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What can be made of recent events in Turkey where a coup attempt was stopped by people on the streets? Asia House is pleased to welcome acclaimed writer Kaya Genç, who currently lives in Istanbul and has been covering his country for the past decade. Genç will talk to Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, about his forthcoming book Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey.
As research for the book and for his other writing, Genç has met activists from both sides of Turkey’s political divide: supporters of Erdoğan’s conservative vision and Gezi Park protestors who fought against Istanbul’s gentrification. He has spoken with artists, writers, politicians, professionals, business leaders and many more. Through his observations and interviews, he will take you into a country deeply divided along historical, social and geographical lines.
There will be a book signing following this talk, where you will be able to purchase advance copies of the book at a discount price.
Kaya Genç is a novelist and essayist from Istanbul whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Paris Review and Time Magazine, among others. His first novel, L Avventura was published in 2008. Genç has a PhD in English literature and is the Istanbul correspondent of The Believer and The LA Review of Books, as well as a contributing editor at Index on Censorship. He is currently writing a history of Turkish literature for Harvard University Press. Under the Shadow will be published by IB Tauris on 6 October 2016.
When: 12 September, 6.45-8pm Where: Asia House, 63 New Cavendish St,London,W1G 7LP Tickets: Available via the Asia House website. Use the promo the code “Index” at checkout for £2 discount.
Index on Censorship and Demos will hold a panel discussion at Conservative Party Conference to explore the implications of the UK government’s Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill.
Striking the right balance between strengthening national security measures and safeguarding civil liberties is a challenge faced by any attempt to counter terrorism. As the government guards against the spread of extremist ideologies, it will need to ensure new powers for law enforcement do not impinge upon citizens’ civil liberties or have the unintended effect of further alienating those young people vulnerable to radicalisation. This fringe event will explore the legal and democratic implications of the bill, as well as the practicalities surrounding enforcement.
Date & Time
Tuesday 4th October, 1230 – 1400
Speakers
Sarah Newton MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office (invited)
Dominic Grieve MP, Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (invited)
Rachael Jolley, Index on Censorship
Rick Muir, The Police Foundation
Louis Reynolds, Demos
Chair: Kate McCann, The Telegraph (invited)
Kaya Genç will be speaking at upcoming events in London on 12 and 15 September
In his new book, Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey, Index on Censorship magazine contributing editor Kaya Genç explores the country’s struggles through the eyes of Gezi Park protesters, pro-government conservatives, artists, censored journalists and more.
“This is your future … if your generation does not fight for it, it will be a disastrous one.”
Recently I took a walk down Istanbul’s central Istiklal Street. Every day here crowds of pedestrians float around in small groups, surrounded by the cries of street vendors and the ding-dongs of tramvay, Istiklal’s beloved old wooden streetcar that travels up and down this populous shopping quarter from seven in the morning to ten thirty at night. When I feel overwhelmed by this crowded city I wander by the Bosphorus Strait and watch the reflections of the sun on the slow waves of the Marmara Sea. But on lonelier days I prefer to mix with the crowds of Istiklal and come across new fashions, new people, new ideas. On that Friday I came all the way to the middle of Istiklal, to a square called Galatasaray, to sit down and enjoy a cup of strong black Turkish coffee. A little bell rang as I opened the door to a small and serene coffee shop. Taking a seat, I began listening to a song by the Kurdish singer Aynur on my headphones, and typed up the opening paragraph of a new chapter in my novel. I felt lucky to be living in such a beautiful and vibrant and history-filled city. As I wrote, I entered my fictional world and felt at peace.
