12 Jun 2019 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Social media platforms wield immense control over the information we see online. With rising pressure from governments; and increasing reliance on algorithms, social media platforms are in danger of silencing millions of activists and marginalised groups across the world with content takedowns and blocked accounts.
You are invited to hear the views from our panellists and take part in a discussion that will shape ARTICLE19 campaign.
Our vision for the campaign is to safeguard freedom of expression online. This cannot be achieved without better accountability and transparency. We will be calling on social media platforms to respect due process guarantees and create clear and transparent mechanisms to enforce such guarantees. Some questions we will be discussing include:
● How content takedown and account deactivation is affecting activism?
● What is the scale of the problem and its impact on free speech?
● What is the role of authorities for content takedown on social media platforms?
● What can be done to improve accountability and transparency online?
● What can the campaign do to amplify voices of those seeking change?[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Panelists” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”107205″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Thomas Hughes has been executive director of ARTICLE 19 since 2013. For the past two decades, Hughes has worked on human rights and media development issues, including as deputy director of International Media Support (IMS) between 2005 and 2010, as well as previously for the United Nations, European Commission and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”107204″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Jennifer Robinson is a barrister in London. Her practice focuses on international law, free speech and civil liberties. She advises media organisations, journalists and whistle-blowers on all aspects of media law. Robinson serves as a trustee for the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, and sits on the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Bonavero Human Rights Institute at the University of Oxford.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”107206″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Pavel Marozau is a civic and internet activist. He was under politically motivated persecution by the Belarusian authorities for producing satirical animated films casting president Lukashenko, being accused of slandering the Belarusian president. During the Geneva Summit, Marozau founded a network of activists from Iran, Burma, Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Egypt, as well as a founder of counter-propaganda web-television ARU TV.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”107207″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Paulina Gutiérrez is an international human rights lawyer and internet freedom advocate in Latin America. She holds a degree in law and another one in international relations. During the last four years, Gutiérrez designed and developed the digital rights agenda for ARTICLE19 Mexico and Central America Regional Office. She’s also a member of INDELA’s Advisory Board and BENETECH’s Human Rights Program Advisory Board.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
When: Thursday 20 June 5:30-10pm
Where: The Law Society’s Hall, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL
Tickets: Free. Registration required via Eventbrite
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Presented in partnership with[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”60288″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
15 May 2019 | Artistic Freedom Case Studies
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Name of Art Work: Rita Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar
Artist/Company: Out of Joint
Date: September – December 2017
Venue: Royal Court (as part of a UK tour)
Brief description of the artwork/project: Andrea Dunbar’s play Rita Sue and Bob Too was commissioned by Max Stafford-Clarke, then artistic director of Royal Court, in 1982. It is set on the estate Dunbar grew up on, and tells the story of the relationship between a married man and his two teenage babysitters. Out of Joint – a theatre company founded by Stafford-Clarke – revived the play to tour in Autumn and Winter 2017 as co-production with the Royal Court. [/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”106743″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”Why was it challenged?” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The play was originally to be co-directed by Stafford-Clarke and Kate Wasserburg who joined the company in July 2017, but Stafford Clark left Out of Joint on September 11th, three days into the rehearsal period. One month later, on 20th October, it emerges that he was forced out of the company for inappropriate, sexualised behaviour. Around the same time, Vicky Featherstone – artistic director of the Royal Court – organises a day of action in response to the Weinstein revelations, looking at sexual harassment in theatre, in the context of the #MeToo movement. When Featherstone and the production team went to see the play on tour, they were concerned that the content, particularly of the first scene, which shows Bob grooming the girls for sex, which is then enacted in his car, and the association with Max Stafford-Clark, was directly at odds with the theatre’s day of action.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”What action was taken?” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]On 13th December, The Royal Court decides to cancel the planned production of Rita Sue and Bob too. They release a joint statement with Out of Joint:
“The departure of Max Stafford-Clark from Out of Joint and the recent allegations in the media have coincided with Royal Court’s response to the spotlight on our industry and the rigorous interrogation of our own practices….On our stage [at the day of action] we recently heard 150 stories of sexual harassment and abuse and therefore the staging of this work, with its themes of grooming and abuses of power on young women, on that same stage now feels highly conflictual.”[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”What happened next?” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The cancellation of the play met a lot of criticism and accusations of censorship, and is described as “punishing women for the misdeeds of men.” Two days after the cancellation, the Royal Court decides to reinstate the play, with a statement from Vicky Featherstone: “I have … been rocked to the core by accusations of censorship and the banning of a working-class female voice. For that reason, I have invited the current Out of Joint production of Rita, Sue and Bob Too back to the Royal Court for its run. As a result of this helpful public debate we are now confident that the context with which Andrea Dunbar’s play will be viewed will be an invitation for new conversations.”[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Reflections” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Vicky Featherstone
This process made me reflect on what true censorship means. This writer was not being censored at all, Andrea Dunbar’s voice had been fully celebrated and given a wide platform over the years and through the long tour of this play leading up to our run. It was the context within which the co-production had been created which was changing and challenging. In the light of Max’s departure from Out of Joint, we made the initial decision to take the work off. It felt naïve of me to still put the play on when the production (directed now by Kate Wasserberg), which I admired, chose not to carry the burden of the changed context in any way. Once this decision was public and the accusation of censorship had been levelled at us, it was clear that no statement could counter that – rather a gesture had to. Hence putting it back on. Putting the play back on enabled us to shift the context and was not about censorship.
