15 Jan 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”23724″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Senior journalists and media leaders are to debate at a London Press Club event whether quality journalism can survive. The panel of experts will be asked how traditional journalism can tackle the risks of fake news dominating social media.
On the panel will be Jane Barrett, Reuters Global Head of Multimedia who is leading the digital transformation of the news agency; Martin Bentham, Evening Standard Home Affairs Editor; Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of global freedom of expression organisation Index on Censorship which campaigns on free speech issues worldwide; and Polly Curtis, previously editor-in-chief of HuffPost UK and digital editor at The Guardian, a director of the Society of Editors and a member of the panel advising the Cairncross Review, an independent inquiry commissioned by the government to make recommendations on the future sustainability of high quality news.
Chairing the debate will be Michael Hayman, an entrepreneur, broadcaster and author who co-founded the campaigns firm Seven Hills.
The debate is being held in association with the Stationers & Newspapermakers’ media group and the Society of Editors.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104750″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Jane Barrett is Reuters Global Head of Multimedia and leads the digital transformation of the news agency. She works closely with media clients around the world to understand their changing digital needs and then ensures that Reuters changes to satisfy them. She also works closely with the major technology platforms on their news projects. Previously, she was the Business Editor for EMEA, led a financial video start-up and was a foreign correspondent in Rome, Milan and Madrid.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104751″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Martin Bentham is Home Affairs Editor of the Evening Standard and covers subjects including policing, terrorism, immigration and prisons. He also writes some of the paper’s leaders and reviews the newspapers on the BBC’s The Papers programme. Before joining the Evening Standard he worked for newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, The Sun, and the Halifax Evening Courier.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104752″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Polly Curtis, previously editor-in-chief at HuffPost UK and digital editor at The Guardian, now a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute in Oxford. Polly is a director of the Society of Editors and a member of the panel advising the Cairncross Review, an independent inquiry commissioned by the government to make recommendations on the future sustainability of high quality news. She started her career as a reporter and has reported on health, education and social affairs and was a member of the Lobby through the 2010 election.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”59025″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of global freedom of expression organisation, Index on Censorship, which campaigns on free speech issues worldwide. Index was one of the leading members of the UK libel reform coalition and, more recently, has campaigned against section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act and spoken out against state-backed press regulation. A four-year project by Index documenting threats to press freedom in Europe concluded in January 2019. Jodie is a former foreign correspondent and business journalist and was London Bureau Chief for Reuters from 2008 to 2011. She is a passionate believer in the power of words and the importance of good heels.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104753″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]The panel will be chaired by: Michael Hayman, an entrepreneur, broadcaster and author. He co-founded the campaigns firm Seven Hills & co-authored Mission (Penguin). He hosts the TV show The Capital Conversation on London Live and is an experienced event host. He has interviewed leaders from business, sports, politics and entertainment. He is a columnist for CityAM and capital markets columnist for the Yorkshire Post. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of London and an Honorary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Judge Business School. He is Chair of Entrepreneurs at the private bank Coutts and co-founded StartUp Britain. He was awarded an MBE for services to enterprise.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104758″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://londonpressclub.co.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
When: Monday 11 February, 6:30pm
Where: Stationers Hall, London, EC4M 7DD
Tickets: £5 via EventBrite
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15 Jan 19 | Fellowship 2019, News and features, Press Releases
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104533″ img_size=”full”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104535″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
- Judges include investigative journalist Maria Ressa, one of Time magazine’s people of the Year 2018; actor Khalid Abdalla
- Shortlist celebrates artists, campaigners and activists from Saudi Arabia to Serbia, Colombia to Cameroon
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]A self-exiled Saudi street artist who uses murals to challenge her homeland’s repression of women, a Nigerian organisation that fosters community radio, a group of digital activists tackling online trolls in Colombia, and a Serbian collective of investigative journalists exposing government corruption are among the individuals and organisations shortlisted for the 2019 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowships.
Drawn from more than 400 crowdsourced nominations, the shortlist celebrates artists, writers, journalists and campaigners fighting for freedom of expression against immense obstacles. Many of the 15 shortlisted nominees face regular death threats, others criminal prosecution or exile. Some are currently in prison for daring to speak out against the status quo.
“Free speech is the cornerstone of a free society – and it’s under increasing threat worldwide. That’s why it’s more important than ever to recognise the groups and individuals willing to stand up for it,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of campaigning nonprofit Index on Censorship.
Awards fellowships are offered in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism and journalism.
Nominees include exiled street artist Ms. Saffaa whose murals highlight women’s rights and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia; Nigeria’s Institute for Media and Society, which goes to great lengths to improve the country’s media landscape by challenging government regulation and aiding the creation of community radio stations in rural areas; Colombia’s Fundación Karisma, which fights back against internet trolls and promotes freedom of expression online; and The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS), an independent group of investigative journalists exposing corruption in the country.
Other nominees include ArtLords, a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan; P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism), a civil society organisation with an ambitious goal of neutralising censorship in Turkey; Mohammed al-Maskati, a Bahraini activist and digital security consultant who provides digital security training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa; and Mehman Huseynov, an imprisoned journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan.
Judges for this year’s awards, now in its 19th year, are award-winning investigative journalist and Rappler.com Editor-in-Chief Maria Ressa, actor and filmmaker Khalid Abdalla, computer scientist and author Dr. Kate Devlin, and writer and social activist Nimco Ali.
Abdalla said: “The abyss we are facing all over the world requires acts of courage and intellect capable of changing the terms of how we think and respond to the challenges ahead. We have to celebrate those who inspire us and lead by example, not just because they have managed to break barriers in their own contexts, but because some part of what they do holds a key for us all.”
Winners, who will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on 4 April, become Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellows and are given year-long support for their work, including training in areas such as advocacy and communications.
“Many of the things that I dreamt of happening one day, in an idealistic way, have become reality, all thanks to Index,” Wendy Funes, 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Journalism Fellow, said. “Solidarity, love and friendship are really the things that can move this world, and that is what Index is made of with all of the support they have extended to me.”
This year, the Freedom of Expression Awards are being supported by sponsors including SAGE Publishing, Google, Private Internet Access, Edwardian Hotels, Vodafone, France Médias Mondes and Psiphon. Illustrations of the nominees were created by Sebastián Bravo Guerrero.
Notes for editors:
- Index on Censorship is a UK-based non-profit organisation that publishes work by censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide.
- More detail about each of the nominees is included below.
- The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 4 April.
For more information, or to arrange interviews with any of those shortlisted, please contact Sean Gallagher on 0207 963 7262 or [email protected]. More biographical information and illustrations of the nominees are available at indexoncensorship.org/indexawards2019.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards nominees 2019″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
Arts
for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104530″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]ArtLords
Afghanistan
ArtLords is a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan who encourage ordinary citizens, especially women and children, to paint the issues that concern them on so-called blast walls: walls the country’s rich and the powerful have built around themselves to protect them from violence while the poor fend for themselves. Their work has turned a symbol of fear, tension and separation into a platform where social issues can be expressed visually and discussed in the street. ArtLords has completed over 400 murals in 16 provinces of Afghanistan. In March 2018, for International Women’s Day, ArtLords painted a tribute to Professor Hamida Barmaki, a human rights defender killed in a terrorist attack six years ago.
Zehra Doğan
Turkey
Zehra Doğan is an imprisoned Kurdish painter and journalist who — denied access to materials for her work — paints with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and uses newspapers and milk cartons as canvases. When she realised her reports from Turkey’s Kurdish region were being ignored by mainstream media, Doğan began painting the destruction in town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media. For this she was arrested and imprisoned. Imprisonment hasn’t stopped her from producing journalism and art. She collects and writes stories about female political prisoners, reports on human rights abuses in prison, and paints despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.
ElMadina for Performing and Digital Arts
Egypt
ElMadina is a group of artists and arts managers who combine art and protest by encouraging Egyptians to get involved in performances in public spaces, defying the country’s restrictive laws. ElMadina’s work encourages participation — through story-telling, dance and theatre — to transform public spaces and marginalised areas in Alexandria and beyond into thriving environments where people can freely express themselves. Their work encourages free expression in a country in which public space is shrinking under the weight of government distrust of the artistic sector. ElMadina also carry out advocacy and research work and provide a physical space for training programmes, residencies and performances.
Ms Saffaa
Saudi Arabia / Australia
Ms Saffaa is a self-exiled Saudi street artist living in Australia who uses murals to highlight women’s rights and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. Collaborating with artists from around the world, she challenges Saudi authorities’ linear and limited narrative of women’s position in Saudi society, and offers a counter narrative through her art. Part of a new generation of Saudi activists who take to social media to spread ideas, Ms Saffaa’s work has acquired international reach. In November 2018, she collaborated with renowned American artist and writer Molly Crabapple on a mural celebrating murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that read, “We Saudis deserve better.” [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Campaigning
for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104531″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Cartoonists Rights Network International
United States / International
Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a small organisation with a big impact: monitoring threats and abuses against editorial cartoonists worldwide. Marshalling an impressive worldwide network, CRNI helps to focus international attention on cases in which cartoonists are persecuted and put pressure on the persecutors. CRNI tracks censorship, fines, penalties and physical intimidation – including of family members, assault, imprisonment, and even assassinations. Once a threat is detected, CRNI often partners with other human rights organisations to maximise the pressure and impact of a campaign to protect the cartoonist and confront those who seek to censor political cartoonists.
