Index around the world: Update on Index on Censorship’s work

SHOOTINGS IN PARIS threw a shadow over the first few weeks of the year, as journalists, cartoonists, police officers and members of the public were killed in a series of incidents, the first of which happened when gunmen stormed the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The resulting worldwide demonstrations, in remembrance of those who were killed as well as in defence of freedom of speech, drew enormous crowds together, with people holding pens in the air and #jesuischarlie placards. Index, alongside other freedom-of-expression organisations, joined with newspapers around the world to call for a co-ordinated publication of the magazine’s cartoons to show solidarity.

Marking the enormous bravery of journalists and artists struggling against restrictions on freedom, the Index Freedom of Expression Awards will be held on Wednesday 18 March at London’s Barbican Centre. The shortlist was announced at the end of January, whittled down from more than 400 nominees to just 17 across four categories – arts, digital, campaigning and journalism. There have been 68 champions since the launch of the awards in 2001; last year’s winners were Egyptian rapper Mayam Mahmoud, Indian digital innovator Shu Choudhary, Pakistani journalist Shahzad Ahmad and Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq. Other influential winners over the past 15 years include Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006, and recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Malala Yousafzai. Judging this year’s awards, are: Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com and a member of the UK’s House of Lords; Sir Keir Starmer, former UK director of public prosecutions; journalist Mariane Pearl; and Turkish author Elif Shafak. To see the shortlist, visit www.indexoncensorship.org.

Index recently appointed its second youth advisory board, made up of eight young people from as far afield as Iceland, India and Kuwait, who will hold their positions until May. The group comes together monthly to debate topical freedom-of-expression issues that are affecting their own countries and the rest of the world. Overcoming several time zones, the first meeting was held in December via Google Hangouts. Each meeting culminates in a question being chosen for the monthly Draw-The-Line discussion, which takes place online using the hashtag #IndexDrawTheLine. This year’s first question was on how to balance religious freedom and religious extremism. The application process for the next board will begin in May 2015 for the June-to-November sitting; it is open to those aged 16 to 25.

Index’s youth programme officer, Fiona Bradley, attended the British Youth Council Convention for the north-west in Wigan at the end of 2014. The council is made up of people from the region aged 14 to 18; youth workers and members of the UK Youth Parliament were also present. Index helped participants explore their understanding of censorship via a workshop that helped members identify how free expression relates to their daily lives. This is the third workshop Index has held with the British Youth Council. The Draw-The-Line question was: are voting restrictions a violation of human rights? The group discussed and debated the possibility of the voting age being lowered to 16, which is one of the British Youth Council’s current campaigns. Bradley also co-chaired a model UN day, where young people from the county of Buckinghamshire were appointed as delegates for the various nations, and came together to simulate a real meeting, discussing topics and strategies similar to those on the UN agenda.

Index’s Sean Gallagher attended the opening of Human Rights House Network’s assembly in Ukraine, with (l-r) Arkadi Bushchenko, chair of Human Rights House Kiev and the Ukrainian Helsinki Foundation; Serhiy Burov, chairperson of Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv; and Maria Dahle, executive director of Human Rights House Foundation

Credit: Sean Gallagher

In February, Index magazine launched its winter issue – with a special report on the Magna Carta: Drafting Freedom to Last – at the British Library. This year marks the 800^th anniversary of the sealing of the charter by King John at Runnymede, and the launch co-incided with the opening of an exhibition at the library, showcasing original Magna Carta manuscripts, as well as an original copy of the US Bill of Rights and the text of the Declaration of Independence, handwritten by former US President Thomas Jefferson. The exhibit will run until September.

Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg travelled to Canada in November to attend the Canada-UK Colloquium, an annual two-day conference that aims to promote dialogue between the two countries. This year’s topic focused on the challenges within the online world and Index was the only civil society representative at the event. Index was arguing on the side of protection and promotion of civil liberties in the face of draconian legislation, which is restricting free speech online. UK delegates included Baroness Neville-Jones, MP James Arbuthnot and James Ball, The Guardian’s special projects editor.

Ginsberg was also an expert witness at Google’s advisory council on the “right to be forgotten” legislation, in Brussels in November. The new ruling, passed in May 2014 by the Court of Justice of the European Union, allows people to request search engines remove specific pages from search results relating to their name. She also attended BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, where she spoke about big data and the cost of information.

Index’s editor, online and news Sean Gallagher attended a series of events run by Human Rights House Network in Ukraine in late November, including the official opening of its Educational Human Rights House in Chernihiv and an international conference in Kiev. The conference covered various areas, in particular the human rights situation in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine; speakers included Valeriya Lutkovska, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, and Boris Zakharov from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. The conference ended with a film on human-rights violations in Chechnya and a seminar commemorating the 20th anniversary of the start of the first Chechen war.

Index also co-produced a debate about artistic censorship with the Bush Theatre in London, as part of the Radar festival. The debate looked at various examples of theatre censorship, including the cancellation of Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B by the Barbican in London. Panellists included Zita Holbourne, artist, activist and co-organiser of the Boycott the Human Zoo Campaign; Stella Odunlami, artist and cast member of Exhibit B; and Madani Younis, artistic director of the Bush Theatre.

Over the past three months Index also co-organised protests in London at the Azerbaijani embassy to bring to public notice how the government there is locking up democracy campaigners on trumped-up charges, and at the Saudi Arabian embassy to rally support for Raif Badawi, a blogger who has been sentenced to 1000 lashes for his writing. Badawi’s case has attracted international condemnation.