Talking censorship at the University of Essex

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”106499″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]“I worry that today even more effective in censorship than self-censorship is the capacity to make so much noise that the person who says ‘I’ve had a slightly different thought about the way we might look at this scientific issue or this moral question’, never gets heard,” said Trevor Phillips on the subject of “censorship by shitstorm”.

The current chair of Index on Censorship made the comment during a panel with Shohini Chaudhuri, a professor at the University of Essex, where the panel was held as part of Unspeakable, a series of events focusing on censorship as part of the Essex Book Festival.

“Stalin was incredibly good at this, there were lots of people he didn’t lock up, not many, but enough,” continued Phillips. “What he did do was make sure they were never heard. The Soviet academy would create a lie and the noise of what was orthodoxy would almost always drown out the innovator, the minority, the small voice that said let’s do something new.”

“It’s very much the case that voices can get buried, very much like news stories can get buried, and the government’s very good at this, massaging bad news by burying it under other news,” said Chaudhuri. “It’s hard to direct attention to a non-orthodox view when an orthodoxy becomes established.”

Chaudhuri went on to talk about censorship in filmmaking and how creativity can flourish under constraints. She said: “Censorship is traditionally seen as something that comes at the end of a process in the form of authorities banning the work once it’s already been produced.

“The idea of constraint is to see that those conditions are already there, that films and other artwork are produced under constraints and those constraints actually shape the work from the very beginning.”

As part of the day of debate, Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, chaired a discussion on theatre censorship with actors from The Globe.

Panellists Matthew Romain and Phoebe Fildes were part of a cast ensemble who performed Shakespeare’s iconic play Hamlet in countries around the world.

“Shakespeare is definitely being used in different ways to perform plays about ideas in a way that a modern playwright couldn’t get away with writing,” said Jolley, who also led a theatre workshop with drama students at University of Essex.

While performing Hamlet, the actors rarely faced restrictions owing to how respected Shakespeare is around the world. However, there were occasions when political and cultural aspects led to unprecedented restrictions and constraints.

“Certain countries wanted to get the script in advance, and would want to see a few scenes in advance. When we performed in Vietnam, for example, before the performance, we had to perform a selection of scenes before a panel who sat there and judged whether or not it was politically appropriate.”

“I personally felt so deeply angry and outraged at just the very notion of there be a group of people judging what they deemed appropriate,” added Fildes. “To me it felt so inhibiting and as an artist to be censored in that way was shocking.”

Dean Atta, a poet who was listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the UK in 2012, performed some of his work, which often deals with questions of identity and social justice.

“There’s a great democracy to the idea of putting work online,” said Atta. “I feel like poets can use the platforms that exist there for them freely to self-publish their work, whether it’s online or printing their own books through self-publishing means.

“That can reach people and it does, so I feel like don’t wait for gatekeepers or for anyone to give you permission to write what you want to write about, if you feel passionately and you need to share that then do that.”[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”106500″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1556616356392-9042b591-8d9e-5″ taxonomies=”8890″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Unspeakable: Banned books, difficult words, taboos

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104730″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival and Index on Censorship invite you to join them for Unspeakable, a day of challenging and illuminating conversations, performance, exhibitions and workshops hosted by the University of Essex, that explores historic and contemporary issues of censorship, no-platforming, freedom of speech, and taboos.

These events are part of the Essex Book Festival 1-31 March 2019

Each part of the programme requires separate ticketing. See specific instructions with the session. [/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Banned Books: Exhibition and presentation” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104723″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 12.00 – 1.00pm
Where: Special Collections Room, Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex, Wivehoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: Free. No booking required.

Some of the most controversial books in history are now recognised as classics. The Bible, works by Shakespeare, Ovid and James Joyce, to mention but a few. Banned Books delves into the University of Essex’s Archives to reveal a fascinating collection of banned books, pamphlets and texts, some dating back hundreds of years.

