Join Index on Censorship for a summer party to launch its upcoming issue exploring the impact of the Russian revolution of 1917 on our freedoms today.
We’re launching the magazine at Calvert 22 Space, which celebrates the culture and creativity of the New East – eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia.
There’ll be pop-up provocations looking at contemporary influences of the Russian revolution on propaganda, culture and politics from around the globe, alongside live readings of speeches tracing the political rhetoric from Lenin to Putin.
Speakers include Don Guttenplan, Editor-at-Large for the Nation on the cultural cold war, Katya Rogatchevskaia, lead Curator of Central and East European collections at the British Library on Russian propaganda, and Adam Cathcart, a specialist and lecturer in Chinese history at Leeds University on the impact of Soviet art on North Korean art and culture.
We’ll be serving beer from Flying Dog Brewery and all attendees will receive a free copy of the latest magazine.
This issue has reports from all corners of the globe including Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Cuba and Turkey. Writers for this issue include David Aaronovitch on film, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter Nina Khrushcheva on living in the USA, and an interview with author Margaret Atwood on science censorship and her childhood in the wilderness.
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”91222″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://calvert22.org/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Calvert 22 Space is hosting the summer 2017 Index on Censorship magazine launch.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”91220″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Each week, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project verifies threats, violations and limitations faced by the media throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries. Here are five recent reports that give us cause for concern.
24 May, 2017 – The body of the well-known editor-in-chief and founder of local newspaper Ton-M was found in the sauna in his backyard on 24 May in the town of Minusinsk in the Krasnodarski province, Regional Investigative Committee reported.
Dmitri Popkov was shot five times by an unidentified perpetrator according to the Regional Investigative Committee.
Popkov funds Ton-M which includes commentary on police corruption, garnering significant public attention for the publication. In an interview with RFE/RL, Popkov claims his newspaper became “an obstacle” for local officials who are now “threatening and intimidating journalists”.
Popkov founded the publication after a court found him guilty of beating a child and he was stripped of his position on Minusinsk City Council in 2012, according to The Moscow Times. Popkov claimed the case was an excuse to fire him.
Outside of the newspaper business, Popkov is recognisable in his region as a regional parliament deputy for the Communist Party.
Nijat Amiraslanov is from the Gazakh region and his lawyer and friends say the charges are fictitious. They say he was arrested for his reporting and online posts.
A cameraperson for Canal Sur Television and Antena 3 programme was injured requiring medical assistance at a local hospital after being punched and kicked.
19 May, 2017 – Four Sözcü employees received arrest warrants after being accused of “committing crimes on behalf of the Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETÖ),” as well as assisting attempts to “assassinate and physically attack the president and armed rebellion against the Government of the Republic of Turkey”.
The issued warrants include the newspaper’s owner Burak Akbay, manager of the newspaper’s website Mediha Olgun, Financial Affairs Manager Yonca Kaleli and the İzmir correspondent Gökmen Ulu. Kaleli was included in the investigation for “suspicious money transfers” for the secular opposition publication.
The charges against the four stemmed from their 15 July 2016, publication of the address and photos of a hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was vacationing.
Yonca Kaleli, Gökmen Ulu and Mediha Olgun have since been detained. Akbay is currently abroad.
18 May, 2017 – Macron’s head of communication insulted journalist Yann Barthès of Quotidien on channel TMC during the presidential campaign and now at the Elysee by calling him a “dickhead” and a “mentally-retarded person”, according to Le Monde M magazine.
Macron’s Sylvain Fort commented in reaction to show host Barthè’s coverage of the first round of the presidential election. Fort denies he used the latter phrase.
Quotidien showed Macron celebrating his victory at La Rotonde. Quotidien journalist Paul Larouturou asked Macron whether this episode was the equivalent of Nicolas Sarkozy’s celebration of his presidential victory at Fouquet’s. Macron told the journalist “you don’t understand anything about life”, adding he had “no lesson to receive from a small Parisian milieu”.
The magazine reported that access was restricted to Quotidien team and that Fort contacted Barthès directly to insult him.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mapping Media Freedom
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Russian journalist Dmitri Popkov was killed in his backyard in the late evening of 24 May after being shot five times by an unidentified perpetrator.
Popkov is the editor-in-chief and founder of local newspaper Ton-M, whose investigations, including on police corruption, have garnered significant public attention. According to RFE/RL, Popkov claimed his newspaper became “an obstacle” for local officials who are now “threatening and intimidating journalists”.
