A Russian opposition and LGBT rights activist, Ildar Dadin was the first, and remains the only, person to be convicted under a notorious 2014 public assembly law. Aimed at punishing anyone who breaks strict rules on protest, the law was enacted to silence dissent after a wave of demonstrations following Putin’s last election victory. Dadin’s crime was to stage a series of one-man pickets, often standing silently with a billboard, attempting to duck the cynical law and push for free expression.
For his solo enterprise, Dadin was arrested and sentenced to three years imprisonment in December 2015. In November 2016, website Meduza published a letter smuggled from Dadin to his wife, exposing torture he claimed he was suffering alongside fellow prisoners. The letter, a brave move for a serving prisoner, was widely reported. A government investigation was prompted, and Dadin was transferred – against his will – to an undisclosed new location. A wave of public protest led to Dadin’s new location in a Siberian prison colony being revealed in January 2017.
In February 2017, Russia’s constitutional and Supreme Courts suddenly quashed Dadin’s conviction, ruling he should be released and afforded opportunity for rehabilitation.
“Ildar’s courageous defence of free speech and the right to protest are the chief reasons he was chosen from hundreds of nominations for the shortlist of this year’s awards. I am heartened by this ruling. But Russia must go further and repeal the free-speech-stifling public assembly law,” Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of Index on Censorship said.
Prior to his release from prison, Index on Censorship spoke with his wife Anastasia Zotova. “Human rights watchers from all over the world were against that law – even Russia’s constitutional court admitted that this law is not fair at all,” she said.
See the full shortlist for Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards 2017 here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1490773693506-6e49fec3-0f44-0″ taxonomies=”8734″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” equal_height=”yes” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1490258749071{background-color: #cb3000 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Support the Index Fellowship.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:28|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsupport-the-freedom-of-expression-awards%2F|||”][vc_column_text]
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organisation consisting of Israeli veteran combatants, aims to collect and share testimonies about the realities of military operations in the Occupied Territories. Since 2004, the group has collected over 1,000 (mainly anonymous) statements from Israelis who have served their military duty in the West Bank and Gaza.
In 2014, Breaking the Silence published 111 testimonies from over 60 soldiers who served in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The organisation reached out to soldiers directly after the cessation of bombing in Gaza and published a book of its findings in May 2015. For publishing these frank accounts Breaking the Silence has come under repeated attack from the Israeli government.
A Breaking the Silence guided tour of Hebron and the South Hebron Hills
In 2016 pressure on the organisation became particularly pointed and personal, with state-sponsored legal challenges, denunciations from the Israeli cabinet, physical attacks on staff members and damages to property. Led by Israeli politicians including the prime minister, and defence minister, there have been persistent attempts to force the organisation to identify a soldier whose anonymous testimony was part of a publication raising suspicions of war crimes in Gaza. Losing the case would set a precedent that would make it almost impossible for Breaking the Silence to operate in the future. The government has also recently enacted a law that would ban the organisation’s widely acclaimed high school education programme.
Following the attacks on the organisation, hundreds of soldiers began to break their own silence in a spontaneous outpouring of support for the group. The soldiers, who are non-Breaking the Silence testifiers, posted pictures on social media of their army service. This included testimonies from soldiers who served in the First and Second Intifadas and even the Lebanon War. Public figures, musicians, artists, and hundreds of individuals, were involved in this wave of support.
Israel Defence Forces soldier manning a checkpoint
In March 2017, Israel’s state prosecutor asked a court to dismiss its previous request to force Breaking the Silence to provide details that were liable to expose the identity of a soldier whose testimony raised suspicions of war crimes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” equal_height=”yes” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1490258749071{background-color: #cb3000 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Support the Index Fellowship.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:28|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsupport-the-freedom-of-expression-awards%2F|||”][vc_column_text]
Hungary’s high tide of populism was beaten back briefly in October 2016 when prime minister Viktor Orban’s referendum on closing the door on refugees was ruled invalid after just 44% of the population bothered to show up and vote.
The country’s Two-tailed Dog Party don’t take credit for the result, but were certainly part of the mass soft power endeavour that defeated the referendum, and they used a tact rarely seen in Hungarian politics today: humour.
They urged voters to “Vote invalidly!” by answering both yes and no. “A stupid answer to a stupid question.”
What officially became known as the Two-tailed Dog Party in 2006 has been around since 2000, when it was a group of street artists fronted by Gergely Kovács. In their current form they parody political discourse in Hungary with artistic stunts and creative campaigns.
The Two-tailed Dog is a vital alternative voice following the rise of Orban and is now a registered political party ready to contest in 2018’s parliamentary elections. They can no longer be written off as a joke.
When the prime minister started plastering Hungary with anti-immigrant posters with slogans like “If you come to Hungary, you may not take jobs away from Hungarians,” and “If you come to Hungary, you must respect our culture,” the Two-tailed Dog responded with a billboard campaign of their own: “If you are Hungary’s prime minister, you have to obey our laws,”; “Come to Hungary by all means, we’re already working in London.”
The lampooning was largely crowdfunded, and volunteers from around the country were on hand to erect 500 outdoor billboards and over 100,000 smaller posters.
When Orban introduced the national consultation on immigration and terrorism in 2015, as part of a series of xenophobic measures to repel tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, and plastered cities with anti-immigrant billboards, the Two-tailed Dog launched mock questionnaires and even more billboards and posters.
Relentlessly attempting to reinvigorate public debate and draw attention to under-covered taboo topics, the party’s recent efforts also include painting broken pavement to draw attention to a lack of public funding.
“It would be important for people to be able to discuss things again and for the atmosphere in the country to finally improve and change back to normal,” Kovács says.
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Angolan rapper Luaty Beirão, also known by his stage name Ikonoklasta, has been instrumental in showing the world the hidden face of the country’s president José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled oil-rich Angola since 1979. Beirão’s politically-charged music is popular among many Angolans. “I sing against the Angolan regime to spread the word to people of my country,” Beirão says.
For his activism Beirão has been beaten, had drugs planted on him and, in June 2015, was arrested alongside 14 other people planning to attend a meeting to discuss a book on non-violent resistance. He was convicted of rebellion against dos Santos, criminal association and falsifying documents. In all, 17 activists were found guilty. Amnesty International they had been sentenced by a “kangaroo court”.
During his year-long sentence – three months of which were on house arrest – Beirão spent 36 days on hunger strike.
Since his release, he has continued to perform, remain active and challenge the regime. He tried to stage a massive concert in November 2016 but the authorities refused to grant him a license. He published a book about his captivity, I Was Freer Then, about which he says: “I would rather be in jail than in a state of fake freedom where I have to self-censor.”
Angolan activists, including @LuatyBeirao, attacked by police dogs during protest which called on minister & MP/VP candidate, to step down. pic.twitter.com/5bKSPP6J8g
On 24 February 2017, during a protest for greater transparency around elections, Beirão was bitten at least three times by two different police dogs. “In one of the occasions it was pretty bad,” he told Index on Censorship. “A lot of people were badly injured that day. A few were temporarily detained and released after a few hours – you know, the usual.”
See the full shortlist for Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards 2017 here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” equal_height=”yes” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1490258749071{background-color: #cb3000 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Support the Index Fellowship.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:28|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsupport-the-freedom-of-expression-awards%2F|||”][vc_column_text]
“Ildar’s courageous defence of free speech and the right to protest are the chief reasons he was chosen from hundreds of nominations for the shortlist of this year’s awards. I am heartened by this ruling. But Russia must go further and repeal the free-speech-stifling public assembly law,” Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of Index on Censorship said.
