25 Apr 2007 | Comment
Last week, Germany, in its capacity as president of the EU, attempted to outlaw Holocaust denial in the EU. In the end, the resolution that emerged was the classic result of hard-fought compromise – that is to say, nobody got what they wanted. States that already had a Holocaust-denial law, such as Germany, Austria and France, did not manage to foist one on countries such as the UK and Ireland, who claimed to be worried about freedom of speech and inquiry. Meanwhile, those countries that did not have laws concerning the Holocaust now find themselves having to pay lip service, as members of the Union, to the watered down proposal – criminalising “trivialisation” of the Holocaust.
Even if the majority of nations in the EU do not sign up to this (and they have every right not to), damage has been done to the EU’s self-image as protector of human rights and free speech, and it is unsurprising who was among the first to point this out.
Step forward the man in the beige anorak.
Speaking to Spanish TV earlier this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran did not hesitate to pick up on the EU’s stance. Of course, Mr Ahmadinejad has form on this: he is the man who responded to the Mohammed cartoons controversy by sanctioning an exhibition of viciously anti-semitic Holocaust denial cartoons, with the expressed attempt at exposing the west’s “hypocrisy” on the portrayal of taboos.
We can agree or disagree on whether he had a point at the time. Personally, I don’t think he did: In terms of taste and offence there’s a difference, not least of historical distance, between mocking a centuries-dead religious leader and an abysmal event from which many still literally bear the scars.
But when one looks at events in Luxembourg over the past week, and Mr Ahmadinejad’s response, one cannot help but see he has a certain logic on his side when he asks: “Does [the] EU consider questions as a crime? Today, anywhere in the world, one can raise questions about God, prophets, existence and any other issue. Why historical events should not be clarified [sic]?”
We all, of course, can imagine where these questions lead (if you can’t, ask David Irving). But how many of us can bring ourselves to disagree with Mr Ahmadinejad’s words above, however much we may be suspicious of the sentiment? If the EU can allow people to raise questions about one thing, then why not another?
We may write off the resolution as a gesture (though, again, David Irving might have something to tell us about that), but even in the gesture, the damage is done. The EU is seen to be the superpower that protects the sensitivities of Jews, but not those of Muslims.
And Ahmadinejad has been quick to take advantage. At a time when already too many in the Middle East see the EU as in the pocket of Israel, this at best pointless resolution will only serve to drive yet more into the arms of the Iranians, who, after the propaganda victories of the second Lebanon war and the hostage crisis, are more and more managing to portray themselves as the champions of the Middle East’s Muslims.
Originally posted on Comment is Free
17 Apr 2007 | Comment
When Ariel Sharon declared his intention to withdraw Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2004, the Palestinian leadership was quick to declare its readiness to manage security and political affairs in the Gaza Strip.
After Israel’s withdrawal in 2005, a new front opened between the Palestinians and Israel, with Palestinian militants launching attacks on Israeli towns close to Gaza. The Gaza Strip itself descended into political and social chaos, with killing, destruction and kidnapping dominating the headlines of the daily Palestinian newspapers.
Since the withdrawal, the number of Palestinians killed by Palestinians has reached 240, and there have been 85 reported cases of kidnapping. The press coverage of Gaza has reported the situation as either the ‘tragedy’ (according to the Arabic press) or the ‘internal war’ (according to the foreign press). So where do we stand now? And how can a nation live in such a situation?
At the beginning of the second intifada, when Israel killed a Palestinian or foreigner, Israeli propaganda tried to play down such incidents. But when armed Palestinians abduct a foreigner, Israeli propaganda attempts to cast the incident as if it’s the end of the world, which motivates Palestinian leaders to appear on TV demanding both the release of the hostage and the capture of the kidnappers.
Since the kidnapping of the BBC reporter Alan Johnston on 12 March, numerous declarations have been made by Palestinian politicians, starting with President Mahmoud Abbas and ending with the Legislative Council Member Hassan Kreisheh, who stated recently that the new Palestinian Minister for the Interior Hani Qawasmi failed in his position by not securing the release of the British reporter.
