10 Jun 2013 | In the News
GLOBAL
UN report slams government surveillance
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Frank La Rue delivered a report to the Human Rights Council outlining how state and corporate surveillance undermine freedom of expression and privacy. (Index on Censorship)
GREECE
Kostas Vaxevanis faces fresh trial
The Greek journalist who published the infamous “Lagarde list” of Swiss bank accounts could face two years in jail for breaching privacy. (Index on Censorship)
INDIA
HC directive on film posters a springboard for double censorship
The Kerala High Court’s directive to the State Police Chief to take up investigation of cases registered for indecent representation of women could end up as a double censorship, it is felt. (The Hindu)
Defying censorship, the reporter who exposed the killings
Brahma Chellaney exposed the killings of young unarmed Sikh youths for a foreign news agency, and faced severe government harassment (The Hindu)
IRAN
Regime’s media slam mullahs censorship
The Iranian regime’s own media has spoken out in protest at the censoring and restrictions imposed on their work. More than one hundred media staff covering next week’s election have released a statement criticising the oppressive scrutiny of their news websites, including reporters from the state-run Fars news agency. (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
IRELAND
Media must be free to ‘be arrow and not target’
THE first President Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit” when describing the less obvious charms of the American chief magistracy. (Irish Independent)
JAMAICA
Free Speech And Gay Rights
Boyne: Tolerance does not mean acceptance. And this is my problem with some gay people: … Any rejection of homosexuality as morally wrong is seen as homophobia. That is nonsense and an abuse of language to shut down conversation. (The Gleaner)
MALTA
‘Adult plays should be protected from police’
When censorship laws were relaxed last year, theatre buffs rejoiced thinking that no play would suffer the same fate as Anthony Neilson’s Stitching. (Times of Malta)
SINGAPORE
Singapore Bloggers Protest Licensing Rules for News Websites
More than 2,000 Singaporeans gathered at a downtown park to protest a regulation requiring websites that regularly publish news on the city state to be licensed. (Jakarta Globe)
UNITED STATES
Former FCC Chairman: Let’s Test an Emergency Ad Hoc Network
As the Boston Marathon bombings unfolded, thousands of anxious people in the region pulled out their mobile phones to connect with friends and family—and found that calls couldn’t be placed or received. Rumors that officials had shut down these mobile networks for security reasons weren’t true. The system was simply overloaded at a time when people needed it most.
(MIT Technology Review)
Produced By Conference: Death Threats, But No Network Censorship For ‘Walking Dead’ Execs
The Walking Dead exec producer Gale Anne Hurd admitted this afternoon that one of the hazards of her job is receiving death threats from the rabid fan base of smash hit AMC zombie drama when it dares to kill off a character. “That’s one of the dirty little secrets of social media,” she admitted.
(Deadline Hollywood)
School deliberately cuts valedictorian’s mic mid-speech
A US high school valedictorian had his microphone deliberately switched off in the middle of his graduation speech because the school had not approved what he was saying.
(9 News)
Freedom of speech under attack by Islamophobes in Tennessee
I’ve noted before that Pamela Geller Does Not Understand Freedom of Speech when she found fault with American Muslims and others for denouncing her hate ads. This she called an attempt to “impose blasphemy restrictions on free speech”.
(The American Muslim)
Do news organizations hurt free speech when they ban offensive words?
From now on, no one will be described in an Associated Press news story as an “illegal immigrant,” “illegal alien,” “illegal,” or as “undocumented.”
(Denver Post)
OPINION: Pro-Palestinian groups don’t respect free speech on campus
College is meant to be a place where free speech comes alive. Different viewpoints are supposed to be welcome and intellectual diversity celebrated.
(Campus Reform)
Disputed ads are protected speech
The ad we placed on city buses quoting Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu comparing what Palestinians endure to South African apartheid was meant to educate the public about Israeli and U.S. policies.
(San Francisco Examiner)
Conservatives as Defenders of the Media
The conservative pundit Glenn Beck took the lectern at a conference center on Manhattan’s East Side last Thursday to accept the Freedom of Speech Award for his commentary on TheBlaze television network and his syndicated radio show.
(The New York Times)
VIETNAM
Vietnamese Directors Speak Out On CHO LON and Censorship
The banning of the Nguyen brothers’ Cho Lon caused extreme rage in Vietnam yesterday. And not just for filmmakers or film geeks, but all over the country; I haven’t seen anything like this before. Previously banned films came and went quietly, but Cho Lon is now the focus of a national conversation. (Twitch)
23 May 2013 | Europe and Central Asia
Two journalists were attacked while covering a street rally in Kiev, and nine more Ukrainian reporters were in danger of losing government accreditation following a protest to support their colleagues, Andrei Alaiksandrau reports.
TV journalist Olga Snitsarchuk and her husband, Kommersant photographer Vladislav Sodel were beaten on 18 May in the centre of Kiev, while they were taking pictures of a political rally in the Ukrainian capital. The journalists began recording images of a group of young men who were attacking people at the gathering.
Ukrainian journalists rally in Kiev to support journalists. (Photo: ukrafoto ukrainian news / Demotix)
“Having seeing that I started taking photos, young men in tracksuits rushed at me. And Olga began to take video of how they were beating me, so the men knocked her to the ground and began to beat”, Vladislav Sodel told Ukrainskaya Pravda.
Police officers who were present at the scene ignored appeals for help from rally participants and the journalists, according to witnesses. One of the attackers was later identified as Vadim Titushko, who happens to be a member of a police sports club. Titushko was detained and interrogated, but on 22 May released on bail.