Writers at the Royal Court do experience true, profound and dangerous censorship – we work with gay writers in Zimbabwe who get beaten up on the street for their sexuality, Palestinian and Syrian writers who can’t get visas to come to workshops, and with women from UK communities who demand to remain anonymous for fear of the backlash against their stories.
Kate Wasserburg
The Royal Court team were concerned about the association with Max Stafford Clark – although I had taken over very early in rehearsals he is of course historically associated with the play. When they first came to see the play on tour they raised concerns about the content of the play and of course there was a lot of press coverage about Max leaving the company at the time and this definitely played into the decision to cancel the run at the Royal Court.
I stand by the play and the production and I’m very glad it was reinstated. The revival played to over 30,000 people and for us is the cornerstone of our company, putting political work from under-represented voices on stage. It is doing everything that an Out of Joint production should. It talks about poverty, Thatcherism, gender oppression, class oppression but it’s really funny and people all over the country turned up in droves and brought their auntie or grandma, or mum or dad. They stayed for the after show talk which I did in almost every venue. We talked about everything from the Rotherham grooming scandal to Thatcherism, swearing, economics, – it felt hugely important to us as a great national work.
I don’t think the cancellation in London made a difference to audiences on tour. Regionally they embraced it and took it on its own terms. It made the run in the Royal Court fascinating in a way that it probably wouldn’t have been if had not been cancelled. The meta conversation that was happening in that audience was really interesting and we had some incredible post show talks there too – the passionate engagement with Andrea’s writing was very exciting.[/vc_column_text][three_column_post title=”Case studies” full_width_heading=”true” category_id=”15471″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
26 Mar 2019 | China, India, Magazine, News and features, South Africa, United Kingdom, Volume 48.01 Spring 2019, Volume 48.01 Spring 2019 Extras, Zimbabwe
Is this all the local news? We discuss this in the latest podcast. In the spring 2019 edition of Index on Censorship magazine, we explore what happens when the local news media is not there to hold power to account. Guests on this edition of the podcast are all featured in the latest magazine. Beijing-based reporter Karoline Kan, who writes for this issue, explores whether China’s social credit system could impact local journalism; Ian Murray, director of the Society of Editors, discusses a new survey where local editors talk about their fears for the future; co-founder of the Bishop’s Stortford Independent Sinead Corr talks about how she recently launched a new and successful local paper; plus in a special segment current Index youth board members Arpitha Desai, hailing from India, and Melissa Zisengwe, originally from Zimbabwe but now living in South Africa, talk about the strengths and weaknesses of community news in their countries.
Print copies of the magazine are available on Amazon, or you can take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions. Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpetine Gallery and MagCulture (all London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool). Red Lion Books (Colchester) and Home (Manchester). Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.
The Spring 2019 podcast can also be found on iTunes.
26 Mar 2019 | Magazine, Magazine Editions, Volume 48.01 Spring 2019
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”With contributions from Richard Littlejohn, Libby Purves, Michal Hvorecký, Karoline Kan, Andrew Morton, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Rituparna Chatterjee and Julie Posetti”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Is this all the local news? The spring 2019 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.
The spring 2019 edition of Index on Censorship looks at local news in the UK and around the world and what happens when local journalism no longer holds power to account.