Institute for Media and Society
Nigeria
The Institute for Media and Society (IMS) is a Nigerian NGO that aims to improve the country’s media landscape by challenging government regulation and fostering the creation of community radio stations in rural areas at a time when local journalism globally is under threat. Three-quarters of television and radio stations in Nigeria are owned by politicians, and as a result they are divided along political lines, while rural communities are increasingly marginalised. IMS’s approach combines research and advocacy to challenge legal restrictions on the media as well as practical action to encourage Nigerians to use their voices, particularly via local radio. IMS also tracks violations of the rights of journalists in Nigeria.
Media Rights Agenda
Nigeria
Media Rights Agenda (MRA) is a non-profit organisation that has spent the last two decades working to improve media freedom and freedom of expression in Nigeria by challenging the government in courts. While the constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, other laws – including the sections of the Criminal Code, the Cybercrimes Act and the Official Secrets Act – limit and even criminalise expression. Through its active legal team, MRA has initiated strategic litigation targeting dozens of institutions, politicians and officials to improve the country’s legal framework around media freedom. Its persistent campaigning and lawsuits on freedom of information have helped improve access to government-held data.
P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism)
Turkey
P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) is a civil society organisation that aims to neutralise censorship in Turkey — a country in which speaking freely courts fines, arrest and lengthy jail sentences. P24’s pro bono legal team defends journalists and academics who are on trial for exercising their right to free expression. It also undertakes coordinated social media and public advocacy work that includes live-tweeting from courtrooms and campaigning through an array of websites, newsletters and exhibition spaces. Its latest effort aims to provide spaces for collaboration and free expression in the form of a literature house and a project connecting lawyers and artists. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Digital Activism
for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104532″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Fundación Karisma
Colombia
Fundación Karisma is a civil society organisation that takes on online trolls by using witty online ‘stamps’ that flag up internet abuse. It’s an initiative that uses humour to draw attention to a serious problem: the growing online harassment of women in Colombia and its chilling effect. The organisation offers a rare space to discuss many issues at the intersection of human rights and technology in the country and then tackles them through a mix of research, advocacy and digital tools. Karisma’s “Sharing is not a crime” campaign supports open access to knowledge against the backdrop of Colombia’s restrictive copyright legislation.
Mohammed Al-Maskati
Middle East
Mohammed al-Maskati is a digital security consultant who provides training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa. Working as Frontline Defenders’ Digital Protection Consultant for the MENA Region, Mohammed teaches activists – ranging from vulnerable minorities to renowned campaigners taking on whole governments – to communicate despite government attempt to shut them down. He educates them on the use of virtual private networks and how to avoid falling into phishing or malware traps, create safe passwords and keep accounts anonymous. As governments become more and more sophisticated in their attempts to track and crush dissent, the work of people like Al-Maskati is increasingly vital.
SFLC.in
India
SFLC.in (Software Freedom Law Centre) tracks internet shutdowns in India, a crucial service in a country with the most online blackouts of any country in the world. The tracker was the first initiative of its kind in India and has quickly become the top source for journalists reporting on the issue. As well as charting the sharp increase in the number and frequency of shutdowns in the country, the organisation has a productive legal arm and brings together lawyers, policy analysts and technologists to fight for digital rights in the world’s second most populous country. It also provides training and pro-bono services to journalists, activists and comedians whose rights have been curtailed.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Journalism
for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”104534″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Bihus.info
Ukraine
Bihus.info is a group of independent investigative journalists in Ukraine who – despite threats and assaults – are fearlessly exposing the corruption of many Ukrainian officials. In the last two years alone, Bihus.info’s coverage has contributed to the opening of more than 100 legal cases against corrupt officials. Chasing money trails, murky real estate ownership and Russian passports, Bihus.info produces hard-hitting, in-depth TV reports for popular television programme, Nashi Hroshi (Our Money), which illuminates discrepancies between officials’ real wealth and their official income. One of the key objectives of the project is not just to inform, but to involve people in the fight against corruption by demonstrating how it affects their own well-being.
Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS)
Serbia
Investigating corruption is one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism: three investigative reporters have been murdered in the European Union in the past year alone. In Serbia, journalists face death threats and smear campaigns portray investigative journalists as foreign-backed propagandists. Against this backdrop, Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) stands out as one of the last independent outlets left amid an increasingly partisan media. Using freedom of information requests, the CINS has created databases based on thousands of pages of documents to underpin its hard-hitting investigations. These include stories on loans provided to pro-government tabloids and TV channels. CINS also provides hands-on investigative journalism training for journalists and editors.
Mehman Huseynov
Azerbaijan
Mehman Huseynov is a journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, consistently ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom. Sentenced to two years in prison in March 2017 after describing abuses he had suffered at a police station, Huseynov has put his life in danger to document sensitive issues. His work circulated widely on the internet, informing citizens about the real estate and business empires of the country’s government officials, and scrutinising the decisions of president Ilham Aliyev. Huseynov is still in prison and remains defiant, saying: “I am not here only for myself; I am here so that your children are not in my place tomorrow. If you uphold the judgement against me, you have no guarantees that you and your children will not be in my place tomorrow.”
Mimi Mefo
Cameroon
Mimi Mefo is one of less than a handful journalists working without fear or favour in Cameroon’s climate of repression and self-censorship. An award-winning broadcast journalist and the first-ever woman editor-in-chief of private media house Equinoxe TV and Radio, Mefo was arrested in November 2018 after she published reports that the military was behind the death of an American missionary in the country. Mefo reports on the escalating violence in the country’s western regions, a conflict that has become known as the “Anglophone Crisis” and is a leading voice in exposing the harassment of other Cameroonian journalists, calling publicly for the release of those jailed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
15 Jan 19 | Awards
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1547219633236{padding-top: 250px !important;padding-bottom: 250px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/newsite02may/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/freedom-of-expression-awards-2019-1460×490-with-year-1.jpg?id=104692) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1500449679881{margin-top: -50px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”2019 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARDS” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner disable_element=”yes”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][vc_custom_heading text=”ABOUT THE AWARDS” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column_inner el_class=”awards-inside-desc” width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.
Awards are offered in four categories: Arts, Campaigning, Digital Activism and Journalism. Anyone who has had a demonstrable impact in tackling censorship is eligible. Winners are honoured at a gala celebration in London. Winners join Index’s Awards Fellowship programme and receive dedicated training and support.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/JeDl0BWXXOc”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”2019 FELLOWSHIP” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
Selected from over 400 public nominations and a shortlist of 16, the 2019 Freedom of Expression Awards fellows exemplify courage in the face of censorship. Learn more about the fellowship.
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Arts” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”104529″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Zehra Doğan | Turkey
Released from prison on 24 February 2019, Zehra Doğan is a Kurdish painter and journalist who, during her imprisonment, was denied access to materials for her work. She painted with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and used newspapers and milk cartons as canvases. When she realised her reports from Turkey’s Kurdish region were being ignored by mainstream media, Doğan began painting the destruction in the town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media. For this she was arrested and imprisoned. During her imprisonment she refused to be silenced and continued to produce journalism and art. She collected and wrote stories about female political prisoners, reported on human rights abuses in prison, and painted despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.
Full profile | Acceptance speech[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Campaigning” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”104518″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Cartoonists Rights Network International | United States / International
Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) is a small organisation with a big impact: monitoring threats and abuses against editorial cartoonists worldwide. Marshalling an impressive worldwide network, CRNI helps to focus international attention on cases in which cartoonists are persecuted and put pressure on the persecutors. CRNI tracks censorship, fines, penalties and physical intimidation – including of family members, assault, imprisonment and even assassinations. Once a threat is detected, CRNI often partners with other human rights organisations to maximise the pressure and impact of a campaign to protect the cartoonist and confront those who seek to censor political cartoonists.
Full profile | Acceptance speech[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Digital Activism” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”104520″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Fundación Karisma | Colombia
Fundación Karisma is a civil society organisation that challenges online trolls by using witty online ‘stamps’ that flag up internet abuse. It is an initiative that uses humour to draw attention to a serious problem: the growing online harassment of women in Colombia and its chilling effect. The organisation offers a rare space to discuss many issues at the intersection of human rights and technology in the country and then tackles them through a mix of research, advocacy and digital tools. Karisma’s “Sharing is not a crime” campaign supports open access to knowledge against the backdrop of Colombia’s restrictive copyright legislation.
Full profile | Acceptance speech[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Journalism” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”104523″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mimi Mefo | Cameroon
Mimi Mefo is one of less than a handful of journalists working without fear or favour in Cameroon’s climate of repression and self-censorship. An award-winning broadcast journalist at private media house Equinoxe TV and Radio, Mefo was arrested in November 2018 after she published reports that the military was behind the death of an American missionary in the country. Mefo reports on the escalating violence in the country’s western regions, a conflict that has become known as the “Anglophone Crisis” and is a leading voice in exposing the harassment of other Cameroonian journalists, calling publicly for the release of those jailed.
