Index on Censorship weekly news round-up

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Friday, 07 April 2023
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A female news reporter presents for Afghanistan's TOLOnews. Photo: Yosuf Mohseni

We at Index have been banging on about the desperate situation in Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. We have been banging on about women and banging on about journalists. We have been particularly banging on about women journalists. We have banged on long after the news agenda has moved on to other stories in other parts of the world. Because that is our job. We have done the same over recent years in Belarus, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

This week, assistant editor Katie Dancey-Downs reported from an online event on the worsening situation for female journalists in Afghanistan ([link removed]) run by Zan Times, Afghan Witness and the Centre for Information Resilience. Index contributor Zahra Nader, now based in Canada, explained how she had set up Zan Times to report on human rights abuses in Afghanistan from the perspective of the women directly affected by Taliban rule. “Women are the main target of the Taliban,” she told the event. “The traditional, classic work we used to do no longer functions”. Anouk Theunissen explained that since the crackdown, Afghan Witness has helped women find a voice via citizen journalism and open source reporting: “As women have been erased from society, they have taken to social media.”

Nader is just one of the voices in a long-read on Afghanistan for the Spring edition of Index ([link removed]) focusing on the situation for journalists at risk from the Taliban. Speaking at a recent Canadian Journalists for Free Expression event she said: “The truth that we cover these days is brutal. It burns to the bone. It traumatises you. It is a nightmare that haunts us even in daylight. Yet some refuse to accept loss at the hands of the Taliban.”

We have been working closely with our friends from the European Association of Journalists to support Afghan media workers after the fall of Kabul and they kindly reprinted the Index article in full ([link removed]) on the EAJ website.

We have also been banging on to the British government about its specific commitments to women and journalists under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme ([link removed]) (ACRS), set up by the Home Office to provide a safe route for asylum seekers. Government guidance is specific about eligibility for the next stage of the programme. It includes: “those who have assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights and freedom of speech, rule of law (for example, judges, women’s rights activists, academics, journalists)”. In addition it names: “vulnerable people, including women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups at risk".

Following an appeal signed by Index, the National Union of Journalists, English PEN and PEN International asking for clarification on the timeline of ACRS from the UK government, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick wrote to say details will be published “in due course”.

We are not alone in attempting to keep public and political attention on Afghanistan. Next week in London human rights organisation Anotherway Now will host a screening of Defying the Taliban ([link removed]) , a film by celebrated Sky News foreign correspondent Alex Crawford. The film pays tribute to the brave women standing up for their rights in Afghanistan in every sphere of society. I will be chairing a post-show panel discussion with the filmmaker, Afghan journalist Zahra Joya and campaigner Zehra Zaidi.

We make no apology for returning to the subject. We will never stop banging on about Afghanistan.

Martin Bright
Editor at large


** Facebook policies put human rights defenders at risk
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[link removed] the big tech companies announced that there was evidence of Russian interference in the US presidential elections in 2016, Facebook changed the rules on who could run political adverts on the social media platform. While the new rules delivered more transparency on who was trying to buy influence, they had unintended consequences elsewhere in the world. Here, Egyptian pro-democracy blogger Abdelrahman "Moka" Tarek writes about how Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's government is using the rules to target human rights defenders ([link removed]) in the country.


** Join us for our spring magazine launch
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As India becomes the world’s largest nation it should be the world’s largest democracy. But was India ever a real democracy? If it was, how is it being threatened under current leader Narendra Modi? And what does the word democracy even mean?

What can be done to protect the rights of minorities in India? What will Modi’s priorities be ahead of the 2024 elections? And crucially just how resilient is Indian democracy and is it open to everyone? The newest edition of Index on Censorship magazine explores these questions as we examine the role of free expression in contemporary Indian society. To launch the issue join Salil Tripathi, award-winning journalist, Dr Maya Tudor of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and Jemimah Steinfeld, Index editor-in-chief, for an online panel discussion about past, present and future challenges to India’s democracy. Book your free tickets here ([link removed]) .
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** From the archive
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** The long-winding road to Colombia's dirty war
May 1990
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A new report ([link removed]) this week shows that Colombia was the deadliest place to be a human rights defender in 2022. This archive article ([link removed]) from 1990 shows that the country has always been deadly for those seeking the truth.
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Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.

We rely on donations from readers and supporters. By donating ([link removed]) to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.
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