What future for free speech in the new Egypt?
As Egypt closes 2012 with the approval of a new constitution, Ashraf Khalil reflects on a tumultuous year, and looks ahead to an uncertain future (more…)
As Turkey lifts ban against hundreds of books, we discover how comic Captain Miki offended the Turkish state
Judging by sales figures, Turkish readers love comics magazines and graphic novels, but the political and military leaders of the country have had little patience for them, an examination of Turkey’s banned books revealed last month.
On 5 January 2013, the Turkish government will lift bans against 453 books and 645 periodicals blacklisted over a 63 year period. It is part of a package of judicial reforms that will also offer a conditional pardon for certain media and freedom of expression offences and secure greater free expression in the publishing field.
When Turkish journalists got hold of the astonishing list of banned books at the end of November, a surprise awaited them. Amid titles of works by “usual suspects” — Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin; Turkish authors Nazım Hikmet and Aziz Nesin; and the theologian Said Nursî — the figure of Captain Miki (or “Tommiks” as he is known here) made an unexpected appearance. One episode among the adventures of the Italian hero, who has been popular with Turkish readers since the 1950s, was banned for more than 52 years, they learned.
So how exactly did Captain Miki offend Turkish state? The Prosecutor’s report revealed that a single issue of Captain Miki’s adventures was banned in 1961, months after the 27 May 1960 military coup took place. The generals, who hung a democratically elected prime minister the same year, accused Captain Miki of having encouraged laziness and a “spirit of adventurousness” among Turkish people.
When I called MK Perker, one of Turkey’s most prolific comic book authors, to ask about Captain Miki’s tragic fate, he didn’t sound much surprised. In 2011, Perker and a group of famous Turkish comic writers published Harakiri, a high quality comics magazine which was fined the Turkish equivalent of 50,000 GBP after putting out only two issues. They were accused of precisely the same offence: Encouraging laziness and a spirit of adventurousness among Turkish people.
“Some people spy on comics magazines,” he said, “and then complain to prosecutors about certain images they find disagreeable. These are mostly random events. You can’t foresee them. A magazine publishes content similar to ours and nothing happens. But just because someone picks on you and files a complaint, you end up getting in trouble.”
Perker, whose comics appear weekly in the Sunday supplements of two national newspapers, said he regularly feels the need to self-censor his own work. “For my newspaper pieces, I need to be cautious,” he said. “But in places like Harakiri I feel more free. We don’t have a boss at the magazine. We don’t have to show our work to an editor. We don’t run any advertisement so there is no fear of ever losing our artistic independence. Harakiri is like HBO [the American cable television network] when compared to comic sections of national newspapers,” he said.
Despite the 50,000 GBP fine in 2011 putting an end to his happy days of artistic independence, Perker and his friends put out a third issue earlier this year.
Credit: Habertürk
Perker, whose works appeared in the New Yorker, Mad Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Heavy Metal among others, began his career at the Turkish cartoon magazine Gırgır, which used to sell half a million copies in its heyday during the 1970s. I asked Perker whether things got better in terms of freedom of expression since his days in Gırgır.
“Censorship always existed in Turkey,” he said. “It is a very consistent phenomenon. After the 12 September 1980 coup d’état, Gırgır was shut down by the military junta. Markopaşa, the weekly satirical magazine published by the Turkish author Sabahattin Ali, was closed numerous times. Its publishers had to sell the magazine personally on streets because there was simply no other way to distribute it,” he said.
In Ottoman times, under rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, cartoonists and comic writers faced similar problems. Perker points out that when the Sultan’s pointed nose became a subject of cartoons, a ban was issued against newspapers running such images. He says:
The Sultan’s nose became a metaphor for government. Depictions of all pointed noses were outlawed. Comic magazine publishers had to go to Geneva in order to continue their publishing operations.
According to Perker, despite the pressures on their activities, the influence of comic magazines continue to be a force in Turkey’s cultural life. The political response to weekly comic magazines has even become a subject for debate in government.
In 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sued Penguen magazine when it published a cartoon that depicted him as an elephant, giraffe, monkey, camel, frog, snake, cow and duck. Erdogan lost the case on free expression grounds. While some parliamentarians sue cartoonists in courts, others, like the deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç said he wanted all cases against cartoonists dropped and expressed his support in 2010.
This is a feeling shared by Kürşat Kayra, the Ankara prosecutor who prepared the legal documents that lifted bans placed on hundreds of books, newspapers and periodicals:
If we don’t acknowledge that the right to freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, then we won’t be able to say ‘the king is naked!’ when the occasion arises.
Kaya Genc is a Turkish essayist and novelist. Follow him on Twitter: @kayagenc
The beat goes on?