Full profile | Acceptance speech[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][awards_gallery_slider name=”2019 AWARDS GALA” images_url=”105882,105875,105876,105877,105878,105879,105880,105881,105883,105884,105885,106029,106030,106031,106032,106033,106034,106058,106057,106056,106055,106054,106053,106052,106051,106050,106059,106060,106063,106064,106065,106066,106067,106068,106069,106075,106070,106077,106078,106079,106080,106081,106091,106090,106089,106088,106087,106086,106085,106084,106083,106082,106092,106094″][vc_column_text]
The Awards were held at London’s May Fair Hotel on Thursday 4 April 2019.
High-resolution images are available for download via Flickr.
[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”THE 2019 FELLOWSHIP SHORTLIST” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”Arts” tab_id=”1554809902471-b3c9fc73-9d6d”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
ARTS
for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/gL5qzotQJzI”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104515″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]ArtLords | Afghanistan[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104529″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Zehra Doğan | Turkey[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104519″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]ElMadina for Performing and Digital Arts | Egypt[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104526″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Ms Saffaa | Saudi Arabia / Australia[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Campaigning” tab_id=”1554809902549-60799150-d1e3″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
CAMPAIGNING
for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression
Sponsored by Mainframe
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/2dyUzhOE7Cw”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104518″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Cartoonists Rights Network International | United States / International[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104521″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Institute for Media and Society | Nigeria[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104525″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Media Rights Agenda | Nigeria[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104527″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]P24 | Turkey[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Digital Activism” tab_id=”1554810071532-b8b029f3-2bd1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
DIGITAL ACTIVISM
for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information
Sponsored by Private Internet Access
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/1K7rOcfma2c”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104520″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Fundación Karisma | Colombia[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104524″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mohammed Al-Maskati | Middle East[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104528″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]SFLC.in | India[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Journalism” tab_id=”1554810135332-a68bcfef-814d”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
JOURNALISM
for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression
Sponsored by Daily Mail and General Trust, Daily Mirror, France Medias Monde, News UK, Telegraph Media Group, Society of Editors
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/w1ff5zMDnp8″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104516″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Bihus.info | Ukraine[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104517″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) | Serbia[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104522″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mehman Huseynov | Azerbaijan [/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104523″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mimi Mefo | Cameroon[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1484569093244{background-color: #f2f2f2 !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”JUDGING” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner el_class=”mw700″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]
Each year Index recruits an independent panel of judges – leading voices with diverse expertise across campaigning, journalism, the arts and human rights. Judges look for courage, creativity and resilience. We shortlist on the basis of those who are deemed to be making the greatest impact in tackling censorship in their chosen area, with a particular focus on topics that are little covered or tackled by others. Where a judge comes from a nominee’s country, or where there is any other potential conflict of interest, the judge will abstain from voting in that category.
The 2019 judging panel:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1510244917017{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][staff name=”Khalid Abdalla” title=”Actor and Filmmaker” profile_image=”104118″]Khalid Abdalla is an actor, producer and filmmaker. He has starred in award-winning films, including Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner. He has producing credits on Hanan Abdalla’s In the Shadow of a Man and the upcoming film The Vote and has appeared in Jehane Noujaim’s Oscar-nominated The Square. Khalid is a founding member of three collaborative initiatives in Cairo – Cimatheque, Zero Production and Mosireen. Brought up in the UK to Egyptian parents, Cairo and London are his two cities.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][staff name=”Nimco Ali” title=”Writer and Social Activist” profile_image=”104121″]Nimco Ali is a British Somali feminist, writer and social activist. She is co-founder and director of Daughters of Eve, a survivor-led organisation which has helped to transform the approach to ending female genital mutilation, and is the lead advisor to the UK’s APPG to End FGM. She is working to ban FGM in Somaliland, is a former ambassador for #MAKERSUK and was awarded Red Magazine’s Woman of the Year award 2014 and placed No. 6 in Woman’s Hour Power List. Her book ‘RUDE’ comes out in early 2019.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][staff name=”Kate Devlin” title=”Writer and Academic” profile_image=”104081″]Kate Devlin is a writer and an academic in the department of Digital Humanities in King’s College London where she works on artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. Her book, Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots, explores intimacy and ethics in the digital age.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][staff name=”Maria Ressa” title=”CEO and Executive Editor” profile_image=”104085″]Maria Ressa is CEO and executive editor of social news network Rappler in the Philippines. She was CNN’s bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta, and became CNN’s lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia. She is an author of two books on terrorism, co-founder of production company Probe and managed ABS-CBN News and Current affairs. Maria has won numerous awards for her work, including the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom Awards in 2018.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” css=”.vc_custom_1500453384143{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”SPONSORS” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1484567001197{margin-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]
The Freedom of Expression Awards and Fellowship have massive impact. You can help by sponsoring or supporting a fellowship.
Index is grateful to those who are supporting the 2019 Awards:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” el_class=”container container980″][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”80918″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://uk.sagepub.com/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”80921″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://www.google.co.uk/about/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”85983″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”85977″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://www.edwardian.com/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” el_class=”container container980″][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”105358″ img_size=”234×234″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://mainframe.com/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”105536″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”http://www.vodafone.com/content/index.html#”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”105360″ img_size=”234×234″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.francemediasmonde.com/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”105359″ img_size=”234×234″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” el_class=”container container980″][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”80924″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://psiphon.ca/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”105361″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.telegraph.co.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”105363″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.societyofeditors.org/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”105365″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.news.co.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” el_class=”container container980″][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][vc_single_image image=”106100″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.mirror.co.uk/” css=”.vc_custom_1569840872089{margin-top: -70px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″ offset=”vc_col-xs-6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
If you are interested in sponsorship you can contact [email protected]
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14 Jan 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104730″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival and Index on Censorship invite you to join them for Unspeakable, a day of challenging and illuminating conversations, performance, exhibitions and workshops hosted by the University of Essex, that explores historic and contemporary issues of censorship, no-platforming, freedom of speech, and taboos.
These events are part of the Essex Book Festival 1-31 March 2019
Each part of the programme requires separate ticketing. See specific instructions with the session. [/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Banned Books: Exhibition and presentation” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104723″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 12.00 – 1.00pm
Where: Special Collections Room, Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex, Wivehoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: Free. No booking required.
Some of the most controversial books in history are now recognised as classics. The Bible, works by Shakespeare, Ovid and James Joyce, to mention but a few. Banned Books delves into the University of Essex’s Archives to reveal a fascinating collection of banned books, pamphlets and texts, some dating back hundreds of years.
The event takes place in the Special Collections Room at the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Burning Question: Trevor Phillips and Professor Shohini Chaudhuri” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104724″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 1.30 – 2.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre
Trevor Phillips, writer, broadcaster, former president of the NUS, former chairman of the Equality and the Human Rights Commission, and current chairman of Index on Censorship, will discuss the impact of historic and contemporary censorship across art, history and literature with Professor Shohini Chaudhuri from the University of Essex, a film activist as well as educator.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Play’s the Thing: What happens when theatre gets censored” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”90098″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 3.30–4.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £7, £5 concessions (27 years and under) via Essex Books Festival / Mercury Theatre
Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, in discussion with actors from the Globe theatre around the world project and artistic director of The Gate theatre, Ellen McDougall.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of an era, when all plays had to be signed off by the British Lord Chamberlain before performance, the panel will discuss why we should worry about censorship of what we see on stage, and how words and ideas are restricted around the world and in the UK today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Dean Atta: Performance and audience Q&A” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104727″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 7.00 – 8.00pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre
A performance and audience Q&A with poet Dean Atta, as part of Unspeakable at the University of Essex.
Spoken Word Poet Dean Atta’s powerful debut poetry collection I Am Nobody’s Nigger was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Dean has performed across the UK and internationally, including performances at Hay Festival, Latitude and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been commissioned to write poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Dean is currently working on his second poetry collection The Black Flamingo.
During Essex Book Festival 2019, Dean Atta will be in residence at the Pop-Up Essex Writers House, at Metal in Southend. Find out more at www.essexwritershouse.co.uk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104732″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://essexbookfestival.org.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104733″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.essex.ac.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival is one of the highlights of Essex’s cultural calendar. Each March it hosts over 100 events in over 45 venues across the county, including theatres, libraries, schools, universities, cafes and art galleries. More information is available here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
14 Jan 19 | Germany, Global Journalist, Media Freedom, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This article is part of Index on Censorship partner Global Journalist’s Project Exile series, which has published interviews with exiled journalists from around the world.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Can Dündar (Photo: Claude Truong Ngoc / Wikiepedia)
Can Dündar isn’t easily silenced.
The outspoken Turkish columnist and editor has been fired, jailed and even shot at by a would-be assassin for his coverage of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. He’s been forced into exile, blocked from seeing his wife and faced calls from Turkey’s pro-government media that he be abducted from his new home in Berlin.