At some point I looked up as the hand of a young man appeared silently against the thick glass of the coffee shop window. The hand banged the glass loudly, passionately, one, two, three times and I saw that he had company: a darkhaired youth carrying a bright flag that bore the colours red, yellow and green, which signalled Turkey’s Kurdish political movement. Seconds later, a group of high school students followed behind them and the crowd began to force its way into the shop, signs of panic discernible on their faces. A cup fell and broke. Almost immediately a cloud of smoke enveloped the first activist as the street leading to the square filled grimly with the outlines of heavily armed riot cops marching towards us in single file, chasing this small group of rebels. The barista instantly rushed to the doorway; in an attempt to save her customers from the swiftly approaching cloud of smoke and tear gas, she let the protestors inside, closed and locked the door, and took down the shutters. For a few moments, in the darkness, it seemed as if we were safe from harm – but that was before we realized the air conditioning was still working. It took 15 seconds for the interior of the five-square-metre room to fill with tear gas. If you have ever come into contact with tear gas you will know how every breath you take burns your insides, how your eyes sting – and my mind, filled with joy, ecstasy and serenity only three minutes ago, was now occupied by the question of whether I would survive this experience alive. Apparently, while I was travelling through my fictional world, a protest had kicked off in the adjacent square, which the police had forcefully suppressed.
It is a sign of where Turkey is today that nobody was really surprised. Young people are furious in Turkey. So far, the massive protests in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in 2013, two years ago on that day, had been the most visible demonstration of this temperament. During a humid, anxious and violent month in Istanbul, it had seemed as if angry Turkish men and women were willing to sacrifice everything in order to change their country. Marching in solidarity in about 90 different locations, young people in Turkey attempted to stage a revolution and were ready to defend their right to protest even against thousands of heavily armed police officers. In epic scenes coloured by the sight of huge water cannons spraying water into protestors, the 20 days between 28 May and 15 June 2013 shook Turkey and, as I’ll show here, changed its political scene beyond return. It brought Turkey’s troubled and energetic political, cultural and artistic spheres right to the centre of the international stage. Events that defined the three years since Gezi – from the crisis in Syria to the rise of ISIS and to the changing relationships with the US and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) – were somewhat energized by the big boom effect Gezi has had on Turkey.
But the roots of this explosion of energy lay deeper, in the country Turkey was before it became ‘modern’.
Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey by Kaya Genç publishes on 6th October (£14.99, I.B.Tauris)
Upcoming events with Kaya Genç
12 September Turkey beyond the headlines at Asia House
What can be made of recent events in Turkey where a coup attempt was stopped by people on the streets? Asia House is pleased to welcome acclaimed writer Kaya Genç, who currently lives in Istanbul and has been covering his country for the past decade. Genç will talk to Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, about his forthcoming book Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey.
15 September The State of Turkey with Kaya Genç, Ece Temelkuran and Daniel Trilling at London Review Bookshop
Join Index on Censorship magazine’s contributing editor Kaya Genç and fellow Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran for a discussion about the state of Turkey in the aftermath of the failed military coup. Editor of the New Humanist, and author of Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right, Daniel Trilling will chair the discussion about the past present, and future of Turkey at the London Review Bookshop on 15 September.
Index on Censorship magazine
Kaya Genç is a contributing editor to the magazine. Look for his piece in the next issue.
Order your full-colour print copy of our upcoming anonymity magazine special here, or take out a digital subscription from anywhere in the world via Exact Editions (just £18* for the year). Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship fight for free expression worldwide.
*Will be charged at local exchange rate outside the UK.
Magazines are also on sale in bookshops, including at the BFI and MagCulture in London, Home in Manchester, Carlton Books in Glasgow and News from Nowhere in Liverpool as well as on Amazon and iTunes. MagCulture will ship anywhere in the world.
Each week, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project verifies threats, violations and limitations faced by the media throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries. Here are five recent reports that give us cause for concern.
30 August 2016 – The home of veteran journalist and Index contributor Yavuz Baydar was raided by the police, the journalist reported via Twitter.
The raid came shortly after detention warrants were issued for 35 people including 27 journalists. As of 30 August, of the 27 journalists sought nine have been detained in Turkey while 18 other journalists are reportedly abroad.
President Hashim Thaci has condemned the attack. “Criminal attacks against media executives and their families threaten the privacy and freedom of speech, and at the same time seriously damage the image of Kosovo,” he told RTK.