The event takes place in the Special Collections Room at the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Burning Question: Trevor Phillips and Professor Shohini Chaudhuri” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104724″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 1.30 – 2.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre

Trevor Phillips, writer, broadcaster, former president of the NUS, former chairman of the Equality and the Human Rights Commission, and current chairman of Index on Censorship, will discuss the impact of historic and contemporary censorship across art, history and literature with Professor Shohini Chaudhuri from the University of Essex, a film activist as well as educator.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Play’s the Thing: What happens when theatre gets censored” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”90098″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 3.30–4.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £7, £5 concessions (27 years and under) via Essex Books Festival / Mercury Theatre

Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, in discussion with actors from the Globe theatre around the world project and artistic director of The Gate theatre, Ellen McDougall.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of an era, when all plays had to be signed off by the British Lord Chamberlain before performance, the panel will discuss why we should worry about censorship of what we see on stage, and how words and ideas are restricted around the world and in the UK today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Dean Atta: Performance and audience Q&A” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104727″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 7.00 – 8.00pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre

A performance and audience Q&A with poet Dean Atta, as part of Unspeakable at the University of Essex.

Spoken Word Poet Dean Atta’s powerful debut poetry collection I Am Nobody’s Nigger was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Dean has performed across the UK and internationally, including performances at Hay Festival, Latitude and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been commissioned to write poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Dean is currently working on his second poetry collection The Black Flamingo.

During Essex Book Festival 2019, Dean Atta will be in residence at the Pop-Up Essex Writers House, at Metal in Southend. Find out more at www.essexwritershouse.co.uk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104732″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://essexbookfestival.org.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104733″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.essex.ac.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival is one of the highlights of Essex’s cultural calendar. Each March it hosts over 100 events in over 45 venues across the county, including theatres, libraries, schools, universities, cafes and art galleries. More information is available here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Secret nuclear bunker host to Index panel discussion on propaganda

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“We must distinguish the things that are intellectually dishonest and aimed at persuading, which is traditionally called propaganda, and the things where people are trying to give you general information, which doesn’t have the absolute intention of persuading you,” said The Times columnist David Aaronovitch at a panel at the Essex Book Festival.

Aaronovitch, also Index’s chair, was discussing the role of propaganda with leading expert on the darknet and technology Jamie Bartlett and Chinese-British author Xinran, who was the first woman to have a late-night radio show in China.

The panel, chaired by Index on Censorship magazine editor Rachael Jolley, was part of the festival’s Nuclear Option day at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, a twisted network of dimly lit hallways and musty rooms that lie beneath a field.

Around 75 attendees gathered on March 25 to listen to Index’s panel and attend other workshops, screenings and performances part of the festival. Everyone at the festival was free to roam the enormous bunker and walk amongst Cold War history.

Passing signs that instructed people to “use water sparingly” and dusty machines that co-ordinated evacuation procedures, attendees eventually made their way to a desk-lamp lit room and were seated at long desks with old, monochrome computers.

Looking at the current state of propaganda, Bartlett said “everything has become more emotional and gut-driven,” adding that politics has not become as informed as people had hoped, but now become “heuristic because people are just showered with information”.

Aaronovitch called the inundation of information the “age of cacophony”.

What is emerging, according to Bartlett, is a “horrible new form of soft surveillance that has encouraged a great conformity among people”.

Xinran said China’s current propaganda, especially on social media, along with party control of education and the legal system has led to “one voice” in China, despite age gaps, class, education and geographical residence.

The author talked about her past experiences with censorship and Chinese propaganda when she worked on her radio show in China. She explained that there was a list of restrictions she had to abide by, these included never mentioning the British media, Western religions or love and relationships. The author said during her show she was able to tackle subjects that were previously taboos on Chinese radio.

“My work was stopped for three months when I spoke about homosexuality,” said Xinran. “This type of censorship was very strong until 1997, but it has now escalated to constant censorship, due to social media.”

Looking at the future of propaganda and its direction, Bartlett added that he can “see much more reliance on coercive digital types of surveillance being absolutely necessary just to maintain some type of law and order in society, especially online, which could make us a much more authoritarian society”.

