There was a full house for the launch of the summer edition of Index this week. The theme was the Trump administration’s war on free expression, and our panel of experts attracted an impressive and noticeably young audience. Some were there to support Anvee Bhutani, from the Wall Street Journal. She’s now based in the UK but previously reported from the frontline of the US government’s attacks on immigrants and protestors. Also speaking were the American historian and journalist Erica Wagner, now working at the Observer, and lawyer Charlie Holt, who specialises in environmental law and is a longtime ally of Index in the fight against SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation).
There seemed to be a consensus that it was now possible to talk about “the American dissident” in light of the administration’s attacks on state-funded media, the legal establishment and academia. Erica caught the mood when she said she was “both shocked and not shocked” by what was going on and Trump’s behaviour. “When people tell you who they are, pay attention,” she said.
Charlie reminded us that Trump has been involved in over 2,000 lawsuits, many of them used to target journalists. As chair of the discussion, hosted by St John’s Church, Waterloo, it felt like the work of Index was more vital than ever. Anvee said she had accepted the invitation when she heard it was about the crackdown on press, protest and academic freedom: “I feel I have seen all three collapse in the last year in America.”
It also felt appropriate that the audience was reminded of Index’s history and tradition as the champion of dissident writers and artists in eastern and central Europe. The Belarusian poet Hanna Komar read from her collaboration with Greek poet Katerina Koulouri using words which the Trump administration has banned federal agencies from using.
It is always good to be reminded of the complexities of the debate over free expression and the final question of the evening provided just this check on complacency. Audience member Marko Begic asked whether we need to reconsider our understanding of the concept of censorship in the third decade of the 21st century. With the populist right and the activist left both claiming their free expression is under threat, we are certainly a long way from the Cold War certainties at the heart of Index’s origin story. But the concept of the dissident remains as powerful as it ever was, whether it is embodied by an exiled Belarusian poet or an American journalist in the progressive tradition.
Jailed Ethiopian dissident blogger Eskinder Nega will stand trial in March for terrorism charges, a federal high court judge ruled this week. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Nega and five other journalists were last November charged with providing support toGinbot 7, a banned opposition movement that the government formally designated a terrorist entity under the 2009 anti-terrorism law last year. At this week’s hearing, the judge confirmed all six charges for two of those accused and dismissed all but one charge against three others.
Belarusian dissident Vasily Parfenkov has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment following his hearing on Thursday. He was convicted of breaking the window of a parliamentary building during protests against President Lukashenko’s re-election on 19 December. He will also have to pay pay 14m roubles ($4,700) in compensation for damage to state property. Parfenkov is an active supporter of opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyayev.
A solidarity rally in support of Belarus’s political prisoners is being held at the Belarusian Embassy in London on Saturday 19 February.
The sad death of jailed writer Zhang Jianhong went by with hardly a blip from the foreign media.
Zhang, 52, died 31 December in hospital while on medical parole from a rare neurological disease. He leaves behind a wife and daughter.
A few months into his prison term in Zhejiang province, Zhang, whose pen name was Li Hong, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a disorder in which the muscles irreversibly waste away. The prison repeatedly denied him medical parole until June last year, by which time he was completely paralysed and was kept alive by a respirator.
Zhang had been sentenced to six years for “inciting subversion of state power” in March 2007 for his work as a contributor to anti-Chinese government, pro-human rights media overseas including the Epoch Times and Boxun.
Radio Free Asia also reported that Chinese police warned his dissident friends not to publicly mourn Zhang.
Zhang had a long history of angering the authorities. In December 1989 he was sentenced to three years of Re-education Through Labour for publicly criticizing the Tiananmen Square Massacre. He briefly took part in the protests but left the Square on 2 June.
“ICPC considers Mr Zhang Jianhong as the most recent victim of contemporary literary inquisition in China and one of its worst cases in over 30 years,” the centre said.