Both attacks were claimed by a group called Rugovasit, which said in a written statement to RTK that the attack was “only a warning”.
Rugovasit blames RTK journalist Mentor Shala for only reporting the government’s perspective. “If he does not resign from RTK, his life is in danger,” they said.
The National Police confirmed in a statement that “a man with a gunshot wound to the head was discovered on the balcony”. He reportedly died between 8-9.30pm.
“Until all the facts are established, until the examination and forensic examination is complete, we are investigating it as a murder,” said Kiev police chief Andrey Kryschenko. “The main lines of enquiry are suicide and connections with his professional activities.”
The Russian-born journalist had lived in the Ukrainian capital since 2005. He was often critical of the Russian government. In 2014, he refused Russian citizenship, later joined the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
According to Latynina, the incident took place close to the radio’s office at Novy Arbat in central Moscow. An unidentified individual in a motorcycle helmet perpetrated the attack, while his accomplice was waiting for him at a motorcycle nearby. The unidentified individuals fled the scene.
Latynina told Echo of Moscow that it was the 14th or the 15th time she has been attacked. She believes the assailants had been following her for a long time as they seemed to know her daily commute and where she parks her car.
Latynina also believes the incident is connected to her Novaya Gazeta investigations into billionaire Evgeny Prigozhin, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Latynina’s investigations, Prigozhin has orchestrated mass trolling on opposition activists in Saint Petersburg.
22 August 2016 – A prosecutor has asked for a three-month prison sentence for Faig Amirli, the director of the newspaper Azadliq, Radio Free Europe’s Azerbaijan Service.
Amirli’s lawyer declared that his client is being charged for spreading national and religious hatred, along with promoting religious sects and disturbing public order by performing religious activities.
Amirli was detained by a group of unidentified individuals on 20 August. At the time, his whereabouts were unknown while his house was searched by the representatives of Grave Crimes Unit.
Police claim they found literature related to Fethullah Gülen, the alleged orchestrator of the attempted coup in Turkey, in Amirli’s car.
His arrest is considered part of a new crackdown in Azerbaijan ahead of the September’s constitutional referendum.
HM Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Office of HM the King
P.O. Box 555, Rifa’a Palace
Kingdom of Bahrain
Cc. The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street, London SW1A2AH
Cc. The Honorable John F. Kerry
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520
Cc. Federica Mogherini
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Cc. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
2 September 2016
Urgent Appeal for the Release of Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab
Your Excellency,
In light of recent alarming events in Bahrain, the undersigned NGOs express our deepest concerns about the ongoing detention of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab based on his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression. We urge the government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release Rajab.
On 13 June 2016, the authorities arrested Rajab, who serves as President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Founding Director of the regional Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), Deputy Secretary-General of FIDH, and a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division. Rajab’s arrest is one in a series of repressive actions to severely restrict the work of human rights defenders and civil society members in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
In the wake of an unprecedented crackdown, we believe the detention of Rajab to be an act of reprisal for his work to promote fundamental human rights in Bahrain, as well as a means to restrict Rajab’s freedom of expression and speech. He is charged for tweets and re-tweets about allegations of torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison, which were investigated by many local and international NGOs, and about the widely reported and criticised human rights violations during the war in Yemen. In total, Rajab could serve up to 15 years in prison for his statements via Twitter.
Rajab faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of spreading “false or malicious news, statements, or rumours” under article 133 of Bahrain’s penal code; a further two years imprisonment if convicted under article 215 of the penal code for “offending a foreign country [Saudi Arabia]” for tweets related to the Saudi-led war in Yemen and an additional three-year sentence if convicted of “offending a statutory body” under article 216 of the penal code for comments relating to Jau prison in Bahrain.
In addition to these charges, he may also face a trial on charges of “spreading false news” for similar statements made during televised interviews last year. That case has not yet been referred to court, but is believed to have served, among others, for his arrest on 13 June.