“Exile, on the one hand, is a paradise for a journalist like me,” says Can Dündar, 57. “In Turkey it was hell: you are not allowed to write or talk. In Germany, at least I can write, I can talk, I can defend my colleagues. But of course, I am away from my country, my family and my paper. And there are lots of risks around. I’ve been taking those risks and trying to fight back.”
Dündar isn’t one to avoid risks during his 37 years as a journalist, TV anchor and author. Earlier in his career he wrote for Hürriyet, one of the country’s largest news outlets, before becoming a columnist with the daily Milliyet. Dündar was fired from the latter in 2013 after criticizing the response of Erdogan’s ruling AKP party to the massive anti-government protests that began in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
But Dündar wasn’t done. He went on to become editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, a smaller newspaper that became increasingly critical of the government as Erdogan moved the country towards authoritarianism. In 2015, Cumhuriyet created a sensation by posting video footage online that it said showed Turkish intelligence forces transporting arms to opposition groups in Syria.
The report infuriated Erdogan, who labeled Dündar a traitor. Both Dündar and Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul were arrested and charged with espionage and ‘divulging state secrets.’ Dündar was interrogated for 11 hours before being taken to jail, where he was held 92 days, including 40 days in solitary confinement.
He was released to face trial, but on May 6, 2016, as Dündar awaited a verdict in his trial, a lone gunman approached him outside the courthouse and shot twice at him. The shots missed, and the gunman was wrestled away by a plain clothes policeman and Dündar’s wife. In video footage of the incident, the assailant is heard calling Dündar ‘a traitor’ – the exact the same words as Erdogan used to describe him.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/4YlDTDg2k1s”][vc_column_text]Dündar was sentenced to nearly six years in jail, but appealed his conviction. While on holiday overseas during the appeal in July 2016, members of the Turkish military launched a failed coup against Erdogan.
In the aftermath, Erdogan declared a state of emergency and began a sweeping crackdown against perceived political opponents and alleged supporters of a dissident cleric the government accused of inspiring the coup attempt. More than 160,000 people were arrested and 152,000 government workers were fired, according to the UN’s human rights office.
Among the arrested were 166 journalists, 75 of whom were convicted of various crimes, including coup-plotting and disseminating terrorism propaganda, according to the Stockholm Centre for Freedom. Thirteen of Dündar’s Cumhuriyet colleagues were charged in the purge.
All of this was enough for Dündar not to return to Turkey. Now living in Berlin, he divides his time between writing a column for the German newspaper Die Zeit, launching the startup Turkish news site Özgürüz and lecturing in Europe. A play based on his writings in jail called “We Are Arrested,” debuted in May at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom, just weeks after Turkey’s highest court ruled that Dündar’s jail sentence should be extended to 15 to 20 years.
Dündar spoke with Global Journalist’s Kris Croonen about harassment from pro-Erdogan Turks in Germany and Turkey’s diplomatic efforts to capture him. Below, an edited version of their interview:
Global Journalist: What made you decide not to return to Turkey?
Dündar: After the military coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the rule of law was lifted, and my lawyers warned me that under the state of emergency I would be in jail again and it won’t be that easy to get out this time.
The first thing they had done was arrest the high [court] judges who had decided for our release previously. They are all in jail, still.
So it was a kind of a coup d’etat by Erdogan. I also consulted my colleagues, my family, and everybody advised me not to come back. Of course it was not an easy decision because I went on a holiday just with a suitcase full of books and nothing else.
So I stayed in Europe,without anything. First I traveled in different countries: to London, to Paris and Berlin…but I realized that Berlin was the best option because there was a huge interest about Turkey in Germany. I got an offer from Die Zeit to write a regular column for them, and PEN/Germany offered me a scholarship. So I decided to stay here.
GJ: The Turkish community in Germany is about 3 million people – and many are fervent supporters of Erdogan. Isn’t Germany a little bit unsafe for you?
Dündar: Not “a little bit.” It’s really the most dangerous place on Earth for someone like me [laughs]. In the beginning, I was not aware of the risks. But then I realized immediately, and it’s still a problem.
GJ: Do you encounter real danger in Berlin from pro-government Turks?
Dündar: Yeah, that’s daily business. They attack, they come to annoy you, they insult you…That kind of stuff. But it’s nothing different than Turkey, you know, you get used to this always facing risks. It’s not new for me. I just have to be careful. And if I do something in public, the German police normally comes and protects me.
GJ: When did you realize that your wife wouldn’t be able to join you?
Dündar: Immediately after I arrived in Berlin, I called her. The day after she was about to come to me but she was stopped at the airport…without any reason. They took her passport and confiscated it. First they said her passport is not reading on the computer. Then they said it’s lost, although she had it in her pocket.
Shortly after, they published a kind of decree saying that if someone is being blamed for terrorist acts, their family members may also be banned from travel. For the Turkish government, I am a terrorist. Everybody challenging the government is a terrorist. So it’s two and half years now that we are living separately…She can’t travel…it’s tough, really, it’s a kind of punishment. She’s held like a hostage.
GJ: When Erdogan came to Germany in September, he threatened to stay away from a press conference if you would be there. In the end, you were the one who decided not to show up. Why did you give in?
Dündar: That’s correct. Mr. Erdogan said, “It’s me or him.” I decided that a journalist should not be the subject of the news, he should be the writer of the news…On the other hand, what was important is asking questions. So I gave my questions to my German colleagues and they asked them. Everybody understood what kind of politician we are dealing with and how he’s scared of journalists and questions.
GJ: Do you still think it’s been worth the sacrifice?
Dündar: Yes, because we are not only defending a profession, we also have to save our country. It’s a high price we are paying. But the alternative is losing the country. So we have to do everything we can. I feel responsible for my son [who lives in the U.K.], I want him to be able to live in a free country. I have to do my best and this is the least that I can do: writing as a journalist and talking.
GJ: Do you still hope to be able to return to Turkey?
Dündar: In the short term, it will be painful, but we are coming to the end of it. After sixteen years of power, now Erdogan is facing [his] most difficult period of time, at least economically. So we will see the consequences. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/6BIZ7b0m-08″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship partner Global Journalist is a website that features global press freedom and international news stories as well as a weekly radio program that airs on KBIA, mid-Missouri’s NPR affiliate, and partner stations in six other states. The website and radio show are produced jointly by professional staff and student journalists at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, the oldest school of journalism in the United States. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Don’t lose your voice. Stay informed.” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship is a nonprofit that campaigns for and defends free expression worldwide. We publish work by censored writers and artists, promote debate, and monitor threats to free speech. We believe that everyone should be free to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution – no matter what their views.
Join our mailing list (or follow us on Twitter or Facebook). We’ll send you our weekly newsletter, our monthly events update and periodic updates about our activities defending free speech. We won’t share, sell or transfer your personal information to anyone outside Index.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][gravityform id=”20″ title=”false” description=”false” ajax=”false”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content”][vc_column][three_column_post title=”Global Journalist / Project Exile” full_width_heading=”true” category_id=”22142″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jan 19 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Statements, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104696″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]We 39 human rights organisations from 13 Human Rights Houses call for urgent action from the international community to ensure the life, health, and rights of imprisoned Azerbaijani photojournalist, video blogger, and human rights defender Mehman Huseynov. We are deeply concerned about his critical condition and his imprisonment, and the psychological pressure and new criminal charges pursued against him. We urge the international community to raise this case as a priority in communications with the Azerbaijani authorities and show public support for Mehman Huseynov.
Mehman Huseynov began a hunger strike on 26 December 2018 in protest against facing further criminal charges – charges that we and many others, including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, consider to not be credible. Since 2012, Mehman Huseynov has been subject to a travel ban and without identification and official documentation, preventing him from accessing public services such as healthcare and education. He has also faced harassment and pressure, but actions against him have escalated dramatically in the past two years, beginning with reports that he was abducted and tortured in police custody on 9 January 2017.
Following this abduction, Mehman Huseynov reported that he was tortured – which is consistent with the findings of an examination by an independent team of medical doctors, sent from Front Line Defenders and the Georgian Centre of Psychological and Medical Rehabilitation for Torture. He was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation on 3 March 2017 for stating that he was tortured. We regret that he was imprisoned when he should have received support and his allegations of abduction and torture investigated. Still in prison, he now faces new criminal charges for alleged violence against a member of prison staff. We are particularly concerned about the credibility of this allegation, in context of previous arbitrary actions against Mehman Huseynov – and indications that since August 2018 he has been under psychological pressure in prison and the basis laid for further charges against him.