This led Bartlett to predict that “already authoritarian countries are going to become much more so, and already very free countries are going to become even more free to the point where it might collapse”.

He believes we are shifting to a “Huxleyan society,” which Aaronovitch called the “algorithmic society”. Both felt one big question was, who governs the algorithms?

Aaronovitch noted that it depended on who was controlling the algorithms, saying that if the EU requested that Google to reveal its algorithms, it would be problematic; however, governmental algorithms used for policing in a democratic society were essential.

With reference to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which was mentioned numerous times during the panel, Bartlett noted that the worry over “Cambridge Analytica’s 5,000 data points on every single American doesn’t compare to what’s coming”.

“We are going to be creating a lot more data in the future,” said Bartlett. “And it is going to be shared and it is going to be used by political actors.”

Aaronovitch advised the audience that the best way to combat propaganda is to ask yourself, “‘Am I wrong?’. The point is to ensure no one is “completely blinded by initial preferences”.

Similar to Aaronovitch’s warning to predisposed biases, Xinran calls for “independent thinking,” and equated the consumption of information with eating.

“In Chinese we say you become what you eat,” said Xinran. “And your brain is the same way. You become what you are by what you believe”.

Hats off to @EssexBookFest! An incredible day at the Secret Nuclear Bunker. Brilliant discussion with @IndexCensorship, @JamieJBartlett, @DAaronovitch, @londoninsider and #Xinran, topped off with a silent disco of music banned from Estonia, with obligatory gherkins and vodka 👍 pic.twitter.com/HVtfrVDRb1 — Radical ESSEX (@RadicalEssex) 26 March 2018

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Picking apart propaganda: Past and present

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”97306″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Join Index on Censorship in an underground nuclear bunker for an exploration of propaganda past and present, as part of Essex Book Festival’s “The Nuclear Option”, a mini-festival taking place after-hours in the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, a labyrinthine evening of talks, workshops, performances and screenings.

Built in the 1950s, the bunker would have been home to government and military leaders, including possibly even the prime minister, in the event of a cold war nuclear attack. The perfect setting for this panel discussion by Index on Censorship bringing together leading voices looking at the different stories from history, technology and media about how and why propaganda is used to persuade the public.

Speakers include author Jamie Bartlett (Radicals, The Dark Net, Orwell vs the Terrorists) detecting new cunning methods of misleading, journalist David Aaronovitch, who knows first hand about how party propaganda works, growing up in a British Communist family (Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists) and journalist and writer Xinran (The Good Women of China) who challenged Chinese Communist Party propaganda and taboos as the presenter of the first late night talk show aimed at women in China. The session will be chaired by Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, which published a special edition looking at propaganda techniques through the ages and how they have affected public understanding.

To complement the panel discussion, Index have partnered with Essex University drama department and the Lakeside Theatre to create an immersive performance, ‘Propaganda: Hits from History’ tracing the political rhetoric that makes up propaganda, with some surprisingly persuasive speeches.

Your £10 ticket entitles you to access the evening panels and discussions from 5:30-9pm, more details here. A separate entrance fee of £7.50 payable in cash is required for entrance to the venue and includes a tour of the bunker.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”David Aaronovitch” profile_image=”95061″]Chair of the Index on Censorship board of trustees, Times columnist David Aaronovitch is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Jamie Bartlett” profile_image=”97290″]Jamie Bartlett is a journalist and tech blogger for The Telegraph and director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media for Demos.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Xinran” profile_image=”95586″]Xinran is a popular radio personality in China, who had a call-in programme named Words on the Night Breeze from 1989 to 1997. She is also the author of several bestselling books, including The Good Women of China, China Witness and Buy Me the Sky.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Rachael Jolley” profile_image=”90098″]Rachael Jolley is the editor of Index on Censorship magazine.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

When: Sunday 25 March 2018, 5:30-9pm

Where: Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, CM14 5TL. A free coach will run from Southend to the bunker and back. Booking essential.

Tickets: £10 for access to all events in the Nuclear Option. Separate entrance fee of £7.50 payable in cash at the door is required to access the venue. Includes tour of the bunker.

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