Due to the poor detention conditions, Rajab’s health has been severely deteriorating since the time of his arrest. He continues to be held at West Riffa police station and family visits are being monitored very closely, according to his lawyers. His cell does not meet the requirements for long-term detention and the sanitary facilities are unhygienic. He has lost eight kilos since his arrest. Rajab has chronic inflammation in his lower back requiring urgent surgery, which has been delayed by the authorities until early September. In addition, he is also suffering from an irregular heartbeat, which has decreased below the normal range during his detention, and has also suffered from chest pains recently, having required a visit to the clinic. Despite the fact that he requires urgent medical treatment, prison authorities do not appear to provide sufficient medical assistance for most of these ailments. In the meantime, Rajab is dependent on his family to provide him with painkillers and bandages for his bleeding due to his ulcer.
Following his arrest, Rajab’s case has received widespread international attention by government officials and UN dignitaries, inter alia, by the spokesperson of the US State Department, the spokesperson of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, as well as by members of the European Parliament, who adopted an urgent resolution condemning the Bahraini authorities’ crackdown on civil society and on the political opposition.
As a signatory to international human rights conventions, the Government of Bahrain is bound to guarantee the right to freedom of expression for all in Bahrain, including Nabeel Rajab. Depriving Rajab of his liberty for peaceful social media posts goes against Bahrain’s commitment to uphold these international conventions and raises the question of its ability to respect its legal obligations within the wider international community.
To date, the government in Bahrain has repeatedly demonstrated unwillingness to comply with international legal standards, despite promises made at the United Nations during its Universal Periodic Review, and during its own national inquiry, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).
We therefore urge you to abide by the principles of democracy and human rights and to safeguard freedom of expression in Bahrain, as enshrined in international human rights legislation, by dropping all charges against the human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab and ensure his immediate and unconditional release.
Sincerely,
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
Bahrain Press Association (BPA)
Brian Dooley, Human Rights First
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CIVICUS
Committee for the Respect of Liberties in Tunisia
English PEN
European-Bahraini Organisation for human rights (EBOHR)
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Human Rights Sentinel
IFEX
Index on Censorship
International Press Institute (IPI)
Jesper Højberg, Executive Director, International Media Support
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
Lawyers Rights Watch Canada
Libya Al-Mostakbal Centre for Media & Culture
MADA Palestinian Center for Development & Media Freedoms
Maharat Foundation
Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH)
No Peace Without Justice
Pakistan Press Foundation
Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Salam for Democracy and Human Rights
Tunis Centre for Press Freedom
Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH)
Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Today Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab spent his 52nd birthday in prison. The Index on Censorship award winner is due in court on 5 September on charges of spreading “false or malicious” news about the country’s government via Twitter, “offending” Saudi Arabia and condemning Bahrain’s notorious Jau prison.
He faces 15 years in prison.
To mark Rajab’s birthday and call for his immediate release, a group of human rights organisations – including Index on Censorship, English Pen, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Amnesty International and Redress – held a protest outside the Bahraini Embassy on the Gloucester Road in London.
Rajab became involved in the uprisings in Bahrain of the 1990s to demand democratic reforms. He went on to co-found the Bahrain Human Rights Society and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He has faced a volley attacks from the authorities as a result of his activism. He has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, travel bans, intimidation, physical assaults, imprisonment and solitary confinement.
On 2 September, the first hearing will take place in a trial concerning three former senior editors of Taraf daily newspaper, Ahmet Altan, Yasemin Çongar and Yıldıray Oğur; and two journalists, Mehmet Baransu and Tuncay Opçin. The undersigned organisations believe the trial to be politically motivated and call on the government to drop all charges against the accused and to immediately and unconditionally release Mehmet Baransu, who has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest on 2 March 2015.
The charges pre-date the 15 July coup attempt, which the undersigned organisations also condemned; however, this is a high profile trial of journalists following the declaration of the State of Emergency in Turkey, under which at least 100 journalists have been detained. This trial is therefore of particular significance, as it may shed light on how the courts will approach cases concerning the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial under the state of emergency – even when not directly related to the coup attempt.