The actions taken against Mehman Huseynov appear to be politically motivated and strongly linked to his legitimate work raising awareness of human rights and issues related to corruption. These actions have led directly to his current severe condition, as with seemingly no access to justice and arbitrary restriction of his freedom, Mehman Huseynov saw no other option than to go on hunger strike on 26 December 2018. Further contributing to his condition, we note that while Mehman Huseynov was allowed to attend his late Mother’s funeral in August 2018, he was prevented from visiting her while she was alive and ill in hospital – on accusations that he has not participated in “corrective work”, namely the prison’s “social life”, “cultural events”, and “maintenance work.” These accusations also surfaced during Mehman Huseynov’s hearing on application for parole in August 2018. During the hearing, Mehman Huseynov told that he had been summoned by the prison administration and made to understand that he could be punished for explaining rights to other prisoners. He explained that he decided to stay apart from others for this reason. We worry that the decision by authorities to prevent Mehman Huseynov from visiting his dying mother has taken its toll on him.
Years of escalating pressure by authorities has forced an ambitious young man wanting to improve Azerbaijani society to now be in a critical condition in prison. This is a situation that has gone too far, for both Mehman Huseynov and for Azerbaijan.
With urgency, we call on the international community to raise the following with Azerbaijani authorities in support of Mehman Huseynov.
- Mehman Huseynov needs to be transferred to a civilian hospital to be examined by independent medical professionals – with treatment of his health taking utmost priority.
- His right to visits and meetings with his lawyers and family members must be respected, and the international community must be allowed to visit him. We caution against reports being disseminated by Azerbaijani officials with regard to a “monitoring group of NGOs” named the “National Preventive Group of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman” visiting Mehman Huseynov in prison. While this visit has taken place, we hold that these NGOs are not independent of the authorities.
- The prosecution service must drop the new criminal charges put forward under 317.2 of the Azerbaijan Criminal Code as they lack credibility.
- Mehman Huseynov must be released from prison at the latest when his sentence for defamation ends on 2 March 2019.
- The escalation against Mehman Huseynov has an aim, and that is to silence him. We are particularly worried that the next step for the authorities may be to take measures aimed at silencing Mehman Huseynov more permanently, pressuring him by offering to drop the charges against him in return for him leaving Azerbaijan for exile or signing that he will put an end to his legitimate work, as this has been the issue in previous cases. We fear such measures may be put to him under duress and while he may be in a diminished capacity to make decisions. He must not be forced to take such action, and he needs protection from the international community in this regard.
- Human rights lawyers in Azerbaijan must be protected and free to do their work without pressure, harassment or retaliation. As outlined in a June 2017 Human Rights Council resolution, lawyers must be able to “discharge their functions freely, independently and without any fear of reprisal”. This is not the case in Azerbaijan, where lawyers who take politically sensitive cases face threats and disbarment. The result is that only a handful of human rights lawyers remain licensed to practice from the Bar Association of Azerbaijan. One lawyer representing Mehman Huseynov was suspended from the Bar in 2018. We are deeply concerned the same actions may be taken in retaliation against the two lawyers continuing to represent Mehman Huseynov. They need protection from the international community.
We also ask members of the international community to:
- Visit Mehman Huseynov in prison to enquire and report directly on his condition, challenging the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure that such visits are possible.
- Show public support for Mehman Huseynov and publicly respond to the new charges.
The following member organisations from the network Human Rights Houses call for support from the international to ensure the life, health, and rights of Mehman Huseynov.
Human Rights House Azerbaijan (signed by these member NGOs):
- Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center
- Legal Education Society
- Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD)
Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House, Vilnius (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Belgrade (signed by these member NGOs):
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
- Gradjanske (Civic Initiatives)
Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv (signed by these member NGOs):
- Ahalar
- Almenda
- Association of Ukrainian human rights monitors on Law Enforcement
- East-SOS
- Chernihiv public committee of human rights protection
- Human Rights Information Centre
- MART
- No Borders Project
- Postup
- Transcarpathian Public Center
- Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Human Rights House Crimea (signed by these member NGOs):
- Almenda
- Crimean Human Rights Group
- Human Rights Information Centre
- Regional Centre for Human Rights
Human Rights House Oslo (signed by these member NGOs):
- Den norske Burmakomité (The Norwegian Burma Committee)
- Fellesrådet for Afrika (The Norwegian Council for Africa)
- Health and Human Rights Info
- Human Rights House Foundation
- Kvinnefronten (The Women’s Front)
Human Rights House Tbilisi (signed by these member NGOs):
- Article 42 of the Constitution
- Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT)
- Human Rights Centre (HRIDC)
- Media Institute
- Sapari
Human Rights House Voronezh (signed by these member NGOs):
- Interregional Human Rights Group (Voronezh)
- Charitable Foundation “International Project – Youth Human Rights Movement”
Human Rights House Zagreb (signed by these member NGOs):
- Association for Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO)
- a.B.e. (Be active. Be emancipated.)
- Center for Peace Studies
- Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity – CROSOL
- Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
Index on Censorship, United Kingdom
Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Norway
Russian Research Centre for Human Rights, Russia[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547220388132-791b0ba5-0ebf-4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jan 19 | Event Reports, Magazine, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104667″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]“I found it empowering to be told I couldn’t talk about something,” said Gabby Edlin, founder of Bloody Good Period, on the stigmatisation of periods at the launch of the winter 2018 edition of Index on Censorship magazine.
The issue, on the theme of birth, marriage and death, investigates what we are afraid to talk about and why. Whether it’s contraception misconceptions in Latin America, prejudice against interracial marriages in South Africa, or genocides around the world, a plethora of countries and topics were featured in this special report.
Taking place at Foyles’ flagship store in Charing Cross, London, which was once the world’s largest bookshop, Edlin was joined by award-winning author Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self, and Xinran, the internationally best-selling author of The Good Women of China who also introduced the first women’s call-in radio show in China. The panel was chaired by Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine.
Edlin raised the taboo of period poverty, highlighting an unsettling scene in the Bafta-winning film I, Daniel Blake, in which a woman is caught stealing sanitary products and propositioned sex by a security guard in return for her freedom.
She said: “That was the moment that a lot of people woke up to the idea that, of course, women can’t afford this if they can’t afford everything else. But, everyone has experienced not having the product when you need it. It’s absolutely universal, it’s not just women living in poverty, it’s not just asylum seekers. Every single woman who has menstruated knows what it’s like to go without.”[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104670″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104668″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104669″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Xinran explained the pain of the controversial one-child policy in China: “Countryside women came to the city and realised girls have equal rights but in the countryside, the mother had to kill their daughters or give them away. Still now no-one talks about it.”
However, family policy is changing. “The Chinese published a new stamp because this year is a pig year – with a parent with three babies – that is a signal to a parent that it’s not one child, not two children, it is free now.”
“We think that we are now such an open, liberal society and you can say anything you want on Twitter, but actually we’re still very, very closed and we talk about things without really talking about them,” said Pine, whose Notes to Self breaks down the taboo of miscarriages and sexual violence.
“This woman, who I had never met before, came up to me and said, ‘I had a miscarriage two months ago and nobody knows’, and then just walked away. She walked away I think from having said it as well and from the need to say it. We need to tell our stories.”
For more information on the winter issue, click here. Find out why we find it impossible to talk about birth, death and marriage, according to Rachael Jolley. The winter podcast is also available on iTunes and SoundCloud.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547210035015-71572e6c-f63e-3″ taxonomies=”8957″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jan 19 | Awards, Awards Update, Fellowship, Fellowship 2018, News and features
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Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The Museum of Dissidence
2018 Freedom of Expression Awards at Metal, Chalkwell Park, Essex.
Artistic freedom is under attack in Cuba, but artists are fighting back. Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, members of the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning Cuban artist collective the Museum of Dissidence, along with many others, are putting themselves on the line in the fight against Decree 349, a vague law intended to severely limit artistic freedom in the country. Decree 349 will see all artists — including collectives, musicians and performers — prohibited from operating in public places without prior approval from the Ministry of Culture.
“349 is the image of censorship and repression of Cuban art and culture, and is also an example of the exercise of state control over its citizens,” Otero Alcántara tells Index. “Artists, in a spectacular way, must work in a state of double resistance, as artists and as activists, because the system has control over all opportunities for artistic growth.”
For their role in peacefully protesting Decree 349, Otero Alcantara and Nuñez Leyva were among 13 artists arrested, including Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera, in Havana on 3 December 2018. Index joined others at the Tate Modern in London on 5 December in a show of solidarity with those jailed.
Protest in support of jailed Cuban artists at the Tate Modern gallery, London, October 2018.
On Human Rights Day on 10 December 2017, US Assistant Secretary of State Kimberly Breier tweeted: “[O]ur minds turn to the people of #Cuba, who have endured decades of repression and abuse at the regime’s hands, most recently via the creativity-crushing #Decree349.”
“The international help is positive because it makes visible the abuses of the Cuban regime against the people, but I think we must sacrifice ourselves in body and spirit — in a peaceful way — if we want to achieve our freedom,” Nuñez Leyva tells Index on Censorship. “We are very grateful for any help and pronouncements against 349. The redaction of the decree and the silence of the authorities is demonstrating that in Cuba there is a dictatorial regime in which no type of political, economic or social opening is taking place.”
In the days following all arrested artists were released, although they remained under police surveillance. Cuba’s vice minister of culture Fernando Rojas at the time told the Associated Press that changes would be made to Decree 349 but failed to open a dialogue with the artists involved in the campaign against the decree. A version of the law came into force on 7 December.
