Friday, 09 June 2023
There is only so much a small organisation like Index on Censorship can do, but sometimes we can make a big difference to the lives of the individual writers, artists and human rights activists we support. In some cases, such as our publication of letters from Lukashenka’s prisoners in Belarus, we follow in the 50-year tradition of Index bringing attention to the plight of dissidents. Our Banned by Beijing campaign has helped alert people to the Chinese Communist Party’s attacks on freedom of expression in Europe and our work on SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) has helped change the law on vexatious libel suits in the UK.

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, we have watched with increasing horror as the regime has targeted the independent media and women in particular. As international attention has understandably focused on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated. At Index we receive almost daily reports from journalists who can no longer work because they opposed the Taliban or because they come from the minority Shia Hazara community or simply because they are women. We also receive broader reports - this week alone of Afghan girls being poisoned at school and a mental health crisis gripping the nation. 

Despite assurances that groups targeted by the Taliban would be prioritised for asylum in the UK, not a single refugee in these categories has arrived in Britain since the initial emergency flights from the country in 2021. International organisations representing writers and journalists have simply given up on the UK government, to its eternal shame.

But Index will not give up on the journalists of Afghanistan. This is why the magazine has consistently covered the conflict and the plight of independent media in the country. Since 2021 we have been in contact with a network of Afghan journalists via Signal, the secure messaging app. Where possible, we have commissioned reports from journalists on the ground as a way of providing much-needed funds.

We are delighted to report that Spozhmai Maani, who has become a valued Index contributor, is now safely in France as of this week after fleeing Afghanistan in October 2021. Spozhmai is pictured above, leaving Islamabad earlier this week. She had been living in desperate conditions in Pakistan as she wrote in an account for us in February:

“I have been forced to live in unhygienic slums due to financial issues. I have spent many days without food and when I do eat, it is often just once a day. I have been ill many times, but I haven’t been to hospital or received any medication and have been suffering from mental health issues like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and stress. I haven’t been able to purchase clothes for myself since I fled Afghanistan… I have also been a victim of discrimination and racism due to my ethnicity, nationality and religion.”

Another journalist who we have supported also arrived in France last week, their story again one of extreme bravery and determination. 

We will continue to put pressure on the UK government to honour their obligations to Afghan media workers, women and minorities. Meanwhile we have organised two fundraising events over the next six weeks. The first is next week with our friends at the Campaign to Protect Afghanistan’s Musicians.

A Night for Afghanistan takes place at Somerville College Oxford on 15 June. A panel discussion with Zahra Joya, Afghan journalist and founder of Rukhsana Media, and Zehra Zaidi of Action for Afghanistan will be followed by a concert of Afghan music curated and conducted by Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey.

On 20 July we will be hosting a second night of music, film and discussion with the charity Anotherway Now at King’s College London.

We wish we could invite Spozhmai to both events. She is a talented young journalist who could talk eloquently about the Taliban’s daily assault on human rights and freedom of expression. We are proud to count her as a colleague in the great Index tradition of brave dissident journalists. Britain’s loss is France’s gain.

Martin Bright
Editor-at-large 

Tiananmen Square? Don’t mention it

As happens every year, the Chinese authorities cracked down on public commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which occurred 34 years ago last Sunday. As always more things were added to the list of what cannot be said in the lead-up. And as always people got creative in their response to getting round the censorship. Read this piece by Francis Clarke about what happened recently for the anniversary Beijing would rather we all forgot.

A night for Afghanistan | 15 June, Oxford

Afghanistan is many things to many people. It's an ancient and beautiful land of rugged mountains and dazzling poppy fields, a place of literature and music. Its people are known to be welcoming, its food delicious, and its history - once an important stop on the Silk Road - is rich. But it's also a place of conflict, a place caught in so many cycles of violence over the decades that many people know it simply through the prism of war. Beautiful and battered - these sides exist together, and it is with both of them in mind that Index and the International Campaign for Afghanistan’s Musicians are co-hosting an evening in honour of Afghanistan. The evening, which will take place in Oxford, will see a panel discussion on the plight of journalists from Afghanistan, followed by a concert featuring new compositions by Afghan composers living in exile. This will be an unforgettable night to raise awareness around a very important cause. Click here for more information.

From the archive

Autocracy rising: The internet in a multipolar world
Lawrence Freedman and Benedict Wilkinson
July 2013

As big economic forces like China and Russia shifted global dynamics a decade ago, two academics at London's Kings College asked whether the battle for online freedom would lead to greater openness. But has it?
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