ARTICLE 19, Index on Censorship, EFJ, Norwegian Press Association, Norwegian Journalists’ Union, PEN Germany, Danish PEN, PEN International, and Wales PEN Cymru are attending the trial.
THE CHARGES
The charges are detailed in a 276 page indictment, which was accepted on 20 June 2016 by the Istanbul High Criminal Court, 16 months after the initiation of the investigation. All five journalists are facing charges of acquiring, destroying and divulging documents concerning the security of the state and its political interests, punishable by up to 50 years in prison. Baransu and Opçin are facing additional charges of ‘membership and administration of a terrorist organization’ and face a possible 75-year prison term.
The charges of acquiring, destroying and divulging state secrets against the five journalists concern the ‘Egemen Operation’ plan – an out-of-date military war plan to respond to a Greek invasion. As a prior judgment of the Turkish Constitutional Court affirms, Taraf did not publish state secrets regarding this operation. Moreover, it is hard to see how the document could be considered a state secret; the Egemen Operation Plan was declared no longer in use in 2007, prior to when it was allegedly acquired by the journalists. Of even greater concern,the plan was actually made public in 2011 by a Court, when it was published in an indictment related to another case.
The charges of membership and administration of a terrorist organisation against Baransu and Opcin, refer to alleged affiliation with the Gülenist Terror Organisation (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü, FETÖ), the group that the Turkish government accuses of being behind the failed coup in July. The first official reference to this group as a terrorist movement was in an indictment in May 2015, and it was only added to the official list of outlawed terrorist organisations in Turkey in May 2016 – six years after the period to which the charges relate.
The defendants deny all the charges.
PROBLEMS WITH THE INDICTMENT
The indictment presented by the prosecutor is highly problematic, containing a number of procedural deficiencies. In addition, failing to establish the facts against the defendants, it includes information about several offences that bear no relation to the proceedings at issue; and levies accusations against the defendants that are not included in the charges. The deficiencies include:
• The indictment accuses the defendants of propaganda for a terrorist organisation; but brings no charges on these grounds, nor does it provide any facts to support this.
• 46 pages of the indictment have been copied directly from an entirely separate indictment against Cumhuriyet editors, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who exposed illegal arms transfers by the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) into Syria and were sentenced to prison for five years for their reporting. The degree of direct reproduction is evident from the fact that one paragraph of the indictment even starts with the words ‘The Defendant Can Dündar’.
• Large parts of the indictment against the journalists focus on a series of controversial news reports, titled the ‘Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Coup Plan’, published in Taraf between 20-29 January 2010, about an alleged military coup to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. However, the charges do not, in fact, relate to this story. Indeed, the indictment does not suggest Taraf’s decision to publish the Balyoz papers was criminal and Balyoz does not figure in the specific charges presented at all.
These deficiencies seriously undermine the credibility of the charges, increasing concerns that they are groundless and aimed at stifling opposition voices within Turkey.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL
It is well established that no restriction may be imposed on freedom of expression on the grounds of national security unless the government can demonstrate that the restriction is necessary in a democratic society to protect a legitimate national security interest. The burden of demonstrating the validity of the restriction rests with the government.
Moreover, any restriction on journalistic activity – in this case the charges brought against the journalists – must have the genuine purpose and demonstrable effect of protecting a legitimate national security interest. As noted, the alleged state secret, the Egemen Secret Operation Plan, had already been published prior to charges being brought by a court, undermining the assertion that charges of acquiring, destroying and divulging this plan are necessary to ensure state security. This is reinforced by the disproportionately high sentences sought against the defendants. Restrictions must meet a sort of proportionality test, whereby the benefit in terms of protecting the interest must be greater than the harm caused to freedom of expression.
Additionally, national security concerns do not allow the government to waive the rule of law protections that are part of international law. This includes the right not to be arbitrarily detained and the right to be informed promptly of the charges against him or her. Mehmet Baransu, who has been held in pre-trial detention for 18 months, and had no charges served against him for a 15 month period, has had both of these rights violated.