“We are determined to continue demanding the full repeal of 349,” Nuñez Leyva says. “We do not want to continue living in this perennial state of vulnerability.”
The persecution of the Museum of Dissidence isn’t limited to arrests. On 9 November Otero Alcántara took to Facebook to call out a campaign to discredit him. State security had been sending texts and holding meetings with his neighbours in what the artist said was a “desperate attempt” to “sabotage our activities”.
“The rhetoric that the government uses is well known to all — that we are mercenaries — and although most people no longer believe it, some of them decide to exclude you because you are a ‘marked’ person like you have a contagious disease,” Otero Alcántara tells Index. “You are a socially excluded and politically persecuted.”
“We try all the time not to give it too much importance, we try to smile because we really do not want to feel any bad energy,” he adds. “Our principle is love, dialogue, peaceful struggle. If they wish to defame us, it is on their conscience, not ours.”
Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Yanelys Nuñez Leyva, members of the Index-award winning Museum of Dissidence
Nuñez Leyva describes the efforts to dissuade Cuban artists from protesting 349 — including the seizure of anti-349 t-shirts emblazoned with three wise monkeys when re-entering Cuba after attending the Creative Time Summit in Miami — as “a mechanism to prevent the spread of the truth and above all, to make us tired and to resort to leaving the country”. But the Museum of Dissidence will not be deterred. “To achieve that, they will have to be more vicious.”
“The government spends innumerable resources to repress any type of expression that makes it uncomfortable,” Otero Alcántara says. “It seeks to discredit activists and artists all the time by isolating them from society, from their friends, from their family.”
After a seven-month campaign to attain visas to enter the UK — which saw the Museum of Dissidence denied visas on three occasions, causing them to them miss the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards ceremony in April 2018 — Nuñez Leyva and Otero Alcántara were finally able to receive their award at Metal Culture, an arts centre in Chalkwell Hall, Southend-on-Sea, on 18 October 2018. The artists were in residence at Metal for two weeks in October as part of their partnership with Index on Censorship.
“Southend-on-Sea generously gave us all its warmth. Staff at Metal, the uncharacteristically warm climate, the brick architecture of the place, the low tide river, the local legends told by a science fiction writer, the banks that paid homage to the deceased, the interest of the local media in the Cuban cause were encouraging for us,” Nuñez Leyva says. “To realise that a calm, inclusive city is possible opens us up and make us less naive when going back to face the Cuban reality.”
Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara as Miss Bienal
During his time in the UK, Otero Alcántara performed in Trafalgar Square on 26 October as Miss Bienal, a character he created in 2016 to symbolise the mulatto woman typified in clichés by tourist and for artistic consumption.
“Entering the National Gallery in a rumba dress without censorship made us realise the context of freedom and acceptance of difference that is breathed in London,” he says. “London is a giant city with so much art, diversity and history, it makes the body detoxify a bit from the bad energy you get living in a system like the Cuban one.”
Mohamed Sameh with Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara in London
While in London, the pair met with Mohamed Sameh, co-founder and international relations advisor at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, winner of the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning. ECRF is one of the few remaining human rights organisations in Egypt, a country that often uses its struggle against terrorism as a justification for its crackdown on human rights.
“We shared with Mohamed the desire for prosperity in our respective countries, but also the smile that we shared, which we hold on to all the time,” Nuñez Leyva says. “The contagious smile of Mohamed is similar to that of, not only of the Museum of Dissidence in Cuba, but also Amaury Pacheco, Iris Ruiz, Coco Fusco, Student without Seed, Michel Matos, Aminta D’Cardenas, La Alianza, Yasser Castellanos, Veronica Vega, Javier Moreno, Tania Bruguera, and other artists who at this moment are fully engaged in the improvement of Cuba.”
“Although our contexts are different, we feel a total empathy with the struggles of Mohamed, because in our work we put ourselves at risk all the time for our rights and total freedom of expression, principles that for Mohamed are also non-negotiable.” [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547483905239-0a56285c-5eb0-10″ taxonomies=”23707″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
10 Jan 19 | Index in the Press
Siding with a journalist who was secretly filmed having sex in her own home, the European Court of Human Rights fined Azerbaijan on Thursday for violating the woman’s privacy and freedom of expression. Read the full article
10 Jan 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60766″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The new challenges of trust and misinformation.
This is the first of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s seminars at Green Templeton College in 2019, which focus on the business and practice of journalism.
Rachael Jolley is the editor of the global quarterly Index on Censorship magazine, a magazine that has correspondents around the world reporting on free expression issues. She is a journalist with 20 years’ experience writing and editing for newspapers, magazines, and website. She also appears as a commentator on television and radio, and co-wrote the play, Murdering The Truth.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
10 Jan 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104613″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]The Holocaust never happened. The planet isn’t warming. Vaccines cause autism. All of us deny inconvenient truths sometimes, but what happens when denial becomes ‘denialism’, a systematic attempt to overturn established scholarly findings? And how do we relate to this phenomenon in a ‘post-truth’ age?
Our panellists, whose expertise covers history, contemporary culture, the law and psychotherapy, discuss the significance of phenomena such as Holocaust denial and climate change denial, and how they relate to ‘everyday’ denial.
Speakers[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104622″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Jane Haynes is a psychotherapist who works through dialogue and relationship. She was part of a team responsible for contributing to the training syllabus in Russia after President Yeltsin permitted analytic psychotherapy to be returned to the academe. She has written several books of which the latest are Doctors Dissected (With Dr Martin Scurr) and her memoir: If I Chance to Talk A Little Wild(2018) both published by Quartet Books.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104621″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Dr Keith Kahn-Harris is a writer and sociologist. He teaches at Leo Baeck College and Birkbeck College and runs the European Jewish Research Archive at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104623″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Mark Levene has been an environmental-cum-peace activist, an academic, and an unsuccessful advocate of their merger. He writes, mostly about genocide and climate change. He also runs study tours to the once multicultural city of Salonika (The Greek Project).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104620″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]James Libson is a partner at Mishcon de Reya, solicitors, where he has been for 27 years. He has acted in many high profile cases including for Deborah Lipstadt in her case against David Irving, Gina Miller in her challenge to the government over Article 50, and most recently on behalf of Margaret Hodge MP resisting her expulsion from the Labour Party. He chaired World Jewish Relief from 2011-16 and currently chairs Prism, the Gift Fund. He has an Honorary Ph.D. from the University of Law.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104619″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Lucy Siegle is a writer and TV presenter specialising in environmental issues, ethical shopping and lifestyles. She is an authority on the environmental and social footprint of the global fashion industry. She co-founded the Green Carpet Challenge with Livia Firth and she was The Observer and The Guardian’s eco agony aunt. She is known on TV as a reporter and presenter on BBC1’s The One Show and has been reporting on the problem of single use plastic since the show began. Her book, Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (and you) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again will ignite the plastic activist in all of us.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”80210″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Jodie Ginsberg is chief executive of global freedom of expression organisation, Index on Censorship. She is a passionate believer in the power of words and the importance of good heels.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When: Thursday 7 March, 8:30pm
Where: Hall One, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG
Tickets: £16.50 via Jewish Books Week
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10 Jan 19 | China, Journalism Toolbox (Chinese), Magazine, News and features, Volume 38.02 Summer 2009
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”八九学运领袖王丹同著名作家欣然探讨天安门学运结果及其遗产”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
王丹 (Photo: Wikipedia)
薛欣然：首先我十分高兴有机会和你探讨发生在中国的历史事件。我们先说说事件发源地北京大学。1987年你从北京市第四十一中学毕业并考入北京大学国际政治系就读。但是1988年你转入历史系学习，为什么要转专业呢？
王丹：原因十分简单——政治专业需要学高等数学，我的数学不行我也十分讨厌数学。这是其中原因之一。另外一个原因是家庭因素。我的外祖父是四川大学历史系最早的毕业生之一，他毕生都从事历史教学。我母亲毕业于北大历史系。我当时也对历史感兴趣而且想避免学数学。也许您认为政治学是一门敏感的学科，但是我在北京大学学习了一年后，发现没有学到任何我感兴趣的东西——西方民主理论、人权等等。即使在北京大学也没人教授这些科目，所以我兴趣不大。
薛欣然：1988到1989那一年正是民主运动开始的时候，在历史系学习对你有重大影响吗？
王丹：我不认为和我所在的院系有关系。但是北京大学本身对我有很大的影响。北京大学所有的院系都有这种自由传统。二十世纪八十年代社会上有很多辩论，北大当时处于辩论的最前沿。当时有一种自由讨论的氛围，特别是关于社会改革的辩论，这也是我兴趣所在。我在北大度过了大约两年，对我影响深远。校园的气氛很重要，而不是所在院系。
薛欣然：文革过后的八十年代中国的大学仍然缺乏优秀教师。许多被下放的教师还没有返回教职，取代他们的人员水平堪忧。请问有没有对你影响重大的人或帮你树立理想信念的事？
王丹：国际政治系的一些老师对我影响深远，我和他们中的四五个老师关系特别好，我组织校园活动时经常向他们寻求建议。他们都是知识分子。历史系就不同了，因为我母亲的关系，系里的老师都认我，他们是看着我长大的。历史系更像我第二个家。然而国际政治的老师启发了我。他们一直陪我经历了六四。他们中不少人因为和我有联系或者因为自己参与六四运动而受到迫害。
薛欣然：到底是西方传统文化即古希腊罗马文明还是英美民主制度亦或是苏联解体或东方文明对你产生影响呢？
王丹：这些都不是。对我影响最深的还是中国传统文化。
薛欣然：你本人的专业是国际关系与国际政治。难道没有国际方面的影响吗？
王丹：其实灵感并非来自课堂或阅读。大学前两年主要是打基础，学习语言，共产主义史及其他一些课程。这些都不是灵感的来源，灵感主要来自于与老师和同学的日常交往。
薛欣然：他们都比你年长一些吧。
王丹：对，他们都大我十岁左右。
薛欣然：那他们都在三四十岁左右？
王丹：他们这一代人本应在文化大革命前完成中学学业，但是直到文革结束后他们才有机会上大学。他们对我影响很大，他们忧国忧民的文人传统对我影响深刻。整个六四运动是中国文化传统发展的一部分和西方没有特别大的关系。
薛欣然：你当时是北京高校学生自治联合会的负责人?