Our exclusive survey of editors and journalists in the UK shows that 97% are worried that local newspapers don’t have the resources any more to hold power to account. Meanwhile the older population tell us they are worried that the public is less well informed than it used to be. Local news reporting is in trouble all over the world. In the USA Jan Fox looks at the news deserts phenomenon and what it means for a local area to lose its newspaper. Karoline Kan writes from China about how local newspapers, which used to have the freedom to cover crises and hold the government to account, are closing as they come increasingly under Communist Party scrutiny. Veteran English radio journalist Libby Purves tells editor Rachael Jolley that local newspapers in the UK used to give a voice to working-class people and that their demise may have contributed to Brexit. In India Rituparna Chatterjee finds a huge appetite for local news, but discovers, with some notable exceptions, that there is not enough investment to satisfy demand. “Fake news” is on the rise, and journalists are vulnerable to bribery. Meanwhile Mark Frary examines how artificial intelligence is being used to write news stories and asks whether this is helping or hindering journalism. Finally an extract from the dystopian Slovak novel Troll, Michal Hvorecký published in English for the first time imagines an outpouring of state-sponsored hate
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Special Report: Is this all the local news?”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The future is robotic by Mark Frary Would journalists have more time to investigate news stories if robots did the easy bits?
Terrorising the truth by Stephen Woodman Journalists on the US border are too intimidated by drug cartels to report what is happening
Switched off by Irene Caselli After years as a political football, Argentinian papers are closing as people turn to the internet for news
News loses by Jan Fox Thousands of US communities have lost their daily papers. What is the cost to their area?
Stripsearch by Martin Rowson On the death of local news
What happens when our local news disappears by Tracey Bagshaw How UK local newspapers are closing and coverage of court proceedings is not happening
Who will do the difficult stories now? by Rachael Jolley British local newspaper editors fear a future where powerful figures are not held to account, plus a poll of public opinion on journalism
“People feel too small to be heard” by Rachael Jolley Columnist Libby Purves tells Index fewer working-class voices are being heard and wonders whether this contributed to Brexit
Fighting for funding by Peter Sands UK newspaper editors talk about the pressures on local newspapers in Britain today
Staying alive by Laura Silvia Battaglia Reporter Sandro Ruotolo reveals how local news reporters in southern Italy are threatened by the Mafia
Dearth of news by Karoline Kan Some local newspapers in China no longer dig into corruption or give a voice to local people as Communist Party scrutiny increases
Remote controller by Dan Nolan What happens when all major media, state and private, is controlled by Hungary’s government and all the front pages start looking the same
Rocky times by Monica O’Shea Local Australian newspapers are merging, closing and losing circulation which leaves scandals unreported
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Global View”][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”In Focus”][vc_column_text]
Turning off the searchlights by Alessio Perrone The Italian government attempts to restrict coverage of the plight of refugees crossing the Mediterranean
Standing up for freedom Adam Reichardt A look at Gdańsk’s history of protest and liberalism, as the city fights back after the murder of mayor Paweł Adamowicz
After the purge by Samuel Abrahám and Miriam Sherwood This feature asks two writers about lessons for today from their Slovak families’ experiences 50 years ago
Fakebusters strike back by Raymond Joseph How to spot deep fakes, the manipulated videos that are the newest form of “fake news” to hit the internet
Cover up by Charlotte Bailey Kuwaiti writer Layla AlAmmar discusses why 4,000 books were banned in her home country and the possible fate of her first #MeToo novel
Silence speaks volumes by Neema Komba Tanzanian artists and musicians are facing government censorship in a country where 64 new restrictions have just been introduced
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Culture”][vc_column_text]
The year of the troll by Michal Hvorecký This extract from the novel Troll describes a world where the government controls the people by spewing out hate 24 hours a day
Ghost writers by Jeffrey Wasserstrom The author and China expert imagines a fictional futuristic lecture he’s going to give in 2049, the centenary of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
Protesting through poetry by Radu Vancu Verses by one of Romania’s most renowned poets draw on his experience of anti-corruption protests in Sibiu
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Column”][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Endnote”][vc_column_text]
Press freedom: EU blind spot? By Sally Gimson Many European countries are violating freedom of the press; why is the EU not taking it more seriously?
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe”][vc_column_text]In print, online, in your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18 or just £1.49 in the App Store for a digital issue.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”105481″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Listen”][vc_column_text]The spring 2019 magazine podcast, featuring interviews with editor of chinadialogue, Karoline Kan; director of the Society of Editors in the UK Ian Murray and co-founder of the Bishop’s Stortford Independent, Sinead Corr. Index youth board members Arpitha Desai and Melissa Zisingwe also talk about local journalism in India and Zimbabwe
LISTEN HERE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