We call upon the government of Turkey to drop the charges against the Taraf journalists. At a time when the Turkish government should be demonstrating its commitment to freedom of expression and the rule of law, it is pursuing highly questionable charges that seem to be aimed at stifling legitimate government criticism.
SIGNATORIES
ARTICLE 19 Index on Censorship European Federation of Journalists Norwegian Press Association Norwegian Journalists’ Union PEN Germany My Media PEN International Welsh PEN Cymru PEN UK
Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab (Photo: The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy)
Playwright David Hare, author Monica Ali, comedian Shazia Mirza, MP Keir Starmer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka are among those who have written to Prime Minister Theresa May asking the UK government to call on Bahrain to release a campaigner imprisoned for just tweeting his opinions.
Nabeel Rajab has been in pre-trial detention in Bahrain since July. He has been held largely in solitary confinement, and for the first two weeks after his arrest was held in a filthy police cell that aggravated heart and other health issues.
Rajab was arrested for expressing opinions. He did not advocate or condone violence, nor is he accused of any violent act. Some of the “criminal” communications he is charged with include retweets of his support for organisations like Index on Censorship, which organised the letter. Rajab is also accused of “insulting“ Bahrain’s ally Saudi Arabia. He faces up to 15 years in prison for his “crimes”.
Rajab is a former winner and judge of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards and those who signed the letter included former fellow winners and judges.
“Free expression is under severe threat in Bahrain and the region,” said Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “It is vital that Bahrain’s democratic allies make clear to Bahraini authorities that their behaviour is unacceptable. The US State Department has already publicly called for Nabeel’s release. The British government should do the same.”
September 1, 2016
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to ask you to call publicly for the release of Nabeel Rajab. One of the Gulf region’s best-known human rights defenders, Mr Rajab has been in pre-trial detention since July. He has been held largely in solitary confinement, and for the first 15 days after his arrest on 13 June was held in a filthy police cell that aggravated heart and other health issues.
Mr Rajab was arrested simply for expressing opinions. He did not advocate or condone violence, nor is he accused of any violent act. Indeed, some of the “criminal” communications he is charged with include retweets in his support from international civil rights organisations like Index on Censorship. He is also accused of “insulting” Bahrain’s ally Saudi Arabia. He faces up to 15 years in prison for his “crimes”.
Free expression is under severe threat in Bahrain and the region. It is vital that Bahrain’s democratic allies make clear to Bahraini authorities that their behaviour is unacceptable. The US State Department has already publicly called for Nabeel’s release. We ask Britain to do the same.
Yours sincerely,
Index on Censorship former winners and judges
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Index on Censorship
Keir Starmer MP
David Hare, playwright
Monica Ali, author
Howard Brenton, playwright
Maureen Freely, author
Shazia Mirza, comedian
Charlie Smith, GreatFire.org, China
Rafael Marques de Morais, journalist, Angola
Serge Bambara, musician, Burkina Faso
Shazad Ahmed, campaigner, Pakistan
Yoav Shamir, director, Israel
Tamas Bodoky, campaigner, Hungary
Sanar Yurdatapan, composer, Turkey
Rakesh Sharma, filmmaker, India
Maria Teresa Ronderos, journalist
Farieha Aziz, campaigner, Pakistan
Safa Al-Ahmed, journalist, Saudi Arabia
Jean Hatzfeld, journalist and author, France
Mahsa Vahdat, artist, Iran
Murad Subay, artist, Yemen
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, House of Lords
Wole Soyinka, playwright and poet
Zaina Erhaim, journalist, Syria
Mouad Belrhouate, musician, Morocco
For more information, please contact Sean Gallagher at sean@indexoncensorship.org or +44 (0)207 963 7262
Nabeel Rajab, the Bahraini human rights activist and Index on Censorship award winner, will spend his 52nd birthday in detention.
Rajab is due in court on 5 September accused of spreading “false or malicious news” about the government (evidence for which includes a retweet of an Index tweet), “offending a foreign country” by criticising Saudi Arabia’s incursions in Yemen and “offending a statutory body” by condemning conditions in the country’s notorious Jau prison. He faces 15 years behind bars.
