Index on Censorship weekly news round-up
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Friday, 14 April 2023
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India may be the world's most populous nation but its position as the world's biggest democracy is under threat. Photo: Unsplash/Rifath @Photoripey
The publication of the spring issue of Index on Censorship magazine ([link removed]) , with a focus on freedom of expression in Narendra Modi’s India, has come at a very timely moment. Projections from the UN ([link removed]) show that it is this month that India becomes the world’s most populous country, leapfrogging China.
The country is often touted as the world’s biggest democracy but the evidence of that democracy is being weakened. The press, once vibrant, is being strangled; the judiciary is no longer independent; laws have been amended to throw protesters in jail; opposition figures are harassed; minorities live in fear. Statues of Modi go up, ancient mosques come down. A hyper form of ethno-nationalism that we’d more associate with interwar Europe is the doctrine of the land. Take our quiz ([link removed]) to find out some of the topics that we cover.
In the past week, the government has also tightened its grip ([link removed]) on what people are saying about its activities on social media thanks to rule changes which mean that platforms are no longer protected under safe harbour laws unless they “fact-check” claims.
The government also seems to be pushing Twitter to remove content that it disagrees with, not just in the country but worldwide. In 2021, Twitter said ([link removed]) that it would only block content and accounts within India and said it would not do so for “news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians”. That scope now appears to have changed.
In a rather odd and hastily organised interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk ([link removed]) , the BBC’s James Clayton asked him about India. The interview followed Twitter’s decision to label the BBC as “government-funded media”, which it later amended to “publicly funded” after an outcry ([link removed]) . [National Public Radio in the USA has left Twitter ([link removed]) after it was labelled the same way.]
Musk said, “The rules in India for what can appear on social media are quite strict, and we can’t go beyond the laws of a country…if we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we’ll comply with the laws.”
Clayton also pressed Musk on misinformation on the platform, pointing to the users who had been banned but have now been allowed back. BBC research in March ([link removed]) showed that of 1,100 banned users who had been allowed back on the platform since Musk’s takeover, what the BBC called “problematic content” had been posted on a third of them.
Clayton also asked Musk: “Do you prioritise freedom of speech over misinformation and hate speech?” Musk’s response was “Who’s to say that something is misinformation? Who is the arbiter of that? Is it the BBC?... Who is to say that one person’s misinformation is another person’s information.”
One of the oddest things to emerge from the interview - you can read the full transcript here ([link removed]) – was that Musk’s dog Floki is now the CEO of Twitter. This follows Musk’s December Twitter poll ([link removed]) asking users if he should step down and said he would abide by the result. 57.5% of respondents to the poll said he should – he is clearly a man of his word.
Whatever is happening at Twitter - and the change in approach to the Indian government is deeply worrying – Elon Musk’s entertaining show seems certain to continue for some time yet.
Mark Frary
Associate editor
** 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement
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"I’ve absorbed every news article, reflection and op-ed column discussing events in Northern Ireland 25 years ago," writes our CEO Ruth Anderson in her regular blog post ([link removed]) . "I was born in 1979, my family lived in London – the Troubles were a normal part of the news. As I grew up, the sectarian war in Northern Ireland seemed intractable, peace a dream that was impossible to achieve. But through the power of politics, of words, of negotiation, peace was delivered not just for the people of Northern Ireland but for everyone affected by the Troubles. That isn’t to say it was easy, or straightforward and that it doesn’t remain fragile, but it has proven to be miraculous and is something that we should both celebrate and cherish."
** 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, Hanan Zaffar, a journalist and film maker based in South Asia, 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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** Always looking over our shoulders
Henry McDonald
July 2021
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Next Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the murder of journalist Lyra McKee by dissident republicans during a riot in Derry, Northern Ireland. In this article from the summer of 2021, the journalist Henry McDonald, writing before his untimely death in February this year, described the threats ([link removed]) made to him and fellow journalists from both sides of the Northern Ireland political divide.
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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.
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