World Press Freedom Day 2012
The last year has seen tumultuous shifts for media freedom. But core problems still remain in the world’s troublespots, says Padraig Reidy
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PAST EVENT: 22 June: Changing the face of freedom: a half-day conference
Date: Friday 22 June
Time:10.30am-1pm
Venue: Free Word Centre, EC1R 3GA
Tickets: £5, available here
LIFT in association with Index on Censorship and Free Word Centre
As London plays host to theatre makers from around the world for LIFT 2012, we are bringing together visiting and UK based artists for a morning of discussion, debate and workshops on how different political landscapes impact on what is sayable in the arts.
The panel discussion will include Lucien Bourjeily, Lebanese film-maker and theatre director, who brought improvised theatre to the streets of Beirut during the political turmoil in 2008; Natasha Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin co-founders of Belarus Free Theatre which performed underground until they were forced into exile in 2010; Monadhil Daood who founded the Iraqi Theatre Company in 2008 by to revive the dynamic theatre tradition of a country which was, until recent times, a theatrical powerhouse in the region; and Tim Etchells (UK) artistic director of Forced Entertainment who has been creating innovative work against the backdrop of the changing cultural climate in UK over 25 years.
We will discuss the influence of different political environments on artistic language and the extent to which the constraints and taboos on, and possibilities of expression are shaped by conflict, revolution, dictatorship, democracy. We will look at how expression changes when the artist is forced into exile, or the oppressive government is overthrown, or in times of war, how artistic language develops to circumnavigate censorship and the role played by self-censorship.
These questions will be further explored in breakout sessions opening out the discussion to include other art forms and perspectives:
Malu Halasa is an editor and journalist covering the culture and politics of the Middle East will be talking off the record about hip-hop as the language of protest and the underground music scene in Tehran with two visiting artists.
Said Jama, founding member of Somali PEN Centre, scholar and writer, and Ayan Mahamoud director of Kayd, Somali Arts and Culture organisation will discuss, also off the record, the shift from freedom fighter to freedom writer and engaging with their community on issues of freedom of expression.
Farah Abushwesha, film-maker and writer, will talk about how the revolution in Libya has spawned new forms of expression, and her work to bring Libyan women’s stories to an international platform. Zoe Lafferty, associate director Freedom Theatre Palestine, will join her present extracts from her current work The Fear of Breathing, a verbatim portrayal of the on-going events of the Syrian revolution, telling the stories of those caught up in the unfolding crisis in their own words.
UAE: Authorities censor two Arab Spring-inspired art pieces at gallery
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have removed two paintings inspired by the Arab spring from an art fair. The paintings, which were appearing as part of the regional art fair “Art Dubai”, unsettled the authorities and were ommitted. A painting titled After Washing by a Libyan-born artist — showing a woman holding underwear with word “Leave” written on it — was removed. Similarly, “You were my only love” by a Moroccan artist, which depicted an incident in Egypt in which a female protester was beaten up and stripped by members of the security forces, was also banned from the fair.
Tunisian blogger tells of assault by police
In a period of less than three months, Zakaria Bouguira, a Tunisian blogger and medical student, has been assaulted twice by police.
The first time was on 13 November last year as he was videotaping police officers physically and verbally abusing Moroccan supporters of the football team Al-Widad Al-Baydhawi at Tunis Carthage airport. He told Index: “I saw police officers beating handcuffed people. There was yelling, and blood. It was horrifying. I took my phone to film the assaults, in order to publish it later on Facebook. Police caught me, and surrounded me. They pushed me to the floor and started kicking and beating me. Then they took me to a police station room, outside the airport, with the Moroccan supporters, where I spent about 30 minutes there. During that period, I was verbally and physically abused. Then they transferred me to another room, where I was beaten again.”
Bouguira said the assaults lasted from two to three hours. He also recalled how state media came to report on what happened that night at the airport and how its journalist sought to manipulate public opinion. “They fabricated their own story (…) A journalist of Al-Wataniya TV 1 [state owned television] asked the security forces to change the clothes, tainted with blood, of the Moroccan supporters. They changed their clothes, took them to another room, and the supporters were filmed with their faces against the wall. They embellished the story. They described the Moroccans as vandals, and represented the police officers as honourable men.”
He went on: “I remember there was a Libyan person who was arrested for possessing bullets, and he was being investigated. The same journalist videotaped the bullets, and when I came back home, and watched the TV report, they added the snapshots of the bullets to the report on the Moroccan supporters. They were seeking to manipulate public opinion.”
On 20 January Bouguira says he saw Isam Dardouri, one of his attackers, and the general secretary of the Syndicate of the Internal Security Forces, in Habib Bourguiba Aveue in downtown Tunis. He went to talk him. “It was stronger than me. It was just for me, to heal myself. I needed to say what’s in my heart. I told him that he had assaulted me and that he was an unjust man,” he said.
The second time, Bouguira was assaulted was on 1 February, when he was taking part in a protest in support of Interior Ministry histleblower Samir Feriani. Again, the blogger came face to face with Dardouri and sought to confront him. “He was looking at me, and laughing. He was provoking me. I took my phone and filmed him while saying ‘this is Isam Dardouri, who assaulted me along with the Moroccans at the airport’; he is not ashamed of himself.”
Some hours later, Bouguira was arrested and abused by police. He adds:
I was surrounded by police officers in plain clothes; they pushed me, beat me, insulted me, and handcuffed me, as if I were a criminal. In the police station, they would beat me again for about five minutes. I was detained for six hours for nothing.”
The blogger has lodged a complaint against his attackers. Meanwhile, Dardouri is planning to lodge a complaint against him.
“Now he wants to lodge a complaint against me. He is accusing me of defaming and harassing him,” says Zakaria. “He has the whole union by his side. Police in Tunisia has never been in the service of the citizen. Police are in the service of the police, even before the state. I don’t think they would abandon each other. But I’m not going to abandon my rights. I’m not going to surrender. If they want to arrest, kidnap, or kill me…let them do it. If Zac dies, there will be another 20 Zacs. These practices have to stop, and we should stand in their way.”