21 Mar 2018 | Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship condemns the decision by a Scottish court to convict a comedian of a “hate crime” for teaching his girlfriend’s dog a Nazi salute.
Mark Meechan, known as Count Dankula, was found guilty on Tuesday of being “grossly offensive,” under the UK’s Communications Act of 2003. Meechan could be sentenced with up to six months in prison and be required to pay a fine.
Index disagrees fundamentally with the ruling by the Scottish Sheriff Appeals Court. According to the Daily Record, Judge Derek O’Carroll ruled: “The description of the video as humorous is no magic wand. This court has taken the freedom of expression into consideration. But the right to freedom of expression also comes with responsibility.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-times” color=”black” background_style=”rounded” size=”xl” align=”right”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Defending everyone’s right to free speech must include defending the rights of those who say things we find shocking or offensive
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said: “Numerous rulings by British and European courts have affirmed that freedom of expression includes the right to offend. Defending everyone’s right to free speech must include defending the rights of those who say things we find shocking or offensive. Otherwise the freedom is meaningless.”
One of the most noted judgements is from a 1976 European Court of Human Rights case, Handyside v. United Kingdom, which found: “Freedom of expression…is applicable not only to ‘information’ or ‘ideas’ that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Don’t lose your voice. Stay informed.” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship is a nonprofit that campaigns for and defends free expression worldwide. We publish work by censored writers and artists, promote debate, and monitor threats to free speech. We believe that everyone should be free to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution – no matter what their views.
Join our mailing list (or follow us on Twitter or Facebook) and we’ll send you our weekly newsletter about our activities defending free speech. We won’t share your personal information with anyone outside Index.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][gravityform id=”20″ title=”false” description=”false” ajax=”false”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
19 Mar 2018 | Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, United Kingdom
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The UK government has barred a number of far-right speakers from entering the country in recent weeks.
Index on Censorship does not believe that preventing individuals from visiting the UK or speaking here is the right approach to tackling hateful views. We believe that the best way to tackle ideas with which you disagree, including bigoted ones, is to allow discussion about them to take place so they can be openly countered.
If you feel people’s arguments are hateful then the best way to expose that is in debate. Banning people simply adds to their status, often increases their profile and makes the arguments more popular. It does nothing to eradicate those views. The only grounds on which a speaker or speech should be banned is when it directly incites violence.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”2″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1521459623353-4984cb7f-fee6-7″ taxonomies=”737″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Don’t lose your voice. Stay informed.” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship is a nonprofit that campaigns for and defends free expression worldwide. We publish work by censored writers and artists, promote debate, and monitor threats to free speech. We believe that everyone should be free to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution – no matter what their views.
Join our mailing list (or follow us on Twitter or Facebook) and we’ll send you our weekly newsletter about our activities defending free speech. We won’t share your personal information with anyone outside Index.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][gravityform id=”20″ title=”false” description=”false” ajax=”false”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
13 Mar 2018 | Uncategorized
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”95278″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Join Index on Censorship chief executive Jodie Ginsberg and nominees for this year’s Index Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism for a conversation about the challenges for local journalists reporting from some of the world’s most difficult environments.
Different forms of censorship can threaten journalists across the globe, be it state restrictions, political corruption, social taboos, all of these are barriers that nominees have had to push through to bring a story to light.
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world. Awards are offered in four categories: Arts, Campaigning, Digital Activism and Journalism.
The evening will be celebrating past and potential future winners in the field of journalism.
Speakers include Wendy Funes, a journalist based in Honduras, whose father and friends are among the reporters killed there for their work – killings for which no one has ever been brought to justice. As well as reporting on corruption in the country, Funes covers violence against women in Honduras, where one woman is killed every 16 hours. Funes is one of four nominees shortlisted for the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism, which will be announced on April 19 in London.
Zaina Erhaim is a former Index Freedom of Expression Award winner and the winner of the 2015 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. A Syrian journalist, Erhaim has been working for IWPR in Syria and Turkey since 2013 supporting journalists, civil society groups, and youth and female activists. Since February 2015, Erhaim has led the Women’s Blog project at IWPR, carrying pieces by new writers with no background in professional journalism, talking about the hardship of daily life and the horrors of war. Erhaim has been instrumental in bringing these stories out.
Jodie Ginsberg is a former foreign correspondent and was London bureau chief for Reuters from 2007-2011.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”80210″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Jodie Ginsberg
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Zaina Erhaim
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Wendy Funes
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This event has been cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience.
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7 Mar 2018 | Press Releases
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JW3 and Index on Censorship are pleased to announce “Uncensored: A Celebration of Banned Writing”. This series of events will explore censored work across the ages, launching with a performance of works by authors whose books were banned and burned during the Nazi regime.
In Banned and Burned on March 21 actors will read excerpts from a selection of canonical texts that range of from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to Bambi, books published in the early 20th century which continue to define our world today. The evening, at JW3, will be interspersed with live music deemed degenerate by the Third Reich.
This event is presented in association with Watford Palace Theatre, which is currently producing Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass, directed by Richard Beecham, running from 1-24 March.
The books that will feature in Banned and Burned include:
Bambi – Felix Salten
Concert – Else Lasker-Schüler
Grand Hotel – Vicki Baum
Helen Keller’s Journal
Hoppla, We’re Alive! – Ernst Toller
Men and Women: The World Journey of a Sexologist – Magnus Hirschfeld
The 42nd Parallel – John Dos Passos
The Condition of the Working Class in England – Friedrich Engels
The Immoralist – André Gide
The Rosa Luxemburg Reader
The Threepenny Opera – Bertolt Brecht
Why now?
This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Nazi book burnings by Goebbels in (10th May 1933). It is also the 50th anniversary of the Theatres Act, repealing censorship in British Theatres. Yet censorship persists in a variety of ways worldwide. In an era of endless social media feeds and encroaching government control, the written word creates a new truth and collapses an old one every second.
This series will give voice to silenced words and harness the power of language. It will bring literature to life as a way to counter current and historical censorship and destruction; the antithesis to burning books.
Other events
In May, JW3 are working with Belka Productions and Russian theatre company, Maly Drama Theatre on two events surrounding their production of Vassily’ Grossman’s Life and Fate (considered a 20th century War and Peace) at the Theatre Royal Haymarket (running 8-20 May).
On May 10 there will be readings of banned plays through the ages at Theatre Royal Haymarket
On May 17 at JW3 will be an In-conversation event with renowned Russian theater director, Lev Dodin (leader of Maly Drama Theatre and currently directing ‘Life and Fate’). The evening will also include staged readings from the Life and Fate.
The two events in May will be on sale on March 12th
There will be two more events in the Uncensored series in late 2018. These will be announced in May.
For more information, or to request an interview with the producers of Banned and Burned or with Index on Censorship, please contact [email protected].
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