Abstract
Judges, including award-winning playwright Howard Brenton, journalist Samira Ahmed, and Human Rights Silk of the Year 2013 Ed Fitzgerald QC were given the tough task of selecting the winners from incredibly strong shortlist of 17 nominees across four categories: arts, journalism, campaigning and digital activism.
For the first time the Digital Activism Award, sponsored by Google, was voted for online by the public. It drew thousands of votes and, in a surprise twist, Shubranshu Choudhary, from ground-breaking citizen journalism news service CG-Net Swara in India, came out ahead of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Other award winners were independent Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq, Pakistani digital rights campaigner Shahzad Ahmad and 18-year-old Egyptian rapper Mayam Mahmoud, who treated the audience to a lively performance on the night. Nominees, including Turkish playwright Meltem Arikan and Honduran journalist Dina Meza, also attended the event, which continued late into the evening in the Barbican’s roof gardens. Broadcaster Anna Ford – and former Index chair – declared it “a wonderful awards evening – by far the best ever”.
As for Index’s own advocacy work, it has also been a busy period, with two key papers produced one on Belarus and one on Brazil. Belarus: Time for Media Reform, launched in February, with three successful events in Minsk, Brussels and London, where videos of first-hand accounts from persecuted Belarusian journalists and activists ran alongside a presentation from the paper’s authors, Andrei Bastunets, from the Belarusian Association of Journalists in Minsk, and Index’s Andrei Aliaksandrau. The report highlights severe restrictions on media freedom in Belarus, where state-dominated broadcast media and tight controls over print publications have made the country one of the most restrictive and hostile media environments in Europe. It’s a frightening situation, which Index will continue to highlight and fight against.
Index has also published a paper on Brazil and internet governance, following a research trip to the country in February by senior advocacy officer Melody Patry. Seizing the momentum of the international forum on the future of internet governance, Net Mundial, which was hosted by Brazil in April, as well as the coming presidential and parliamentary elections, Index met and interviewed a range of journalists, NGOs,, politicians, and internet companies as well as participating in a conference on access to knowledge, education and human rights.
On 23 April, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff passed the Marco Civil law, providing a legal framework for internet rights, making Brazil the largest country ever to enshrine net neutrality in its legal code. While Brazil has the potential to become a world leader in terms of internet rights, the Index policy paper focused on the main challenges and threats to online freedom of expression in Brazil, as well as the country’s increasing role and attitudes in the global internet governance debates. It offers recommendations that challenge restrictions on digital freedom of expression in the country.
Index continues to expand its youth work through a range of on and offline events, schemes and programmes, which have helped to engage young people in the work of Index, while promoting the ideas around free expression. This work has helped Index to bolster our knowledge of what young people believe to be the greatest threats facing their personal freedom of expression.
Tripwires, Index’s youth performance programme, held its latest workshop in Newcastle at the Northern Stage theatre. The facilitators worked with the theatre’s youth associate company, North, to examine censorship through a series of drama workshops. Alongside this, Index has hosted a number of panel debates on university campuses, including the University of Sussex, giving students the chance to debate with Index staff and fellow students on a variety of censorship issues.
Above: Award winner and singer Mayam Mahmoud raps her acceptance speech at the Index annual awards
Credit: Alex Brenner
The Index young writers and artists programme launched in March, calling on 16-25 year olds to pitch articles and cartoons for publication on the website, relating to free speech and censorship. There has been an enthsiastic response, and Index has already published 21 contributions. These form part of the new youth platform on the website, which is designed to give young people the opportunity to have their say through social media, interaction at Index debates and via Google Hangouts. Topics already debated include homosexuality and the implications of censorship on campus.
Young writers and artists have responded enthusiastically to the new programme – a chance for 16-25 year olds to pitch articles and cartoons
For the first time, Index took its magazine on tour to the Leeds Big Bookend literature festival and the Hay Festival, where the debate linked to the Spring issue’s special report on war and propaganda. Panels included Index magazine editor Rachael Jolley, Yorkshire Post journalist Chris Bond, Major Ric Cole, Index chair David Aaronovich and author Chris Paterson, and debated where the line should be drawn on propaganda. Index’s editor Rachael Jolley also chaired a debate on freedom in journalism and literature 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Prague Book Fair.
Index has also welcomed on board our new chief executive Jodie Ginsberg. Her previous roles include deputy director at think-tank Demos Finance, and as a London bureau chief for Reuters, where she also worked in Ireland and South Africa for a decade as a foreign correspondent and business journalist.
A lot has changed across Europe – and the rest of the world – since the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, as is charted in this issue’s special report, but Index continues to challenge and hold to account those who restrict free speech.