Radio Redux

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DISPATCHES

THE PURSUIT OF SECRECY
Richard Norton-Taylor:
How the courts stopped Labour’s cover-up

RADIO REDUX

From unsung heroes to shock jocks, Index looks at free speech on the airwaves

RULERS OF THE AIRWAVES
Gillian Reynolds:
The key to radio’s success

LOOKING FOR AMERICA
Joe Queenan:
Talk radio is the battleground for the USA’s soul

OPEN MIKE
Aryeh Neier: Free speech remains the best antidote

CULTURE OF CAUTION
Martin Semukanya:
Rwandan journalists are still rebuilding credibility

RADIO WAVES: FACTS AND FIGURES
Liam Hodkinson & Elizabeth Stitt

THE WORLD STRIKES BACK
Irena Maryniak: The broadcast revolution has rewritten the rules

NEW WAVES
Richard Sambrook: International radio can no longer go it alone

MARTIN ROWSON’S STRIPSEARCH

GOOD MORNING BELGRADE
Adrienne Van Heteren:
The triumph of B92

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Maria Eismont:
Alexei Venediktov on the secret of his survival

RADIO SILENCE
Vugar Gojayev:
Azerbaijan’s shrinking media landscape

DAB IS DEAD
Grant Goddard:
How the digital dream turned sour

LOCAL HERO
Carlos Flores Borja:
A Peruvian station’s battle to broadcast

INTERUPTED SERVICE
Aleida Calleja:
Community radio on the front line in Mexico

PIRACY GOES KOSHER
Anat Balint:
Israeli settlers join the media game

TABOO BUSTER
Kirsten Ess Schurr:
Jordan’s hero of the airwaves

REAL LIVES
Shirazuddin Siddiqi:
The programme the Taliban couldn’t ban

TOO FAST TOO FREE
Ernest Waititu
: How Kenya’s broadcasters fell foul of the law

INDEX INDEX

BODY WORKS

COVERED UP
Marge Berer:
The full frontal that got pulled

MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL
Omid Salehi:
Inside the world of Iranian cosmetic surgery

FICTION

MY BEST FRIEND
An exclusive extract from Javad Mahzadeh’s new novel

Iran sentences journalist Maziar Bahari

Maziar BahariMaziar Bahari sentenced by Iran in absentia — 13 years and 6 months in jail and 74 lashes

The Canadian-Iranian reporter, Iran correspondent for Newsweek magazine, was released on bail by the Iranian authorities in October 2009 and left the country. Index on Censorship, Newsweek, Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression campaigned for Bahari’s release after he was detained on 21 June 2009 in the aftermath of last year’s disputed presidential election during Iran’s post-election crackdown on the media. He discovered his sentence yesterday, after Iran’s security services informed his family.

Five years imprisonment for gathering and conspiring against the security of the state (for taking part in the  demonstrations after the presidential election).

Four years for collecting and keeping secret and classified documents (for keeping a court document regarding Freedom Movement of Iran given to him by one of the leaders of the group).

One year for propagating against the system (for Bahari’s post-election Newsweek articles).

Two years for insulting the Supreme Leader (for a private e-mail he sent in which Bahari said Khamenei has learnt from the Shah’s mistakes).

Two years and 74 lashes for disrupting public order (for filming the Basij shooting at people).

Six months for insulting the president (for someone tagging a picture of Ahmadinejad kissing a boy on Bahari’s Facebook wall. The authorities said that the picture implied that the president was a homosexual).

Bahari expressed surprise that none of the charges he was interrogated over – including espionage, paving the way for a velvet revolution, contacts with Jews and Israelis, improper sexual conduct and connecting various reformist leaders to western governments – are mentioned in the sentence.

He suggested the sentence and the wave of other sentences and arrests made on the eve of the first anniversary of the election are supposed to scare people from taking part in the demonstrations, and from reporting them.

Bahari recently headed the Our Society Will Be A Free Society campaign, with events aimed at building pressure for the release of writers and journalists in prison in Iran.

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