But Kreisheh did not criticise the minister for the interior for the ‘internal war’ which has resulted in so many deaths. Gaza has become a theatre for the political chaos and the contradictory declarations of its politicians. It is my view that failure has infected all levels of Palestinian society, and not only the new government.
The one hopeful aspect of Johnston’s kidnapping is the high level of outcry for his release from normal Palestinians. Civil society organisations too have initiated many petitions for his release. This response shows the level of Palestinian despair at the current moment.
Since the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006, Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and it still holds more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Even if Israel released 1,000 Palestinians prisoners today, we’ve still already lost 500 Palestinians. If the capture of other Israeli soldiers is followed by the killing of another 500, then we have lost. Palestinians are unable, and even unqualified, for kidnap and exchange deals: we are not Hezbollah, nor Al-Qaeda.
Lately, the term ‘Palestinian national interest’ has been deleted from the resistance dictionary. Personal interest takes precedence. Kidnapping in Gaza is carried out for monetary gain, not out of any sense of resistance to occupation.
There is an armed element that refers to itself as ‘resistance’ but most Palestinians see it as nothing more than a group of thugs who are out for personal gain, and do not care how much they tarnish the reputation of Palestinians, or the amount of harm that may arise from their actions.
The Palestinian Authority has not improved security and safety for Gaza’s citizens, nor even for foreigners, in spite of the Arabic norms and traditions of hospitality that encourage respect, help and protection for guests.
The day after Iran’s President Ahmadinejad released the 15 British servicemen he had alleged were found in Iranian waters, the British consul went to Gaza to meet the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismaill Haniyah in an attempt to secure the release of Alan Johnston. So far, nothing seems to have come of this meeting.
In my opinion, Britain must increase its efforts to obtain the release of the British reporter and to eliminate the kidnapping phenomenon in the Gaza Strip. The British government has been considered one of the greatest supporters of the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo accords of 1993, and also supports Palestinian civil society organisations.
It is not right that we, Palestinians, kidnapped one of its citizens. If the Palestinians and our government continue sliding into the political and security chaos, then this is a sign for a dark future. The Gaza Strip is in much need of international organisations these days, particularly humanitarian aid and press coverage. The Palestinian Authority must provide protection to those who offer help to the Palestinians.
Johnston’s kidnapping was the second such incident this year. In a very disturbing development, the Foreign Press Association has advised its members to ‘re-evaluate the necessity of travel to Gaza’ after the BBC provided evidence that Palestinian militants may be planning to kidnap foreigners.
The current chaos in Gaza directly affects journalists, and inevitably the information the international community receives. The Palestinian Authority has shown that it cannot manage the conflict in Gaza and therefore the chaos continues.
Of course the international community wants to help, and there are always engaged journalists willing to risk their lives to gather real information and show it to the world. However, there are limits and the Palestinian Authority should consider that Gaza is getting out of control. If something is not done, there will be fewer and fewer journalists willing to engage with the situation of the Palestinians, as the danger makes it too difficult to report.
