a dispute over last year’s presidential election.
(AFP)
GUINEA Radio Station Director Charged for Libel
Managing Director of Planete FM, Mandian Sidibe, has been charged with libel and placed under judicial review by a Magistrates’ Court in Conakry, the capital, for comments he made during a radio programme.
(All Africa)
INDONESIA Indonesia Affirms Restrictions to Freedom of Expression
On July 10 and 11, 2013 the UN Human Rights Committee reviewed the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one of the most important human rights treaties Indonesia has ratified and has the obligation to implement to ensure protection of these rights in Indonesia.
(Scoop)
NEW ZEALAND Suicide reporting rules under review
The Government has announced that New Zealand’s 25-year-old censorship of suicide reporting is to be reviewed by the Law Commission. JAMES HOLLINGS talks to two leading experts who think the restrictions should go.
(The Press)
RUSSIA New Russian video game takes aim at punk band riot
A Russian Orthodox youth group unveiled a video game on Thursday that gives players a chance to “kill” members of the punk band Pussy Riot, whose profanity-laden protest in a Moscow cathedral last year angered the church and offended some believers.
(Reuters)
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Defending press freedom
Although freedom of the press is enshrined in our Constitution, it is a right which nonetheless requires eternal vigilance. This is because powerful persons and groups are continually trying to erode this right, to the detriment of the average citizen.
(Trinidad Express)
TUNISIA Tunisia’s version of Tamarod
A Tunisian version of the Egyptian Tamarod movement has been collecting signatures against the country’s government and institutions, writes Lasaad Ben Ahmad in Tunis
(Al-Ahram)
TURKEY Scientific Conflict in Turkey
The Turkish government’s refusal to fund a summer school course on evolution has brought into sharp focus the divisions between political Islam and secular society in Turkey.
(BBC)
UNITED STATES Porn Producers Say Unprotected Sex Is Free Speech Right
Pornographic movie makers told a judge that a Los Angeles County voter-approved measure requiring adult-film actors to wear condoms violates their constitutional right to free speech.
(Bloomberg)
Removing the Kahane Google App Isn’t Censorship
In a recent Open Zion column, Zack Parker criticized Google’s decision to take down a Google App containing Kahane quotes, to which the radical settler extremist Baruch Marzel had linked, as censorship. While the objective of preserving free speech is pure, the criticism of the takedown as censorship misunderstands the nature of free speech and the implementation of the criticism would be a severe blow to counter-radicalization efforts.
(The Daily Beast)
My fight for free speech at LSU
I decided in seventh grade that one day I was going to attend Louisiana State University’s law school, and anyone who knows me can tell you that I’ve bled purple and gold ever since. So when I finally got there last fall, I never expected that in a few short months I would be involved in a lawsuit against the school.
(Live Action News)
Free speech, Mass Surveillance and Modern Media: how free are we and who decides?
Updating a status, tweeting a celebrity, Instagramming our breakfast- we all do it, but how much do you think about who is seeing what you put online? Social media is constantly hitting the headlines as people are arrested for posting a picture or sending a tweet without thinking of the real-life consequences. But should what happens online stay online? And can our governments ever be justified in reading our private messages in order to keep us safe?
If you want to discuss, argue or learn a bit more about these issues then join Index on Censorship and the Lewisham Youth Parliament and Young Mayor for, “Mass surveillance and modern media: who’s in control?”, to debate how our freedom of expression is being challenged by these developments in modern communication.
The event will be part debate and part workshop starting with a panel and Q&A session between Index on Censorship’s CEO, Kirsty Hughes and Philip Cowell, Head of Programmes at English PEN. It will be chaired by Index’s Head of Advocacy, Mike Harris. You will get to the chance to challenge our speakers on the key issues before breaking into workshop groups to discuss, and attempt to answer, some of the most problematic issues facing free speech online:
If we voluntarily put all our information online do we still deserve the right to privacy?
Where would you draw the line on offensive speech made on social media?
Do you mind our government reading your emails in the name of national security?
The event will be hosted at the Albany Theatre in Deptford Monday 22nd July from 5-7pm for young people between 14-20 years old. There is limited space so if you would like to take part in this exciting debate please email Fiona Bradley
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Journalist José Cristian Góes says case brought against him is a “direct attack on free speech. Rafael Spuldar reports