20 Dec 2010 | Uncategorized
During the last few weeks, Wikileaks has been in focus in all kinds of media worldwide. This has certainly been the case in Sweden, and for a number of very different reasons.
But if Wikileaks represents a new sort of journalism, as some commentators have been arguing, then the media response has followed its own and rather dated logic. The first two rounds of leaked US documents stirred up a debate concerning their content — including new information about US military activities in Iraq. The latest round, Cablegate, which exposes diplomatic cables has led to a heated discussion about Wikileaks itself. As McLuhan (almost) put it, the medium risks becoming the message.
Not that the Cablegate documents aren’t interesting in themselves. The Swedes discovered that their government, after first letting the CIA land planes making secret prisoner transports changed their minds about the system and discontinued cooeperation in 2006. This was very welcome news. But the released diplomatic correspondence started a discussion about the nature of secrecy itself — what is legitimate discretion and what is just much smoke and mirrors, intended to keep citizens in the dark?
Interesting as that may be from a philosophical point of view, the real discussion point this time is Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange — after the allegations of sexual harassment and rape emerged during his stay in Sweden. Ironically, the matter has been thoroughly exposed on Swedish blogs and websites. Everyone who wants to know the details of the allegations can find names, places and other “facts” online — very much in the spirit of Wikileaks itself. What you learn as you step into this mire of allegations, counter-allegations, facts and speculations is how sordid and complicated the matter is. The general opinion in Sweden — if indeed such an opinion really can be discerned — is that Assange should face a Swedish court and, probably, be released for lack of evidence. Not many commentators here really believe that he runs the risk of being delivered into the hands of the US authorities.
If we restrict our discussion to Wikileaks as a phenomenon in its own right, the general opinion in the Swedish press (with few divergent voices) is that something of this kind is necessary and even welcome — if handled with the proper journalistic ethos. As columnist Lars Linder argues in the largest Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter (12/12). “Wikileaks operate within the territory of classic journalism.” As Linder put it: “Wikileaks has shown us that what the powers that be really hide behind their speeches on “security” and “responsibility” — and that is ‘too much’.”
Wikileaks operates within the spirit of the classic muck-raking journalism that we tend to respect and consider more or less heroic — 10 to 20 years after the fact. During the Watergate crisis the Washington Post was accused of having a hidden (left-wing Democratic) political agenda and meddling in things they did not fully grasp. Today we consider their exposure of Nixon as a triumph of democracy. Wikileaks’ abilility to rally support is, of course, rooted in another fact: that many of the democratic states during the so-called “War on Terror” have been rolling back fundamental human rights. In that context the Wikileaks’ phenomenon can be regarded as a necessary push in the other direction.
Therefore it is even more outrageous that media channels in the above-mentioned democratic countries like the US and Canada have been filled with comments that must be seen as death threats. There is no other way to interpret quotes from for example Fox news contributor Bob Beckel who, speaking about Assange, encourages his viewers to “illegally shoot the son of a bitch”. There have been numerous such quotes during the recent weeks.
And this brings us to the bottom line: if democratic states shut down inopportunistic news channels with questionable or even illegal means — and if death threats to journalists are accepted as part of common political discourse — what is there to say the next time a journalist is shot in Mexico or put behind bars in China or Iran? Nothing. As Pen International states: “In a world where journalists are regularly physically attacked, imprisoned and killed with impunity, calling for the death of a journalist is irresponsible and deplorable.”
And that, my friends, is a wake-up call.
Ola Larsmo is a Swedish novelist and freelance critic, and president of Swedish PEN
12 Dec 2010 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
No right to assembly or protest. As an independent trade unionist in Iran your actions are automatically illegitimate in the eyes of the state and for many carry a prison sentence. One such worker Reza Shahabi, treasurer of the Bus Workers’ Union has been in Tehran’s Evin prison since June 2010 and remains incarcerated in spite of his family’s payment of the 60m Tomans (USD 57,000) bail money demanded as condition of his release on 11 October.
Iran’s Bus Workers’ Union formed to fight for basic rights and working conditions, and to stand against common injustices among them unfair dismissal and unpaid wages. Shahabi upheld the values of this federation and his outcry now manifests itself as an ultimate and pivotal voice of the unheard as he enters the second week of a dry hunger strike (Day 1, Saturday 3 December).
The Declaration on Hunger Strikers (Declaration of Malta) defines a hunger striker as “a mentally competent person who has indicated that he has decided to embark on a hunger strike and has refused to take food and/or fluids or a significant interval.” Most hunger strikes involve an intake of water or other liquid, salt and sugar. Vitamins are also taken to protect against irreversible neurological damage and other critical damage upon the reintroduction of food to the body. Shahabi’s dry hunger strike rejects these precautions as to date he has had nil by mouth.