This is just the latest in a long line of actions taken by the Bahraini government against Rajab, one of the Middle East’s most prominent human rights defenders. He has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, travel bans, physical intimidation and imprisonment – including time spent in solitary confinement – for his non-violent advocacy of democracy and an end to endemic corruption.
Join Index on Censorship, English Pen, The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and others at the Bahrain Embassy in London on 1 September to mark Rajab’s birthday and call for his immediate release.
When: Wednesday 1 September 2016, 2pm Where: Bahrain Embassy, London (Map)
Award-winning writer, human rights activist and columnist Aslı Erdoğan
“When I understood that I was to be detained by a directive given from the top, my fear vanished,” novelist and journalist Aslı Erdoğan, who has been detained since 16 August, told the daily Cumhuriyet through her lawyer. “At that very moment, I realised that I had committed no crime.”
While her state of mind may have improved, her physical well-being is in jeopardy. A diabetic, she also suffers from asthama and chronic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“I have not been given my medication in the past five days,” Erdoğan, who is being held in solitary confinement, added on 24 August. “I have a special diet but I can only eat yogurt here. I have not been outside of my cell. They are trying to leave permanent damage on my body. If I did not resist, I could not put up with these conditions.”
An internationally known novelist, columnist and member of the advisory board of the now shuttered pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem daily Erdoğan was accused membership of a terrorist organisation, as well as spreading terrorist propaganda and incitement to violence.
According to the Platform for Independent Journalism, Erdoğan is one of at least 100 journalists held in Turkish prisons. This number – which will rise further – makes Turkey the top jailer of journalists in the world.
Each day brings new drama. Erdoğan’s case is just one of the many recent examples of the suffering inflicted on Turkey. It is clear that the botched coup on 15 July did not lead to a new dawn, despite the rhetoric on “democracy’s victory”.
Turkey faces the same question it did before the 15 July: What will become of our beloved country? Like the phrase “feast of democracy” – which has been adopted by the pro-AKP media mouthpieces – it has been repeated so often that it habecome empty rhetoric.
Such false cries only serve the ruling AKP’s interests. Even abroad there are increased calls that we should support the government despite the directionless politics in Turkey and the state of emergency.
In a recent article for Project Syndicate entitled Taking Turkey Seriously, former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote: “The West’s attitude toward Turkey matters. Western diplomats should escalate engagement with Turkey to ensure an outcome that reflects democratic values and is favorable to Western and Turkish interests alike.”
Lale Kemal took Turkey seriously. As one of the country’s top expert journalists on military-civilian relations, Kemal stood up for the truth, barely making a living as no mogul-owned media outlet would publish her honest journalism. She headed the Ankara bureau of independent daily Taraf, now shut down because of the emergency decree. She now sits in jail for the absurd accusation that she “aided and abetted” the Gülen movement, an Islamic religious and social movement led by US-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan refers to the movement as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETO) and blames it for orchestrating the failed coup.
But actually, Kemal’s only “crime” was to write for the “wrong” newspapers, Taraf and Today’s Zaman.
Şahin Alpay also took Turkey seriously. As a scholar and political analyst he was a shining light in many democratic projects and one of the leading liberal voices in Turkey.
Three weeks ago, he was detained indefinitely following a police raid at his home. His crime? Aiding and abetting terror, instigating the coup and writing for the Zaman and Today’s Zaman. This last point is now reason enough to deny such a prominent intellectual his freedom.
Access to the digital archives of “dangerous” newspapers – Zaman, Taraf, Nokta etc – is now blocked. This is a systematic deleting of their entire institutional memory. All those news stories, op-ed articles and news analysis pieces are now completely gone.
Basın-İş, a Turkish journalists’ union, stated that 2,308 journalists have lost their jobs since 15 July, and most will probably never to be employed again. Unemployment was their reward for taking Turkey seriously.
Erdoğan, Kemal and Alpay, like many journalists, academics and artists who care for their country, are scapegoats for the erratic policies of those in power.