Music has always been a medium to stir up controversy — from glass harmonicas being banned briefly in the 18th century for driving people mad, to the censoring of Elvis Presley’s wiggling hips on the US-based Ed Sullivan show in 1957. Censorship in the music industry is no relic of the past. Only this month, Egyptian authorities announced a bar on “romantic music”. Here are our favourite modern examples of banned music:
Taming the rave
Authorities in England and Wales attempted to curb the fun in 1994, introducing the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. This defined raves as “illegal gatherings,” putting a stop to any electronic music one might to listen to at an outdoor party. The Act defines banned music as including “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.” 18 years after the act was introduced, the parties still appear in their masses — as do the police. Here’s Norfolk Police bashing away at some rave equipment following an order for destruction by request of the court:
Sensuality censored
In a bid to halt “vulgarity and bad taste”, music lovers in Cuba were hit with a tough sanction in December: a complete ban of the sexually-charged reggaeton music in the media. Other music genres with aggressive or sexually explicit lyrics will also be curbed, preventing the songs from being played on television or radio. Under legislation passed under President Raul Castro, music can be enjoyed privately, but will also be banned in public spaces — anyone discovered to be breaking the law could be subject to severe fines and suspensions. According to Cuban Music Institute boss Orlando Vistel Columbié, the music genre violates the “inherent sensuality” of Cuban women. One of the most well-known reggaeton artists is the Puerto Rican born artist Daddy Yankee. Here’s his 2004 hit, Gasolina, which probably wasn’t an anthem for rising petrol prices:
Singing a song of silence
On 23 October 2012, Islamist militants took control of a country steeped in musical history, imposing a total ban of all genres of music in northern Mali. The rebel group jammed radio airwaves and confiscated mobile phones, replacing ringtones with verses from the Quran. Three Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda have taken control of the northern Malian cities of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao, banning everything they deemed to breach the religious law of Islam, Sharia. Dozens of musicians have fled the area, and many have been threatened with violence should they practice music again. Mali is famed for its rich cultural heritage and many residing there consider music akin to material wealth. Musician Khaira Arby has fled south since the crisis. Here she is with her band Sourgou:
Careless whispers from Iranian government
Iran had a pop at western music in 2005, decreeing it illegal, along with other “offensive” music. The Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council banned the music from state-run radio and TV broadcasts. The sounds of Eric Clapton, The Eagles and George Michael were often used as television background music until the ban was imposed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left no 80s hallmark unscathed — banning western haircuts like the mullet two years later. George Michael’s 1984 single, Careless Whisper, breaks Iranian law with both music and hairstyles:
Romancing the state
On 13 December, Egyptian authorities banned the broadcast of “romantic” music, insisting that only songs enamoured with the state would be permitted for playing on TV stations. Only nationalistic numbers can now be played on the 23 state-owned channels, and songs mocking public figures will be banned to adhere to the “sensitivity” of the political situation in Egypt. President Mohammed Morsi fervently denied that a decree granting him sweeping powers was permanent recently. Complaints have begun to surface surrounding the musical censorship, with some speculating that it was a move to mask the development of the decree. Egyptian megastar Amr Diab’s most well-known hit, Habibi Ya Nour Al Ain (Darling, You Are The Light of My Eyes), is just one of the many tunes that won’t be heard on the country’s airwaves:
Daisy Williams is an editorial intern at Index.
Look who is cooking the news… not women
You’ll find more women cooking and cleaning in the TV ad breaks than sitting on the couch during Sunday morning public affairs talk shows. And it doesn’t matter where in the world you live.
“Women represent only a third (33.3 per cent) of the full-time journalism workforce in the 522 companies surveyed,” says the most up-to-date Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media, published by International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).
And numbers are even lower when you look at who is leading these news organisations.
The researchers of the IWMF report found that on average globally, “73 per cent of the top management jobs are occupied by men compared to 27 per cent occupied by women”.
The 2011 report is based on questionnaire surveys conducted by local researchers in 59 nations. IWMF does not currently have plans to publish another research report until 2014 or 2015, the organisation told Index.
“There is abundant evidence of underrepresentation of women as subjects of coverage, but until now there were no reliable, comprehensive data on which to make a clear determination about where women currently fit into the news-making operation or in the decision-making or ownership structure of their companies,” says Liza Gross, former Executive Director of IWMF, in the introduction of the report.
A RTDNA / Hofstra Survey of 2010 in the US confirms that there is “no good news for women in radio and television news. Women in TV news and women TV news directors stayed largely the same — each had a slight dip — and women in radio news and women radio news directors both fell noticeably.”