(more…)
15 Mar 2007 | Awards, Awards year slider
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1485789156640{padding-top: 250px !important;padding-bottom: 250px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/awards-2007-logo-v2.jpg?id=82871) !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: repeat !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1472525914065{margin-top: -150px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column_inner el_class=”awards-inside-desc” width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARDS 2007″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][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 were offered in five categories: Film, Journalism, Books, Law and Whistleblowing
- Winners were honoured at a gala celebration in London at LSO St Luke’s
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”82901″ img_size=”460×260″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1472608310682{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”WINNERS” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1477036676595{margin-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Chen Guangcheng” title=”Whistleblower” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82903″]Chen Guangcheng is a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China who has been regaled as representative of an emerging group of liberal Chinese intellectuals. In 2005, he publicised reports that women with two children were forced to be sterilised, and women pregnant with their third child were forced to have abortions. He also reported that officials took to holding villagers or their relatives hostage if the women refused sterilisation or abortion. He was charged with damaging public property and inciting people to disrupt traffic and was tried, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in August 2006.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Siphiwe Hlophe” title=”Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82882″]Siphiwe Hlophe discovered she was HIV positive in 1999 and she lost her husband and agricultural economics scholarship as a result. But by 2001, she co-founded an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living (Swapol), which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and help other HIV/Aids victims. Almost half of Swaziland’s population is infected with HIV and women are killed for disclosing their infection or for simply finding out about their husbands’ infection. Similarly, women who are HIV-positive are isolated from their families and communities.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Kareem Amer ” title=”The Index / Hugo Young Journalism Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82904″]Kareem Amer is the pseudonym for 22-year-old blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, who now faces a trial in Egypt that could land him a decade in jail. His blog writings led to his arrest and brief detention in October 2005, his expulsion from Al-Azhar University in early 2006, and a second arrest in November 2006 that has left him in solitary confinement ever since. His trial was delayed multiple times, with the verdict finally scheduled for 22 February 2007, and he faces up to eleven years in prison for charges such as incitement to hate Islam and defaming the president. His blog writings promoted secularism and women’s rights.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”5 Days and Yoav Shamir” title=”Index Film Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82879″]Chronicling five days in Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in August 2005, this documentary benefits from extraordinary access to its subjects: both the Army and some of the approximately 8,000 settlers being relocated. Utilising seven film crews, director Yoav Shamir builds a composite impression of the withdrawal that does justice to the complexity of the issues at stake and the conflicting aims and worldviews of those taking part.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Being Arab by Samir Kassir” title=”TR Fyvel Book Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82880″]Being Arab is a searing analysis of the predicament facing the Arab world. Samir Kassir considers what he calls the Arab ‘malaise’ – a condition which he believes springs from a crippling sense of impotence. He considers the crisis facing the Arab state and the threat of militant Islam. He looks to history and the forgotten Arab renaissance of the nineteenth century for answers and urges his fellow Arabs to move beyond their sense of victimhood, reclaim their past and break free from the current deadlock. Samir Kassir was a journalist and historian, one of the bravest voices in the Lebanese media and a critic of the Syrian occupation in Lebanon. He was assassinated in Beirut in June 2005.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][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]
Criteria – Anyone involved in tackling free expression threats – either through journalism, campaigning, the arts or using digital techniques – is eligible for nomination.
Any individual, group or NGO can nominate or self-nominate. There is no cost to apply.
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.
Nominees must have had a recognisable impact in the past 12 months.
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.
Panel – Each year Index recruits an independent panel of judges – leading world voices with diverse expertise across campaigning, journalism, the arts and human rights.
