Abstract
It’s been 50 years since plays were signed off by the Lord Chamberlain in the UK, but artists are still under attack throughout the world, writes
“It shows just how arbitrary censorship is. What we think is offensive today is not what someone else will think is offensive tomorrow,” Steinfeld added.
“That’s just one reason why we should safeguard and promote artists’ rights to cause offence, and why we need to be vigilant about censorship which still happens today in the arts, both in the UK and abroad.”
Steinfeld was speaking after hosting a Coward-funded theatre and censorship workshop at the British Library in London. The Index event featured live performances from actors and audience members and coincided with the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Theatres Act, which abolished censorship in playhouses around Britain.
Coward’s work became a regular target for the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, a department within the British Royal Household, which had a pivotal role in censoring theatre performed in Britain prior to 1968. Theatre companies such as The Royal Court Theatre came into regular conflict with the committee.
Actor Matthew Romain, who performed a scene from The Vortex with fellow actor Jennifer Leong, talked about the significance of the play. He said: “It’s really fascinating to have a look at some of Noël Coward’s plays, particularly The Vortex, which caused a huge stir at the time, and see actually how important it was and how lucky we are to have it uncensored today.”
While theatre censorship may have improved over the past 50 years, in the UK at least, other art forms continue to face oppression. Earlier this year Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcàntara and Yanelys Nuñez Levya, the winners of this year’s Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards for Arts, were refused a visa to the UK and missed the April ceremony.
The founders of The Museum of Dissidence – a public art project and website celebrating dissent in Cuba – fought a seven-month battle to gain entry into the UK and finally received their award in October at a ceremony held at Metal arts centre in Chalkwell Hall, Southend, where they were part of an artist-in-residence programme.
Alcàntara said artists “have a very important function. Like how the song of an artist can reach millions of people and make them cry, a picture from a visual artist can transform the feeling of what is happening in a country. This is something an artist has to take responsibility for”.
In September Cuban authorities arrested Alcàntra and Nuñez for their roles in organising a concert against decree 349. Coming into force from 1 December, the law gives Cuba’s ministry of culture increased powers to censor, issue fines and confiscate materials related to art they don’t like. The pair say they were beaten whilst detained.
“Artistic expression in Cuba at this time is threatened by decree 349,” said Index fellowships and advocacy officer Perla Hinojosa, who played a key role in campaigning for the activists’ visas.
She said: “International recognition and bringing them here is important because it creates a wider audience for them and allows them to express the realities of what is happening in Cuba. It gives them credibility amongst authorities, and I am overwhelmed to experience their presence and know their strength coming from an environment that is very hostile. They are truly some of the bravest people I have ever met.”
Another medium that Index have been covering recently is radio. Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni once spoke about his “devotion to an art form that evaporates” in reference to radio. Thanks to podcasting and digital databases, radio no longer has to evaporate and programmes can be downloaded and saved.
Editor Rachael Jolley recently visited Conversano in southern Italy to talk about the power of podcasts at an annual European cultural festival called Lector in Fabula. The trip tied into the theme of our autumn 2017 issue, which looked at ways in which radio is gaining popularity at present and changing the news, cultural and information landscape. Several articles highlighted how podcasts are being used to smuggle information into authoritarian countries where news is tightly restricted.
“In some countries there aren’t laws around what podcasts can do or how you can listen to them,” Jolley said. “It’s quite a clever and creative way of getting stories out to people who wouldn’t necessarily be able to access them.
(Top) Crowds visit cultural festival Lector in Fabula, Conversano, Italy; (Bottom, left) A group improvise at a theatre and censorship workshop at the British Library, London; (Bottom, right) Presentation of the Index 2018 fellowship to the founders of the Museum of Dissidence at Metal arts centre in Chalk-well Hall, Southend
CREDIT: (Top) Rachael Jolley; (Bottom, left) Rosie Gilbey; (Bottom, right) Alistair Underwood/Pixalvision
“Podcasting is being used in different kind of ways, but in another five years there might be something else, and in another 10 years there might be something else. I think it’s about how media evolves and how people get access to information in different ways.”
Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcàntara and Yanelys Nuñez Levya with Index fellowships and advocacy officer Perla Hinojosa at Metal arts centre in Chalkwell Hall, Southend,UK
CREDIT: Alistair Underwood / Pixalvision
Actor Matthew Romain speaks at a Noël Coward-funded theatre and censorship workshop at the British Library in London
CREDIT: Rosie Gilbey
Index head of advocacy Joy Hyvarian attended the first ever Cartooning Global Forum, which took place at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris in October. The event brought together more than 70 cartoonists and supporters from all over the world to discuss issues such as peace, justice, development and the challenges that cartoonists are facing.
Participants at the Cartooning Global Forum included Cartoonists’ Rights Network International, the free expression network IFEX, cartoonists such as Zunar from Malaysia and many others, including people who lost loved ones in the attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
“Index believes that cartoonists should be celebrated as important contributors to democracy, but many governments fear the power of cartoonists,” said Hyvarian.
“Governments censor cartoonists, persecute them and jail them. Earlier this year Index was part of a successful campaign to free cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé, who was jailed in Equatorial Guinea.”
Ebalé’s cartoons lambasted Teodoro Obiang, a dictator of nearly 40 years in Equatorial Guinea, for his deceit and corruption. His arrest caused a stir in the cartoonist community and after a global campaign, under the hashtag #FreeNseRamon, he was finally released in March after an officer admitted to arresting Ebalé on false charges.
Elsewhere, in the USA Index was involved in a meeting for the Global Network Initiative, a growing alliance of internet and telecommunications companies, academic institutions and human rights and press freedom groups. The organisation aims to challenge internet censorship. Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg also gave a talk in the Russell Senate building in Washington DC to discuss the Cloud Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data), a law which deals with how the US government requests data from companies based in other countries.
At a conference held in Brisbane, Australia, Ginsberg was involved in debates and discussions surrounding some of the current greatest challenges in a divided world, such as how to approach arguments and how to be a better listener. Known as Integrity 20, the convention gathered journalists, artists and activists, amongst others. Ginsberg was involved in a heated roundtable discussing media ethics.
She said: “There’s a lot of blame put on the media for the current world problems, you know, that the media have not behaved ethically, that the media just give a voice to extreme positions, which are valid criticisms, but I think to blame all of the problems on the messenger is a little bit of an overreach.”