王丹: 对。
薛欣然：高自联是什么时候成立的？
王丹：应该是1989年四月，胡耀邦书记(当时的主要政治家和改革者)逝世之后。当时所有的大学都有自己的自治组织。高自联有来自各主要大学的代表——北京大学、清华大学、北京师范大学、中国政法大学、人民大学等。我是代表北京大学的常委。
薛欣然：你从什么时候意识到北京高自联以及学生运动对中国社会产生影响？他们是如何联合起来的？什么力量能让学生教授甚至记者和公众走上街头？
王丹：整个二十世纪八十年代一直都有学生运动的传统，北京大学更是如此。胡耀邦的逝世自然引起了学生们的关注。胡本人是共产党内自由派的代表，他的下台也与学生示威有关，所以胡的逝世让学生们感到特别的悲伤。在八十年代学生们每年都会抓住机会呼吁政治改革——1989年也不例外。
薛欣然：这一年为何如此不同？
王丹：我认为当时整个社会都希望民主改革。八十年代社会上这种思潮在不断积累和发酵。期间也受到不少挫折——反对资产阶级自由化运动、反对精神污染运动，到了1989年已经准备好要爆炸了。胡的逝世只是一个发泄口。另外一个原因是到了1989年人民越来越意识到经济改革过程中出现的问题，腐败是引发人们担忧的主要原因。那时人们还有些天真，如今中国人对腐败已是司空见惯。然而在八十年代腐败不仅让老百姓不满，还会引起公众愤怒。腐败问题同政治改革的愿望相结合使得民主运动在1989年获得广泛支持。每个人都认为社会需要更多的民主以及减少腐败。
薛欣然：军队开枪的时候你在哪里？到底发生了什么？
王丹：六月三号晚上我没有在天安门广场，我什么都没有看到。但是我接到了一个朋友的电话告诉我他看到有人死在他身边，周围有人脑浆四射。我的一个同学，也是我老师的儿子不幸遇害。大屠杀之夜我在北大，没有在天安门广场。
薛欣然：你当时什么反应？
王丹：当时我完全麻木无法思考，感到十分震惊。
薛欣然：是失望还是绝望呢？
王丹：我没有感觉，也没有任何想法。这样麻木了三天，辗转反侧，寝食难安。
薛欣然：你当时考虑过你自己的命运如何？
王丹：我根本没有考虑过自己的命运。我甚至都没有感到悲伤，没有任何感情，只是麻木。可能难以置信，但就是这样。
薛欣然：我能理解。
王丹：受到如此巨大的打击之后就是这种状态。接下来的两天我的脑子一片空白。
薛欣然：然后呢?
王丹：然后我就开始了逃亡。我在路上跑了一个月。我也没时间思考任何问题，每天都在赶路。
薛欣然：你认为是学生们存在战略错误，或是他们不成熟，还是对政府误解或低估呢？
王丹：接下来的十年我一直都在思考这一问题，但当时我没有时间去想。当时我只有20岁——思想还不够成熟，未能总结症结所在。
薛欣然：六四屠杀后你没有像其他学生一样流亡海外，你留在了中国。
王丹：对。
薛欣然：1991年你就被监禁了。
王丹：我于1989年7月2日被捕，然后就被囚禁。正式宣判是在1991年，被捕后我一直被拘留。
薛欣然：被捕后你感受如何？你是否认为这是你追求的理想的一部分呢？
王丹：没有什么伟大的想法，只是一种解脱。从6月3日向学生开枪后到7月2日被捕，我一直在逃亡，我实在精疲力尽。我一直在中国南方，当时感到受够了。我觉得宁可被抓也不想再逃亡下去了，于是我回到了北京——也是最可能抓到的地方。
薛欣然：你肯定知道生命受到威胁吧。
王丹：我其实我并不认为会有多糟糕，即使被抓他们也不会处决我。我只是觉得呆在监狱比逃亡好。
薛欣然：你为什么觉得他们不会处决你呢？
王丹：只是凭直觉。我和不少知识份子都所接触，我也十分了解中国政府的运作方式。对于中国政府而言，如此大规模的示威抗议以及向示威群众开枪，让全世界震惊。我确实不敢相信一个曾经在八十年代推行改革开放政策的政府一夜间变成了法西斯政权。但他们的确成为了法西斯刽子手，我之前还不相信他们会将学生围起并向我们开枪。
他们连纳粹都不如，纳粹也不会向人群扫射。我原本以为共产党不会下此狠手。我是学历史出身的，知道共产党不但不会杀像沈醉这样的国民党高级将领，而且还会封他当政协委员，他们只会向普通士兵动手。我在被通缉的学生领袖里排名第一，我相信他们不会杀我。
薛欣然：所以你的名气……
王丹：我的名气保护了我。当时我是这么想的
薛欣然：你最后被判刑四年。
王丹：对。
薛欣然：他们把你关在哪里？
王丹：秦城监狱。
薛欣然：秦城是专门关政治犯的地方。
王丹：我在秦城先关了两年然后转到北京第二监狱，总共关了快四年。
薛欣然：狱中生活如何？
王丹：正如你所想象的，情况很糟糕。大通铺、伙食很差……
薛欣然：多少人睡一张床？
王丹：我是被单独囚禁。
薛欣然：因为你是要犯。
王丹：算是吧。他们也这么看。
薛欣然：你在狱中怎么打发时间？
王丹：读书，尽可能多的锻炼身体。
薛欣然：监狱提供书给你读吗？
王丹：我可以给家里寄书单，家人可以寄给我。
薛欣然：你有机会见父母吗？
王丹：宣判前见过一两次。
薛欣然：司法程序怎么样？
王丹：中国没有法律更不要说司法程序了。都是假的。
薛欣然：他们还是走了过场。
王丹：对，一切都按程序走，假戏真做，我甚至还能提出上诉。但这又有什么意义呢？
薛欣然：你怎么看这几年的狱中生活？
王丹：其实我感觉自己很幸运——至少我这么年轻却能经历了这一切，这些经历给我带来了好运。我充分利用狱中时间读了很多书——我从来没有那么多的时间来读书。我无法想象自己如此幸运，有这么多的时间读书，无需做其他事情。
薛欣然：这四年时间改变了你对理想的看法吗？
王丹：不但没有改变，我的理想更加深刻。最初我对追求自由的想法还很模糊，但这四年树立了我的自由理念。
薛欣然：你认为你做出了正确的选择吗？
王丹：当然，我很清楚。只有坐过牢的人才能体会到自由是多么的宝贵。很多人都浪费了自由不知道它的价值。
薛欣然：我完全赞同你的观点。你释放后不久再次被捕。他们当初为什么要释放你呢？
王丹：当时我刑期快结束，他们提前三个月将我释放。国际社会为了我恢复自由一直都施压。我想他们也就是做个样子——我距离正式释放只差几个月。
薛欣然：你的家人做出了不少努力吧？
王丹：我的家人当然也做出不少努力，但真正奏效的是国际压力。当局作出姿态提前几个月释放我——虽然这是一个虚伪的姿态。
薛欣然：你为什么会再次被捕入狱？
王丹：从1993年2月释放到1995年5月再次被捕的两年零两个月，我一直呆在北京。我依然积极参与政治活动，再次联合其他民运人士参与活动，同时我也在国内各地旅游。政府认为我依然为民主发声，他们不喜欢这样。
薛欣然：政府应该很快就知道你依然从事民主运动——为什么他们仍然给你两年自由时光呢？
王丹：也许他们只是失去了耐心。我释放后，他们不敢马上再抓我。过了两年他们可能觉得我取得了不少成就，而且参与的人越来越多。到1995年我们发出公开信后，政府就出手禁止我们的活动。也许他们担心民主运动会再次爆发。
薛欣然：两次被捕之间你感觉政治气氛有何不同？
王丹：第一次被捕时情况更糟糕——天安门屠杀刚刚发生，大家都命悬一线，很多人都被抓。1995年时只抓了几个人，没有1989年那么严重。
薛欣然：你刚才提到你联系到1989年民主运动参与者并且开始起草公开信？具体有多少人，他们来自何地？
王丹：我们最后一封公开信有一百多签名者，他们来自全国各地？
薛欣然：他们都是学生吗？
王丹：他们都是当年学运的参与者，只是他们不再是学生了。六四之后他们都被开除了。
薛欣然：你们想释放什么信号？你们是在寻找补救措施，还是想继续民主运动？亦或是其他呢？
王丹：我们是希望延续1989年民主运动的理想，呼吁进行政治改革。我们认为当时没有任何政治改革的信号，这就是症结所在。我们之前没有提出人权问题，但是我们认为保护人权应该是政府政策的重要组成部分之一，因此这一次我们增加了人权内容。我们的公开信呼吁进行政治改革和保护人权。