The judges for 2007 were:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Richard Sambrook” title=”Journalist” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82863″]Richard Sambrook joined the BBC in the 1980s as a radio news sub-editor. He is now Director of the BBC’s Global News division, responsible for leading the BBC’s international news services across radio, television and new media. He is also a member of the BBC’s Executive Direction Board and the BBC’s Journalism Board. As Director of BBC News from 2001 to 2004, Richard led the world’s biggest broadcast news operation. Recently, he has advocated Citizen Journalism and Social Media, contributing to the debate on their role and definition in an era of expanding access to the means of communication.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Dreda Say Mitchell” title=”Novelist” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82876″]In 2005, Dreda Say Mitchell was awarded the Crime Writer’s Association’s John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first time crime novel for her critically acclaimed novel, Running Hot. She is the first Black British writer to have been honoured with this award. She is also a judge of the CWA’s New Blood Dagger award and is the recipient of an Arts Council writing bursary. She has been a guest on a variety of radio shows, including the Robert Elms Show and Radio 4’s Front Row. She has a degree in African history from SOAS and an MA in education studies. She also works as an education consultant specialising in the achievement of Black pupils. She was born in London’s East End, where she continues to live. Killer Tune, her next novel, published by Hodder and Stoughton, will be published in August 2007.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Mark Kermode” title=”Film Critic” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”81669″]Mark Mermode is a film critic, broadcaster and musician. Resident film critic for many BBC programmes such as Radio Five Love and the News Channel, he also frequently contributes to The Culture Show and Newsnight Review. He is contributing editor to Sight & Sound, a regular writer for the Observer. He has a PhD in modern English and American horror fiction, and is a fello of the English and Film Department of Southampton University. He plays the double bass in The Dodge Brothers.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Kenan Malik” title=”Writer” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82874″]Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He is visiting senior fellow at the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey. His main academic interests are in the history of ideas, the history and philosophy of science, race, ethnicity and religion, and theories of human nature. His books include The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society (1996) and Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell us about Human Nature (2000). He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries for Channel 4 including Disunited Kingdom (29 October 2003); Are Muslims Hated? (8 January 2005); Let ‘Em All In (7 March 2005); and Britain’s Tribal Tensions (10 February 2006). He is a writer and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s current affairs programme Analysis.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Conor Gearty” title=”Professor and barrister” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82875″]Conor Gearty is Rausing Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, a practicing barrister and professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics. His latest book is a study of the place of the Human Rights Act in Britain’s constitutional order.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Ursula Owen” title=”Editor” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82905″]Until recently, Ursula Owen was Editor in Chief and Chief Executive for Index on Censorship, a position she held from 1993. While at Index, she oversaw a dramatic editorial
redesign of the magazine, raised the organisation’s profile internationally, and broadened its focus to include contemporary debates on issues such as immigration, religious fundamentalism, the death penalty, and the condition of the world’s children. She was a founder/director and managing director of Virago Press, the well-known feminist publishing company, from 1974 until 1990, when she became Cultural Policy Adviser to the Labour Party.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1473325552363{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1473325567468{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][awards_gallery_slider name=”GALLERY” images_url=”82884,82885,82886,82887,82888,82889,82890,82891,82892,82893,82894,82895,82896,82897,82898,82899,82900,82901″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
1 Mar 2007 | Awards
The Index on Censorship Hugo Young Journalism Award
Kareem Amer is the pseudonym for the Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer. His blog writings about secularism and women rights led to his arrest and detention in October 2005, his expulsion form Al-Azhar University in early 2006, and a second arrest in November 2006 that has left him in solitary confinement ever since. On 22 February 2007 he was sentenced to four year’s imprisonment for insulting Islam and President Mubarak and for inciting sedition.
http://www.freekareem.org/
http://karam903.blogspot.com/
The Index on Censorship Whistleblowing Award
Chen Guangcheng is a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China who has been regaled as representative of an emerging group of liberal Chinese intellectuals. He gained international attention for publishing reports on forced abortions and sterilisations. In August 2006 he was sentenced to four years in prison. His appeal was rejected on 12 January 2007.
The Index on Censorship Film Award
Five Days by Yoav Shamir is a documentary about the Israel Defence Forces as they evacuate 8000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip in August 2005, to make way for 250,000 Palestinians. The director builds a composite impression of the withdrawal that does justice to the complexity of the issues at stake and the conflicting aims and worldviews of those taking part.
The T.R. Fyvel Book Award
Being Arab by Samir Kassir is a searing analysis of the predicament facing the Arab world considering what he calls the Arab ‘malaise’ – a condition which he believes springs form a crippling sense of impotence. Samir Kassir was a journalist and historian, who was assassinated in Beirut in June 2005.
The Bindmans’ Law and Campaigning Award
When Siphiwe Hlophe from Swaziland discovered she was HIV positive in 1999, she was abandoned by her husband and lost an agricultural economics scholarship. She reacted by co-founding an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living (Swapol) in 2001, which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and to help other HIV/Aids victims.
http://www.swapol.net/
