Abstract
Graduates of Index’s Free Speech Is For Me programme tell
Free Speech Is For Me is Index’s training and mentoring programme which, so far, has worked with 13 advocates from the UK and the USA.
Iman became passionate about free speech during her time as features editor on the Leeds University student newspaper. After graduating, she wanted to continue to advocate “especially as someone from a background where you don’t traditionally hear from people who look like me. Being a young woman of African heritage, I really wanted to be part of the voices that are broadening the debate on free speech”.
UK advocate Ash Kotak, an award-winning playwright, told Index about his personal experiences of censorship.
He said: “I wrote a gay, romantic comedy called Hijra [published in 2000] and I had dreadful attacks from my community, just because it was gay… people in the South Asian community felt I’d let down the community because I was talking about these issues.
“I think it’s very healthy to have a different point of view, but [also to] know why. That’s what I think a lot of people would have got from the [Free Speech Is For Me] programme.”
Rhiannon Adams, a fellow UK advocate, also came to the programme following personal experiences of censorship. She faced trolling when she became vocal online about women’s issues. She said: “I was pretty young at the time and I didn’t have any idea how to deal with it. It felt so invasive and it really just shut me down.
“We had the training on self-care online, about trolling and how to deal with it [as part of the Free Speech Is For Me programme]. I thought that was really helpful, having the tools to be able to step forward on some issues and not feel scared to be challenged on them.”
Members of the current youth advisory board
CREDIT: Orna Herr/Index on Censorship
Matthew Caruana Galizia (second to right), son of late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, at the Sued into Silence conference in Amsterdam in February with (from left to right) Sarah Clarke, Charlie Holt and Caoilfhionn Gallagher
CREDIT: Scottish Pen
Another graduate of the programme, Max Lane, told Index he sometimes felt he was not “allowed” to talk about subjects he wanted to debate: “It’s not always laws or rules or a student union, it’s kind of a feeling. It’s the vibe you get on campus.”
Of the Free Speech Is For Me session, he said: “It felt like the most open university seminar that I’ve ever been to. It was quite liberating.”
US advocate Maya Rubin, a student at Wellesley College, in Massachusetts, also felt strongly about university campuses and classrooms being places where ideas could be freely exchanged. She said: “Self-censorship is the most frequent and pernicious way in which free inquiry is stifled on campuses.”
She added that the Free Speech Is For Me programme had left her “more prepared to educate others about the movement”.
Another US advocate, Obden Mondesir, said that while many considered the First Amendment to the US constitution (which includes the right to free speech) as key to how the country developed, he felt that honouring the 14th Amendment (which grants citizenship to anyone born or naturalised in the USA) as a result of the civil rights movement was vital in the fight for free speech of minorities.
“Using the First Amendment as a tool that… really supports what the 14th Amendment is all about, I feel like that was the first time you had a country that actually supports all the citizens that are born in that nation.”
Another project Index is currently conducting is research into the nature and frequency of vexatious actions against journalists, known as “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (Slapps). This is being run by policy researcher and advocacy officer Jessica Ní Mhainín. These actions include letters threatening legal action for libel and defamation with the aim to silence journalists.
Ní Mhainín said: “It comes down to abuse of power.”
Slapps are often used by corporations or wealthy individuals, sometimes targeting freelance journalists who lack the resources to fight back and find themselves censored as a result.
She said that the sexism faced by female journalists could also come into play when looking at Slapps. Matthew Caruana Galizia, son of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, spoke about his mother at the Sued into Silence conference in Amsterdam in February. He said that his mother, who had 42 civil suits against her at the time of her death, was targeted partly because she was a woman speaking out against men.
The project is being conducted now, Ní Mhainín said, because “some of the most recent examples of Slapps are also some of the most aggressive ones… You almost have to have eyes in the back of your head to see who might be coming for you”.
Censorship of the press often manifests itself in the form of legislation against media freedom. But, as the Slapps project shows, it also comes from within societies. This is the case with censorship of the arts.
Index deputy editor Jemimah Steinfeld attended the Human International Documentary Film Festival in Oslo in February and spoke about how far-right sections of society are focused on restricting artistic freedoms.
She identified that, while leaders such as Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and prime minister of Hungary Viktor Orban impacted artistic expression by dictating the use of artistic and educational funds, this was not the sole source of censorship.
Speaking after the event she told Index: “We’re seeing many people, especially on the right, who are more emboldened to protest (sometimes violently) against art and culture they don’t like.” But she insisted that it was vital to allow people on both sides of the political spectrum to express themselves artistically.
She said the defence of artistic expression meant “allowing the far right to be able to express themselves artistically. One of the arguments that is coming up time and again across countries and cultures is this sense that the arts are dominated by the left and that there is no room for other voices”.
“A vibrant art scene is one in which all kinds of voices, even those we don’t agree with, have room to speak and perform,” she added.
To discuss issues such as this, Index has recently recruited a new youth board of eight people between the ages of 16 and 25 from around the world, who gather online each month for an exchange of ideas. The board includes two members from India, who can bring first-hand accounts of life since the citizenship law was brought in under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in December 2019. This has sparked protests as it is deemed to discriminate against Muslims.
Samarth Mishra, from the central Indian city of Gwalior, said: “The student protests across the country against the government are just a sign that the youth is critical, and it doesn’t make them anti-national. Instead of attacking the higher education institute’s students, the government should try to be open to criticism and listen to their concerns.”
The board also includes members from Sweden, Canada and Hong Kong, as well as the UK, promising a fascinating series of discussions on international freedom of expression issues.
Index’s Freedom of Expression Awards will take place in London at the May Fair Hotel on 30 April. The ceremony marks the 20th anniversary of the awards.
There are 15 nominees over four categories: digital activism, campaigning, arts and journalism. One nominee in the journalism category is the Hong Kong Free Press, which was founded in 2015 with the aim to be the most trustworthy independent English-language news source in the region.
Playwright Ash Kotak and Rhiannon Adams, UK advocates of Index’s Free Speech is for Me programme
CREDIT: Jonathan Perfect/Index on Censorship
In a statement published on the outlet’s website, Tom Grundy, co-founder and editor-in-chief, said: “We are grateful to be considered for this award and am proud of our team for building a much-needed, independent platform at a time when press freedom is under increasing pressure.”
Nominees in the digital activism category include Egypt-based HarrassMap, who campaign against sexual harassment, and 7amleh, who focus on protecting the human rights of Palestinians.
Nominees in the arts category include Russian LGBTQ activist Yulia Tsvetkova and Thai rap group Rap Against Dictatorship, while the campaigning category includes Prove They Are Alive!, an organisation that campaigns against forced disappearances in Turkmen prisons.