“The climate of impunity makes Russia one of the most dangerous countries to do journalism,” said Hannah Machlin, project manager at Index on Censorship. “Popkov is the second journalist to be killed in 2017. Index calls on Russian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Earlier this year on 9 May, Nikolay Andruschenko, an investigative correspondent for weekly newspaper Novyi Petersburg, died as a result of injuries following two brutal assaults. Andruschenkov also conducted investigations into corruption, abuse of power and torture by the police. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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 the opportunity for rehabilitation.
Активист, долгое время защищавший права ЛГБТ и оппозиции, Ильдар Дадин стал первым и единственным в России осужденным по принятой в 2014 году статье «Неоднократное нарушение установленного порядка организации либо проведения собрания, митинга, демонстрации, шествия или пикетирования».
Пытаясь обойти этот закон, Дадин провел серию одиночных пикетов против нарушений прав человека, за что был арестован и в 2015 приговорен к трем годам тюрьмы. В ноябре 2016, интернет-издание «Медуза» опубликовало письмо, которое Дадин передал через свою жену. В нем он рассказал о том, как его пытали, и о повсеместности насилия в российских тюрьмах. Публикация его письма – смелый шаг для отбывающего наказание заключенного – имело широкий общественный резонанс, вызвав реакцию со стороны правительства и став основанием для расследования. Дадина, против его воли, перевели из его колонии, после чего он исчез внутри российской пенитенциарной системы. Его местонахождение было раскрыто лишь в январе 2017 после волны общественных протестов. После того как Верховный суд отменил приговор, Ильдар Дадин вышел на свободу из колонии, 26 февраля.
2017 Freedom of Expression Campaigning Award-winning Ildar Dadin was presented an illustration created by cartoonist Aseem Trivedi
Good evening. I am Ildar Dadin, a civil rights activist, writing to you from inside Russia. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to join you in London.
When I first heard I had won an award – from my wife, whilst I was still in a Russian jail – I was glad. Because even though I had been imprisoned, those that wished to silence me had clearly failed.
When I was suddenly released eight weeks ago I began preparing for this trip almost immediately. I wanted to tell the world what I had seen inside Russian jails. But it became clear that the authorities had no intention of letting me join you. When I applied for an international passport, I was told that it could take some time, a very long time. So I may no longer be imprisoned, but Russian security officials want to keep me locked in. They want to try, again, to silence me.
This is a kind of travel ban I now face and I have been clearly told that it is due to my activism.
In 2012, I – like many other brave Russians – took to the streets to protest the dishonest parliamentary and presidential elections. I had been driven to join the demonstrations because I had worked as an observer at the polls and witnessed a large number of voting irregularities. I became convinced that there had been no true elections in Russia. We went through the motions of voting, like an act, but the outcome had already been decided.
Russia’s governmental institutions are a Potemkin put on. Russian police don’t protect citizens. Russian judges don’t adhere to the rule of law. Russian media is not independent and just parrots government propaganda over and over. Russian people – my people – are forced to think only one way, the way the government wants. Our thoughts are the government’s thoughts. Our voices have to follow a script that we are expected to be able to recite on command.
It is like the George Orwell novel Animal Farm. The judges and the police only serve the ruling regime and anyone who speaks their own mind is punished.
Anti-clerics, independent thinkers, the LGBT community: these and any other people who take to the streets and protest, they are punished. Or people who simply write their opinions on Facebook. They are punished. Opposition journalists and politicians aren’t just punished – they are killed. As happened to Natalia Estemirova, Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov.
You think, perhaps, this story could not be any worse?
But when I was sent to prison for my activism, I learned about another level in Russia’s horrific dysfunction: torture.
This dehumanising practice debases our nation. It takes us not just back to the time of gulags but deep into the brutal Middle Ages. To “correct” incarcerated Russian citizens, prison staff beat them. They hang them on racks. They pull their legs in different directions as if to quarter them, and break their bones.
This is not speculation. This happened to real people, Russians, in the prison colony where I was imprisoned. I spoke with some of them, others gave their testimony to lawyers that I know. Their injuries and fractures have been documented. There are eyewitnesses to the violence.
This torture also happened to me.
But in every case that I am personally aware of, not one of these sadistic prison guards has been punished. Not one.
Tonight I tell you, that in Russia, there are no human rights. It is a society ruled through levels of cruelty and bigotry where Russians are forced to worship the great leader and any and all dissidents are stoned.
