23 Jun 2010 | Uncategorized
DISPATCHES
THE PURSUIT OF SECRECY
Richard Norton-Taylor:How the courts stopped Labour’s cover-up
RADIO REDUX
From unsung heroes to shock jocks, Index looks at free speech on the airwaves
RULERS OF THE AIRWAVES
Gillian Reynolds: The key to radio’s success
LOOKING FOR AMERICA
Joe Queenan: Talk radio is the battleground for the USA’s soul
OPEN MIKE
Aryeh Neier: Free speech remains the best antidote
CULTURE OF CAUTION
Martin Semukanya: Rwandan journalists are still rebuilding credibility
RADIO WAVES: FACTS AND FIGURES
Liam Hodkinson & Elizabeth Stitt
THE WORLD STRIKES BACK
Irena Maryniak: The broadcast revolution has rewritten the rules
NEW WAVES
Richard Sambrook: International radio can no longer go it alone
MARTIN ROWSON’S STRIPSEARCH
GOOD MORNING BELGRADE
Adrienne Van Heteren: The triumph of B92
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Maria Eismont: Alexei Venediktov on the secret of his survival
RADIO SILENCE
Vugar Gojayev: Azerbaijan’s shrinking media landscape
DAB IS DEAD
Grant Goddard: How the digital dream turned sour
LOCAL HERO
Carlos Flores Borja: A Peruvian station’s battle to broadcast
INTERUPTED SERVICE
Aleida Calleja: Community radio on the front line in Mexico
PIRACY GOES KOSHER
Anat Balint: Israeli settlers join the media game
TABOO BUSTER
Kirsten Ess Schurr: Jordan’s hero of the airwaves
REAL LIVES
Shirazuddin Siddiqi: The programme the Taliban couldn’t ban
TOO FAST TOO FREE
Ernest Waititu : How Kenya’s broadcasters fell foul of the law
INDEX INDEX
BODY WORKS
COVERED UP
Marge Berer: The full frontal that got pulled
MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL
Omid Salehi: Inside the world of Iranian cosmetic surgery
FICTION
MY BEST FRIEND
An exclusive extract from Javad Mahzadeh’s new novel
10 Jun 2010 | Uncategorized
The Independent reports this morning that Ofcom is to investigate Iranian news channel Press TV. Index on Censorship contributor Maziar Bahari complained that the station broadcast an interview he gave while under interrogation in Tehran’s Evin prison in the aftermath of last year’s contested Iranian presidential elections.
Index editor Jo Glanville is quoted as saying that no self-respecting reporter should work for the channel, adding “The way they behaved by going into the prison in that way and essentially colluding with the torture and illegal detention of a journalist should finish their reputation once and for all in [the UK].”
Channel 4 News will be screening a special report on Press TV at 7pm tonight (10 June).
28 May 2010 | Digital Freedom, Uncategorized
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Thai website prachatai.com, is to face the court on Monday 31 May in a procedural hearing in a case brought against her under the country’s Computer Crimes Act. The case relates to comments posted on the site, rather than anything Chrianuch wrote herself.
According to Peter Noorlander of the Media Legal Defence Initiative, “the authorities seem to intend through this prosecution is to remove a thorn in their side”. An increasing number of independent and critical media have faced censure in Thailand since the military coup of 2006. Under the Computer Crimes Act, Chiranuch could be found guilty od “intentionally supporting or consenting to an offence”.
Read more here
21 May 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Film-maker Jafar Panahi has been imprisoned in Iran since 1 March after the government accused him of making a documentary about last year’s presidential election. He was to be on the Palme d’Or judging panel at the Cannes film festival this week where fellow Iranian film-maker, Abbas Kiarostami, called his arrest an “attack on art” and launched an appeal for his release on 18 May. Panahi has reportedly begun a hunger strike until he is allowed to meet with a lawyer, see his family and be released.