Even businessmen have fallen victim to the massive witch hunt against “FETO”. Vast amounts of assets belonging to those accused of being Gülen sympathisers have been seized and expropriated by the state. Not long ago these businessmen were hailed as “Anatolian Tigers”, who opened the Turkish market to globalisation.
The seizures will probably draw complaints at the European Court level. They are sadly reminiscent of the expropriations at the end of the Ottoman Empire, which had targeted mainly Christian-owned assets.
What all of these cases have in common isn’t the acrimony that pollute daily politics in Turkey. It is the total sense of loss for the rule of law, made worse by post-coup developments.
British police have been criticised for refusing to release details of an international deal to train security officials from Bahrain, a country accused of a litany of human rights abuses. Read the full article
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/GBQX0TvFMbs”][vc_column_text]This article was updated on 31 August 2017
Have you expressed disapproval of your government? Called for more democratic decision-making in your country? Criticised prison conditions or criticised a country allied with your government? Retweeted a comment that included #opinionsarenotcrimes?
You are a criminal. You could be facing up to 15 years in prison for simply expressing your point of view if you lived in Bahrain.
Nabeel Rajab, just like you, thinks his country could be better. And he has made those views public. He speaks out against poor prison conditions and argues for more freedom of speech in Bahrain.
Friday 1 September 2017, marks his second birthday in prison, where he has been since 13 June 2016. He has been subjected to harsh treatment in often appalling conditions that have exacerbated his health issues.
Rajab — due in court on 11 September in one of the cases against him — is facing trial for tweets and retweets about the war in Yemen in 2015, for which he is charged with “disseminating false rumours in time of war” (Article 133 of the Bahraini Criminal Code) and “insulting a neighboring country” (Article 215 of the Bahraini Criminal Code), and for tweeting about torture in Jau prison, which resulted in a charge of “insulting a statutory body” (Article 216 of the Bahraini Criminal Code).
What’s worse, it’s just the latest in a long line of actions taken by the Bahraini government against Rajab, one of the Middle East’s most prominent human rights defenders.
Rajab has been subjected to ongoing judicial harassment, physical intimidation and imprisonment for his non-violent advocacy of democracy and for his calls for an end to endemic corruption. Police officers have beat him up, the country’s press have published the government’s accusations against without his side of the story. He has been imprisoned, pardoned, banned from travelling, rearrested and held in solitary confinement.
Despite the huge personal cost to himself and his family, Rajab continues to speak out.
His activism began during protests in the 1990s and grew with his involvement with the Bahrain Human Rights Society, which he helped found in 2000.
In 2002 he partnered with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is now serving a life sentence for his human rights work, and others to launch the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which was awarded an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award in 2012. BCHR has consistently spoken out for non-violent resistance and the peaceful struggle for social justice, democracy and human rights.
Nabeel Rajab, BCHR – winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012 with then-Chair of the Index on Censorship board of trustees Jonathan Dimbleby
Rajab has also been outspoken in working for the protection of the Gulf’s migrant workers, founding, in 2003, one of the first committees in the region to advocate improved conditions for them.
When the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East in 2011, Rajab participated in the pro-democracy protests that were focused on the Pearl Roundabout in the country’s capital Manana. His vocal criticism of human rights violations and outspokenness — even after the government issued a state of emergency and invited foreign intervention to help maintain control — brought him into frequent conflict with security forces.
Born 1 September 1964 to a middle-class family, he went to university in India to study politics, before returning to work in Bahrain. Rajab is married and has two children. He is a nephew of Mohamed Hasan Jawad, one of the “Bahrain 13” — political figures imprisoned for participating in the Arab Spring protests, and a cousin of Hussain Jawad, a prominent human rights activist arrested in February 2015.
What can you do to help?
Silenced temporarily by the Bahraini government, Rajab needs you to use your voice. Speak out in support of free speech and human rights.
Tweet and Facebook a statement of solidarity using #FreeNabeel.
Call on your nation’s leaders to pressure Bahrain to respect freedom of expression and #FreeNabeel.
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