Maybe I cannot join you in London but I can refuse to be silent. And you, friends, can refuse to be silent too. You can refuse to let these people silence me. Together, we can refuse to look away.
Anastasia Zotova accepted the 2017 Campaigning Award on behalf of her husband Ildar Dadin. (Photo: Elina Kansikas for Index on Censorship)
For his one-man protests, Ildar Dadin was sent to prison in December 2015 where he was tortured, before his conviction was quashed in February 2017. Read the full profile.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”84888″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Despite the persecution he faces for his work, Rebel Pepper continues to satirise the Chinese state from a life in exile in Japan. Read the full profile
Established in 2015, Turkey Blocks is an independent digital research organisation that monitors internet access restrictions in Turkey. Read the full profile.
Maldives Independent, the Maldives’ premiere English publication and one of the few remaining independent media outlets, was formed in exile in Sri Lanka in 2004. Read the full profile.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Добрый вечер. Меня зовут Илья Дадин и я обращаюсь к вам из России. К сожалению, как активисту движения за гражданские права, мне не разрешено быть с вами в Лондоне.
Жена рассказала мне про награду, когда я сидел в российской тюрьме. Я был рад что меня не удалось заглушить, даже если удалось посадить.
После внезапного освобождения восемь недель назад, я сразу начал готовится к этой поездке. Хотелось всему миру рассказать что видел в российских тюрьмах.
Но стало очевидно что власть не собиралась пускать меня к вам. Когда я подавал заявление на загранпаспорт, мне сказали что это может занять много времени. Да. Я не был за решеткой, но я не был свободен. Сотрудники спецслужб снова пытались заткнуть мне рот.
Я не могу выехать из страны и эти ограничения напрямую связаны с моей гражданской деятельностью.
В 2012 году, я, как и многие другие смелые российские граждане, вышел на улицу протестовать против нечестных парламентских и президентских выборов. К участию в акциях меня сподвигла работа наблюдателем на избирательном участке, где я был свидетелем многочисленных нарушений процесса голосования. Я убедился, что настоящих выборов в России не бывает. Мы проходим процесс голосования, но результаты уже решены за нас.
Российские госучреждения это Потемкинские деревни.
Полиция не защищает граждан. Суды не следуют букве закона. Российские СМИ зависимы и просто повторяют за правительственной пропагандой. Русских людей – мой народ – заставляют мыслить односторонне, в угоду власти. Наши мысли – мысли власти. Наши голоса должны повторять текст по команде наизусть.
Живем как в Скотном Двору из Джордж Оруэлла. Судьи и полиция служат правящему режиму, и наказывают любого кто высказывает свое мнение.
Антиклерикалов, независимых мыслителей, ЛГБТ-сообщества и всех кто не согласен и выходит на улицы . Даже тех, которые просто высказывают своё мнение на Фейсбуке. Их тоже наказывают. Оппозиционных журналистов и политиков не просто наказывают – их убивают.Так с Натальей Эстемировой, Анной Политковской, и Борисом Немцовым.
Думаете, что моя история не может быть хуже?
Когда меня посадили в тюрьму за мою гражданскую активность, я я узнал совершенно другой уровень ужасающей дисфункции России: пытки.
Этот античеловечная унижающая практика нашего народа. Это возвращает нас не просто во времена гулагов, а дальше в Средние Века. Чтобы “исправить” заключенных российских граждан,тюремщики избивает их.Подвешивают их на стояках. Тянут им ноги в разные стороны как-будто хотят четвертовать, ломая кости.
Это не придумано. Это происходило с ии реальными русскими людьми, русскими в колонии куда меня посадили. С некоторыми я я разговаривал лично, другие дали показания знакомым адвокатам. Их раны и переломы зафиксированы документально. Они видели насилии своими глазами.
Эти пытки также происходили со мной.
Но в каждом случае, о которых мне известно, ни один из этих садистов-надзирателей не наказан. Ни один.
Сегодня я говорю вам, что в России нет прав человека. Это общество управляетсяу через жестокость и ханжеств, где русских заставляют преклонятся перед великим лидером, а любых диссидентов закидывают камнями
Может я и не могу быть с вами в Лондоне, но я могу отказаться молчать. И вы, друзья, тоже можете отказаться молчать. Вы можете отказать этим людям в позволении заставить меня замолчать. Вместе мы можем отказаться отводить глаза.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1492790037727-479c648e-efcc-4″ taxonomies=”8935″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