薛欣然：民主运动后来为什么失去活力了呢？
王丹：原因很复杂。这漫长的二十年是一个因素，民主运动随着时间的推移渐渐失去活力。别人的情况我不了解，对我们来说就是这样。有人结婚了，在美国有了新的生活和工作，所以就没有那么多的时间和精力投入民主运动。其次，民主运动内部也存在一些问题。大家对民运所采取的方式方法甚至财务问题都有所争论。这让许多人感到失望，我为此也感到十分悲伤。再次，现在经济是王道。许多人对政治失去了兴趣。这也是后极权社会的特征。再也不会像1989年那样对政治感兴趣。其中有我们自己的原因，也有我们生活的时代的原因，有些只是一个自然的过程。
薛欣然：你现在在海外生活了多年，但是你从来都没有回过中国？
王丹：政府不让我回国。
薛欣然：你想回国吗？
王丹：当然想回啊，我每天都想回国。
薛欣然：为什么呢？
王丹：我是被迫离开中国的；我从来都没打算要在海外生活。我父母还在中国，这也是我想回国的主要原因。
薛欣然：如果有机会回去，你还会坚持你的理想信念吗？
王丹：当然了，可能方式会不同——我毕竟已经四十岁了。
薛欣然：这二十年里你有哪些变化？
王丹：当时我们只有二十多岁，我们给自己太大的责任，设定了一个巨大的目标，而且要求自己必须将其实现。然而现在我会认为只要努力做到最好，成功与否并不重要。当年的失败让人感到失望甚至不安。现在我不能回家，你可以认为我仍然受到迫害，但这并没有影响我。这是我思考问题方式的巨大变化。
薛欣然：如果有机会重新选择，你还会这样做吗？
王丹： 嗯，学生运动、组织学生游行等等之类的事情我还是会做的，但是会有一些变化。毕竟已经过了二十年，中国已经发生了巨大变化——我们的要求也会有所不同，我们使用的技术手段也不一样。
薛欣然：如果你有机会能改变三件事，你会怎么做？
王丹：首先，只要绝食和静坐能坚持到五月底，我们就应该收场，但当初我们没有。其次，我们过分地关注学生运动的纯洁性，我们对知识分子的建议十分警惕，害怕被人利用。同样我们对共产党内人士也保持谨慎的态度。我再也不会那样做，我会尽力寻求支持与建议。
薛欣然：如果你有机会同当下的中国年轻人对话，或说服他们做点什么，你会说些什么？
王丹： 我会告诉他们反对共产党并不等于不爱国。我们都希望中国变得强大，但仅凭经济和军事实力无法赢得别人对我们的尊重。一个真正强大的国家需要民主与文明。我们都同意， 我们希望中国变得更加强大，我们需要讨论的是国家如何赢得真正的尊重。
薛欣然：这二十年里，你试图理解你的敌人吗？
王丹：当然啦。我母亲是研究中国党史的，我的博士论文也是关于中国共产党的。如果没有深入了解中共，我就不可能拿到学位。我深刻认识中国共产党。
薛欣然：那么你如何解释中国政府对待学生运动的态度和行为呢？
王丹：中国共产党是一个建立在暴力与谎言的政党，并使用暴力同谎言手段取得政权。很自然他们通过使用对大众的恐怖手段来把持权力。大屠杀最终目的是制造恐惧，这确实奏效了。即使今天大多数人都不愿站出来反对极权主义。
薛欣然：使用恐怖手段是共产党的独有手法吗？
王丹：这是中国共产党的独特的手法，和苏联或纳粹德国还不一样。中国作为一个集权统治国家，还是非常独特的。
薛欣然：中国历史上也这样吗?
王丹：我再次强调一下，不一样。国家暴力在过去从来没有像共产党这样延伸到社会各个层面，触及到灵魂。历史上没有像文化大革命这样的政治运动，苏联纳粹德国都没有，文革只发生在中国。其中有许多复杂的因素，我的博士论文里有具体讨论。但我敢肯定的是它是独一无二的，这也是共产党能把持住权力的原因之一。
薛欣然：你认为中国需要共产党吗？
王丹：如果我们是民主制度，那么各种政党都有一席之地。那当然也包括中国共产党。所有政党的政治宣传事实上都是一种洗脑，其目的是消除你在西方能看到的强烈个人主义或反对文化。其次，政党利用这些宣传活动使人民反对彼此，使每个人都成为犯罪成员。第三，虽然压制通常会引起抵抗，但如果镇压残酷的话，就不会有反抗，民众的承受能力有限。第四，二十年的经济改革让人们分享收益从而也分散了他们的注意力。其基本策略是镇压冲突，然后再开放某些领域，这一手法相当成功。这也是共产党能继续下去的四个理由。
薛欣然：你认为共产党的存在有一定的理由吗？
王丹：当然。中国传统文化存在一些问题，比如我们是建立在集体主义为基础，这意味着我们对政府过于信任——这使得共产党能够长期存在。
薛欣然：作为一个历史学者，你认为这是一个纯粹的中国现象还是一个远东现象？韩国、日本、马来西亚和新加坡社会比我们更民主吗？
王丹：所有的儒家社会都十分相似，例如新加坡和其他一些国家。然而他们国家更小，因此能够迅速改变，这样就剩下中国。如果你想寻找深层次的文化因素的话，那就是儒家思想。但事实上有很多原因，文化只是其中的一部分。例如国家暴力也是一个非常重要的因素，可能发生在任何地方。
薛欣然：我认为研究这些问题不是因为对其不满或心怀仇恨。
王丹：我同意。
王丹：我认为我们研究的目的是为了明天，以确保将来更少的人受到暴力或镇压。至关重要的是，人们应该考虑这种政权如何产生、发展、如何防止它变得更糟，控制未来的社会。这不是向后看，我相信你同意这种看法。
王丹：历史研究都是在展望未来。
薛欣然：如果中国采用美式或英式的选举制度呢？
王丹：我认为这甚至都不是一个问题。没有人要求中国在一夜之间进行民主选举。
薛欣然：但如果我们假设呢？
王丹：这不可能。西方民主不会突然出现。
薛欣然：可能不会一夜间出现，但是你认为有可能吗？
王丹：不可能。中国不会采取西方民主制度；它应该有自己的中国特色。
薛欣然：理想情况下这会是什么呢？
王丹：台湾方式更可行。这种政治变革不是通过流血冲突，而是自上而下的改革意愿结合自下而上的压力。这是我希望在中国看到的，人民与政府达成协议，然后进行权力转移。
薛欣然：我读到报道说你发现当今的中国年轻人过于自私和物质主义，而你年轻的时候，社会上有一种爱国主义和责任感，是否如此？
王丹：今天的年轻人，至少我接触的中国年轻人都只关心自己而不是国家。这是一个普遍的现象。至少不仅是我有这种想法，大家都这么认为。至少我发现年轻人们讨论的话题很不同。
薛欣然：你会鼓励年轻人吗？帮助他们巩固他们的信仰，或是让他们多多思考，还是帮助他们了解中国？
王丹：我当然会鼓励他们。我四十岁了，老了，但年轻人有他们的热情。
薛欣然：但在西方发达国家，你这是黄金岁月，不能说自己太老了。
王丹：我觉我太老了。我想二十岁时应该是热血青年。我现在四十岁了，思考问题更理智。但我认为现在二十岁的中国年轻人用四十岁的人思维方式，这的确是中国的国家悲剧。我会鼓励他们，告诉他们要冲动，犯一些错误，不要太理性——这都没有关系。这是你的青春，享受青春。
王丹于1998年获释，释放后流亡美国。他获得哈佛大学博士学位，曾任教于台湾国立清华大学
薛欣然曾在中国担任记者和电台节目主持人，现居住于伦敦。她的作品包括《中国好女人们》、《中国目击者》及《给我买片天》
本文最初发表于《审查指数》杂志2009 38:2期
This is a translated version of an article that originally appeared in the 2009 issue of Index on Censorship magazine Volume 38 Number 2. Click here to read the original
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