The medical ethics of hunger strikes remain intensely debated as are the individual’s right to strike, considered against the freedom and authenticity of this decision in a prison environment. The issue of the aims of the strike and their incompatibility with a legitimate state’s policies regarding operating a prison is also pertinent. These points are discussed in a paper entitled The physician and prison hunger strikes, published in 2004, examining prisoner hunger strikes in Turkey.
It is poignant that the Iranian government apparently reveres the actions of hunger strikers in far away lands, naming two streets after IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands — Winston Churchill Boulevard, the address of the British Embassy in Tehran, was renamed Bobby Sands Street, the state Fars news agency calling his death “heroic” — but refuses to heed the desperate actions of its own citizens.
To sign Amnesty International’s campaign for the freedom of Reza Shahabi and fellow unionists click here.
9 Dec 2010 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
Lawyers in Rome, Madrid, Paris, The Hague and Berlin will today protest against the wrongful imprisonment of their colleagues in Iran. On this the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, Iranian Embassies will be presented with a letter of protest from the Association of European Democratic Lawyers — a coalition of nine lawyers’ associations across Europe, works to “promote the respect of the rights of the defense and in particular to preserve the physical integrity as well as the political and economic freedom of lawyers” and works especially to support “those who are in precarious situations and those whose basic rights are not recognised or hardly acknowledged.”
Iran has imprisoned several of its human rights lawyers, who now join their clients in prison. Recorded human rights abuses reached an all time high in Iran’s post-election crisis and lawyers trying to defend citizens from unlawful detention and systematic torture have themselves been terrorised and have fallen victim to a system desperate to curb any activity that defends personal freedoms.
Others like Mohammad Mostafaei one of the lawyers for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani have fled. His colleague on the case, Houtan Kian, remains in prison.
26 Nov 2010 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
Index on Censorship today launches Iran Uncut, a special initiative to unearth and revitalise the plethora of archives of literary, artistic, photographic and other creative works by Iranians denied publication and expression in their homeland.
Pen names or pseudonyms have long been a facet of political and social identity, enabling and empowering otherwise forbidden expression.
Now millions of Iranians have created aliases in order to have a voice and actively engage in social and political online dialogue. An extraordinary community has developed of people inside and outside the country sharing thoughts and ideas, posting opinion on Facebook and Twitter and personal blogs. Many Iranians boldly go by their own names, risking intimidation and arrest. To the foreign eye the assumed names are no different, their pseudonyms not immediately recognisable as such in their phonetic Persian incarnations. But looking through activist pages on the net, they are there…along with Thunder Heart and Liss Nup are Tire Akhar, Irani Vatanparast, Mikrobe Siasi, Zibatarin Moosighi, Sokooto Dard, Gole Green, Na Mous, Zane Irani, Baghlava Rashti. To the non-Persian speaker these names blend in with the others as first and family names, but their verve is apparent to Iranians who instead read: Freedom-of Expression, The-final Bullet, Iranian Patriot, Political Bacteria, The-most-beautiful Music, Silence and Pain, Green Flower, Hon Our [honour], Iranian Woman, and the humourous Baghlava Rashti, after the syrupy pastry.
Less humourous is the reality that necessitates this precaution. The regime’s cyber army is busy monitoring all these sites and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security last year expanded its activities to incorporate demanding Facebook passwords upon entry to the country, revealing individual’s profiles and most significantly the online company they keep. Other Iranians interrogated in detention report having to reveal email and Twitter account passwords. Outside the country “dissident” activity is under equal surveillance, with messages sent by intelligence agents that warn against posting “anti-government” discussion, and reported threats involving family still living in Iran.
Against this backdrop is the continued censorship of non-political writing, art, film, theatre, music, photography and other works deemed socially and culturally “inappropriate”. Some of these have already been seen at international festivals and through online networks. Index on Censorship wants to maximize this effort, with Iran Uncut presenting a forum for the open exhibition of creative talent from Iran to a wider audience. We welcome all your work and I look forward to communicating with you and sharing your ideas.
I shall go by the name of mahi siah-e kuchulu (the little black fish), in homage to the children’s story of that title and its author, the eloquent school teacher Samad Behrangi. The story, about a little black fish determined to discover the world beyond the little stream of her habitat, is a political allegory that sealed Behrangi’s fate and resonates today more than ever. You can read it here:
Please email me at: littleblackfish[at]indexoncensorship.org
