13 Sep 2010 | Uncategorized
Index contributor Malu Halasa was talking about free speech and hip hop on BBC Radio 5 live’s show Up All Night last Saturday, September 11, with editor Jo Glanville. You can listen on BBC iPlayer here, 38 minutes in. 5 live’s Up All Night will be dedicating another half-hour show to Index’s new issue on music and censorship, Smashed Hits 2.0, on Saturday 18 September at 0130am, with musician and writer Khyam Allami.
Don’t miss Fari Bradley‘s show, also on 18 September, 2300-0100, on Resonance FM. She’ll be playing protest music and music from countries where censorship is rife, to tie in with the publication of Smashed Hits 2.0.
Listen to Index’s playlists on Spotify and iTunes here. All tracks chosen by contributors to the music issue, including Radiohead‘s Colin Greenwood, jazz musician Gilad Atzmon and veteran rock manager Peter Jenner.
6 Sep 2010 | Uncategorized
The new issue of Index On Censorship comes out soon. It’s called Smashed Hits 2.0, and it deals with music censorship
You can listen to Negar Shaghaghi (star of “No one know about Persian Cats”) and Peter Jenner (former manager of The Clash and Pink Floyd), contributors to the issue, talking about music and censorship on BBC World Service, here (05 September, 40 minutes in)
To listen to exclusive Smashed Hits 2.0 playlists, including selections from Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood, Negar Shaghaghi, Peter Jenner and more, go to
www.indexoncensorship.org/music
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
18 Jun 2010 | Uncategorized
Home Secratary Theresa May has issued an exclusion order for the controversial Muslim preacher Zakir Naik.
At first glance this is similar to the ban on Dutch MP Geert WIlders imposed when he was due to show his film Fitna in the House of Lords last year. The ban on Wilders, whose film juxtaposed verses from the Koran with images of terrorist atrocities, backfired on two counts. First, it simply made him a free speech martyr and drew attention to his scare-mongering views that were freely available on the Internet. Secondly, it wasn’t sustainable — Wilders won an appeal against the ban at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. In retrospect (and as it seemed at the time too) it would have been far better to have let Wilders have his say, and to have met his arguments with counterarguments and evidence. I made a podcast about this criticising the Government action at the time (Listen here)
Does that mean that on free speech grounds we should discourage the UK Government from imposing a ban on Naik? Here’s a possible difference between the cases: Naik has reputedly expressed sympathy for Osama Bin Laden’s terrorism and seems in some of his pronouncements to be advocating actual violence against Americans and against those who change their religion.
If that is correct, then there may be good reason for a ban. The most obvious acceptable limit to free speech is the point at which a speaker incites violence. Yet, the situation gets more complicated. Naik has issued a press release in which he “unequivocally condemns acts of violence including 9/11, 7/7 and 7/11.”
So, should we take the press release as a sincere statement of his current position? If so, is it reasonable to ban him for views that he has apparently jettisoned if indeed he ever held them? This is not an easy case to decide. Perhaps allowing him to speak in Britain while monitoring closely the content of his oratory will in the end be the least worst option.