Women in the US are not alone. “Glass ceilings were especially noticeable in Canada, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the United States, although these are manifested at different occupational levels,” says the IWMF report.
Furthermore, a recent analysis by El Pais indicates that the number of women in journalism has fallen in Spain lately. Spanish newsrooms at present include 41 per cent of women. The reason behind this disparity is not lack of raw material. According to data from the Federation of Journalists Associations of Spain mentioned in the report, more than 60 per cent of students in Communication faculties across Spain are women. But women make only 20 per cent of the management positions at media organisations.
So the news is… there is no news. Basically, nothing much has changed since this author had a look at who was commander in chief at media organisations in 2008 in an article entitled “Women-Media: Conspicuous by Their Absence”, published by Inter Press Service news agency.
“Anecdotal accounts seem to imply that the situation is largely unchanged (today). It will likely remain so until a concerted effort is made to address inequities at all levels,” says Elisa Munoz, current acting Executive Director at IWMF in an email interview with Index.
So, what impact does all this have on content and how news is commissioned, gathered and published?
“T” for testosterone
There are studies that point to a “patriarchal mentality” that makes male editors assign “serious” issues — business, sports, and politics — to male reporters, while female writers tend to deal with “softer issues” in the social, culture and entertainment pages. However, the direct connection between more men at the top and less women as sources or dealing with serious, relevant journalistic content needs to be further explored. IWMF acting Executive Director, for example, says: “I am not certain that having a man or woman at the top influences media coverage, as a study on that matter has not been undertaken (by IWMF).”
What many studies do establish is the fact that many more men are sources of stories than women; many more women are represented as victims, and not the protagonists of news; in some countries, like in the US, it has been verified that more men byline front-page stories than women.
Women are always in a worse position both as news makers, sources of relevant information and subjects of stories.
According to The Gender Report of eight online US-based news sites, only 26 per cent of the “human sources” of information were women. Other studies put that figure as low as 22 per cent globally.
“Men have long been the predominant sources for the news media on issues such as the economy, politics and the military. And a new analysis of campaign coverage (by 4th State) found that women aren’t even the principal news source on a topic they would presumably know best: women’s issues,” says a Washington Post article by Paul Farhi.
“When it comes to stories about victims, we represent a whopping 79 per cent (according to a report published recently by Womeninjournalism.co.uk). Pretty good market penetration there. And what about in pictures? Research shows that young women dominate here too — so long as the picture doesn’t actually relate to the story and is just used to give it what’s called a ‘lift’ in the industry. But what about when we turn to the question of ‘experts’? Suddenly we don’t look that impressive, as the media tells us that three-quarters of the keepers of knowledge are men,” says Caroline Criado-Perez in an article published by The Guardian.
The study Criado-Perez is referring to shows that while 79 per cent of “victims” were women there is a dearth of women experts. She says:
This led to the laughable situation poor John Humphrys found himself in… when chairing an item on the Today programme about breast cancer treatment. He was forced to ask his guest whether ‘if you were a woman you would have no hesitation about being screened’; there was no woman expert to answer this question. Apparently. This followed on from the previous day’s segment on teenage contraception, which was again discussed by three middle-aged men,
Female-to-male guest proportions on prime-time cable news in the US are also risible.
“Overall, two-thirds of the guests were men. While the differences between networks were not great, MSNBC was the most male-dominated — only 30 per cent of the guests on that network were women”, says a report on diversity on television entitled “Gender And Ethnic Diversity in Prime-Time Cable News” and published in 2008 by Media Matters for America.
An investigation by Elvira Altes and Silvia Majo, details which were published by El Pais, reveals that women are quoted only in two out of ten stories about the economy, in spite of the fact that 60 per cent of the students graduating from business schools are women. “Their knowledge is wasted, “ said Altes, quoted by El Pais.
“The excuse that there fewer women economists, biologists, politicians or managers is not valid,” says Jose Javier Sanchez Aranda, Communication professor at the University of Navarre, quoted by the El Pais report. His research demonstrates that the presence of women in media is even lower than the presence of women in active society.
Basically, media organisations do not do their job properly. If they did, Sanchez Aranda argues, they would use more female sources. “
And the situation has worsened for women in the media during the economic crisis. The media sector in western countries had been badly hit, causing newsrooms to downsize and the disappearance of foreign bureaux, even whole media organisations. And “it is my understanding that women and minorities have taken a bigger hit,” says Munoz of IWMF, who points out, however, that her organisation has not produced any concrete data.
In any case, it seems clear the small minority of women who have decision making power at media organisations have an impact on how the media portrays women. At least that would explain why you’ll find many more women concocting meals on your screen than cooking the news.
Miren Guitierrez is editorial director of Index on Censorship