Full Coverage: Ukraine | Today on Index: Brazil’s Federal Police seize journalist’s equipment | Birthday wishes for Bassel Khartabil | Vietnamese activists appeal sentences | Free expression in the news
Index on Censorship Events
Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013
The internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today’s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression. More >>>
Ukrainian journalists demanded the incident be properly investigated. On 22 May nine reporters conducted a silent action during a government meeting by turning their backs on ministers to show posters that read “Today it is a journalist, tomorrow it is going to be your wife, sister or daughter. Take action!”
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ordered the journalists removed from the hall and, later, withdrew their press credentials for “breach of order of coverage of Cabinet of Ministers’ work.” This incident prompted about 100 Ukrainian journalists to protest outside the prime minister’s office in support of Snitsarchuk, Sodel and their nine colleagues. The government announced that the journalists would keep their accreditation. Moreover, Verkhovna Rada, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, today created an ad-hoc committee to investigate the 18 May incident.
“We are at the beginning of a new war between the state and the press,” a Ukraininan MP and a former journalist Volodymyr Ariev said yesterday in London during a conference on media regulation, organised by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The Institute of Mass Information, a Ukrainian media freedom non-governmental organisation, has reported on the deterioration of the media environment in the country.
“There was a huge increase in the number of physical attacks on journalists in 2012, with 80 cases registered in comparison to just 26 in 2011. We also note an increase of instances of censorship. This year is going to be tough for journalists and free speech in Ukraine as the authorities will definitely aim at building the basis for 2015 presidential elections,” Oksana Romaniuk, a representative of Reporters Without Borders in Ukraine, told Index.
23 May 2013 | Americas, Brazil, Politics and Society
Brazil’s Federal Police seized a journalist’s equipment – including his computer – during an operation to remove indians from a farm in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The seizure was decried as illegal by the reporter’s employer, one of the country’s most prominent aid agencies aimed at indigenous peoples, Rafael Spuldar reports.
Ruy Sposati, who works for the Indigenist Missionary Consel (Conselho Indigenista Missionário, CIMI), was covering a land repossession operation carried out by the Federal Police in the city of Sidrolândia on Saturday May 18th.
During the operation, Federal Police official Alcídio de Souza Araújo ordered the seizure of the reporter’s equipment — a laptop computer, an audio recorder and camera lenses.
The confiscation took place without a warrant or any explanation, an act regarded as illegal by the journalist’s employer. When told that Sposati worked for CIMI, Araújo said he had never heard of the organization. A video recording of the action was posted on YouTube.
CIMI is affiliated to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil. It monitors and aids the country’s many indigenous peoples.
Full Coverage: Brazil | Today on Index: Birthday wishes for Bassel Khartabil | Vietnamese activists appeal sentences | Free expression in the news
Index on Censorship Events
Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013
The internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today’s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression. More >>>
CIMI filed complaints against Araújo with the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Public Ministry and the Federal Police’s Magistracy. According to CIMI’s attorney Adelar Cupsinski, this is a case of misuse of authority.
A public statement by CIMI denounced the “militarization” surrounding events related to the indigenous peoples’ struggle for rights in Brazil.
“The institutionalization of this practice is a brutal attempt against a journalist’s professional duty, the social organizations’ freedom and, even more, the democratic and law-ruled relations in our society”, says the statement.
Federal Police says an inquiry about the case is already open. Araújo is expected to present a report justifying his acts.
3 May 2013 | Newswire
Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office marked today’s World Press Freedom Day with the launch of their “Shine a light” campaign. According to the FCO, “‘Shine a light’ aims to highlight repression of the media across the world through personal testimonies. Journalists and activists from around the world will be tell their stories of harassment and other restrictions on press freedom as guest bloggers.”
The FCO’s World Press Freedom Day blog contains some impressive posts on press freedom in Zimbabwe, Vietnam and other countries.
Unfortunately, the British Embassy in Bahrain seems to have gone somewhat off message. They tweeted earlier:
The link leads to two articles: one by Anwar Abdulrahman, of the pro-Bahraini regime Akhbar Al Khaleej and its sister paper Gulf Daily News, and one bylined “Citizens for Bahrain“, apparently a pro-government astroturfing exercise.
The pieces themselves are quite something: Abdulrahman is worth quoting at length:
From my desk as Editor-in-Chief, I believe that freedom should be based on humanness, righteousness and debate, not anarchy and terror. For in this era of open skies and the Internet, to misuse freedom is easy. Any story can be fabricated, any person or government defamed at the touch of a computer screen.
Another thought…as much as beasts cannot be left to roam freely, so in human society the feral element’s freedom should be under control.
That’s the Bahraini opposition, many of whom have been locked up for exercising their right to free expression, he’s referring to as the “feral element”.
Citizens for Bahrain, meanwhile, inform us:
It is time to practice this freedom in a suitable manner and not to abuse it. Freedom of the press is certainly a right, but it must be used with care and wisdom. When used such a manner it can be influential in developing and enlightening society, making this society more resilient both in times of trouble and times of peace.
In conclusion, we say this: Express your views openly and honestly; but put your country before your personal interests.
That is to say, “shut up”.
Why the embassy chooses to mark World Press Freedom Day by publishing two articles in support of censorship, and a regime that imprisons protesters, including Index award winner Nabeel Rajab, is a mystery.
Update: The embassy has moved to distance itself from the views expressed in the blog posts.
Padraig Reidy is senior writer for Index on Censorship. @mePadraigReidy
