Abstract
Freedom of expression online continues to be one of Index’s most important priorities. As whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) mass surveillance of US and non-US citizens show, digital rights are, and will continue to be, a crucial issue for free speech advocates everywhere. It’s clear that some democratic governments engage in covert surveillance with little or no judicial oversight. Under the USA’s FISA 702 law, authorities can carry out arbitrary searches and create sophisticated pictures of the lives of huge numbers of individuals.
This doesn’t just impact upon privacy but also on the right to freedom of expression: if an individual no longer believes they can communicate online in private, they will self-censor, worry about who they associate with and be careful about what to say. Index continues to prioritise digital freedom at both the global and national level. Index staff participated in key international events and summits in Stockholm, Tunis and also at World Press Freedom Day. In mid-June Index joined Middle East and North African internet activists in Tunis for the Freedom Online Coalition conference. The anger there was palpable, as was a real sense that the US was opening the door for authoritarian states to undertake far wider surveillance than they already do, as well as establishing a norm for surveillance as a matter of routine and not only in clearly defined, exceptional circumstances.
Index calls on governments and politicians to condemn population-wide mass surveillance. We also urge the US to stop its heavy-handed treatment of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Private Bradley Manning, a 2011 Index Freedom of Expression Award winner who spent nine months in solitary confinement. Index is also undertaking advocacy initiatives to shape and impact on EU freedom of expression guidelines, which will help determine how the EU interacts with non-European countries on free speech.
In May, in the same week the NSA revelations were made public, Index published Heading in the Right Direction on Digital Freedom?, a report arguing that many of the EU’s digital policies limit digital rights rather than enhance them and calling for the establishment of a coherent strategy for ensuring these rights. With public attention focusing on freedom of expression online, it’s time for the EU to act, not only on the issue of mass surveillance — it must also take up its responsibility to protect free expression more widely. Together with its partners from across Europe, Index has launched a pan-European petition to drive public awareness and put pressure on EU leaders to stop mass surveillance.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) annual conference, held in June in Cambodia, reminded us that the challenges to freedom of expression are as forceful as ever. IFEX partners, including journalists, artists and activists, shared their experiences of the ways in which free speech is censored, outlawed and vilified - as well as their accounts of continued attacks and intimidation.
In July, Index joined artists at a conference in Addis Ababa to discuss artistic freedom of expression. In Ethiopia, free speech has come under attack by a paranoid government that is using vague anti-terror legislation to silence opposition voices. Artists are using their talent and skills to fight back against this repression.
Index also undertook in-depth work on both artistic and wider free speech and media freedom issues in Burma. In March, Index co-hosted a high-profile symposium in Rangoon, assessing the challenges artists face today. It was led by comedian and activist Zarganar, whom Index and others campaigned for when he was handed down a 59-year prison sentence in 2008. Index launched a report on free expression in Burma on 15 July, the same day that the country’s president, Thein Sein, visited London. The report, Burma: Freedom of Expression in Transition, reveals that reform to the country’s draconian legal framework is making slow progress and calls on the EU and the US to increase pressure on the president to outline how wider change will be implemented.
From the global threat to free expression posed by mass surveillance to specific national and regional issues, Index’s work is needed now more than ever. With both democracies and authoritarian regimes curtailing free speech, finding a way to ensure it is not undermined is arguably more difficult than ever before.