Index on Censorship weekly round-up

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Friday, 27 October 2023
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Afghan refigees at a Pakistani border town. Photo: UN Photo/Luke Powell

This week, things became worse for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. After reporting on the harsh reality for Afghan journalists ([link removed]) and even on the people selling kidneys ([link removed]) in order to afford food, it didn’t seem like this would be possible. But going from the edge of hope and back into the freedom black hole of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is certainly worse.

With the start of November came a new threat to safety: Pakistan made good on its dismal promise that undocumented immigrants would have to leave before Wednesday this week, Afghan refugees included — refoulement, of course, being illegal under international human rights law. Wednesday arrived and the deportations intensified. Huge trucks were loaded with people and their belongings, on a journey that will eventually lead them back to a country where they face unimaginable risk. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are reported to have made border crossings themselves before the deadline.

The human rights situation for Afghans both in and out of the country is something we at Index have our eyes trained on. We are of course a free expression organisation. So, we’ll skip over the part about the Pakistan-based Afghans who worked with the British government now being at risk of repatriation. And we won’t dwell on the pitiful access to healthcare and education that refugees have had whilst in Pakistan. We’ll get right to the free expression part. These are the people in particular who we are thinking about:

The young women and girls who fled to Pakistan for an education and who will not be allowed to learn, now that they are being forced to return to Afghanistan. The female journalists who are fighting for a voice, which is hard enough to summon in Pakistan but which will be completely suffocated in Afghanistan. Those who decide not to leave Pakistan in the hopes of being on a path to freedom, and who risk arrest while they search for it. People who love music (the Taliban burned musical instruments ([link removed]) in Herat this summer because they “cause moral corruption”). Women who like talking to other women (the Taliban has banned one of the last safe female spaces, the beauty salon). This list could go on.

The deportations in Pakistan are happening via dozens of temporary holding centres. In some of these camps at least journalists are not being allowed inside ([link removed]) . Without reporters and cameras, Pakistan’s authorities cannot be kept in check, and any information that makes its way onto social media will be harder to verify.

We regularly work with Afghan journalists, some of whom have found sanctuary in France after experiencing a hopeless situation in Pakistan. In our latest magazine ([link removed]) , Rukhshana Media editor-in-chief Zahra Joya wrote about how female journalists are being removed from the media landscape in Afghanistan, and how it leads to women being erased from public life altogether. And with a lot of the team based in the UK we are particularly vocal about the UK’s duty to offer sanctuary ([link removed]) to Afghan journalists, many of whom are stuck in Pakistan (or are perhaps being driven back to Afghanistan as we speak). We renew that call now.

Coincidently, yesterday was the International Day to End Impunity, and with it came a call from Afghan journalists ([link removed]) to end impunity of crimes against media workers. Over the last 20 years, the group highlights, the deaths of more than 128 Afghan journalists have gone without justice.

The situation in Pakistan has been overshadowed by the Middle East. As Afghans are being forced out of Pakistan, the Rafah crossing into Egypt has partially opened to the first refugees leaving Gaza. Over the past weeks, since we dedicated our newsletter ([link removed]) to the emerging free speech implications of the war between Israel and Palestine, censorship concerns have only worsened, as Index editor-in-chief Jemimah Steinfeld wrote this week ([link removed]) . Journalists have been killed, media freedom is plummeting, misinformation is rife and protest – in all different forms – is being restricted.

With all that is happening around the Israel-Palestine war and all that is happening on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, as our editor writes in her Middle East analysis: silence is not the answer.

Katie Dancey-Downs, assistant editor


** Why academic freedom and freedom of speech are not the same thing
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This week the UKRI, a UK government body which distributes research funding, has suspended its diversity advisory panel, after members were crticised by the Government for their social media comments regarding Hamas and Israel. This led to the resignation of several academics from posts at the UKRI.

Yet the right to debate ideas in universities does not give free rein to voice hateful ideas outside that environment, writes our CEO Ruth Anderson ([link removed]) .


** A minute in the Middle East
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Peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict may seem like a distant dream, but even now there are those on the ground working to build understanding between the two peoples.

A recent seminar, The Gaza War in Israel ([link removed]) , sought to amplify these voices. We hear the uncensored thoughts from a Palestinian leader and a Tel Aviv-Yafo resident ([link removed]) , as they stand together for peace between Israel and Palestine.


** New EU rules on political advertising
should be paused
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[link removed] on Censorship continues to have serious concerns about the EU plans for political advertising rules and the chilling effect on freedom of expression.

Our CEO, Ruth Anderson, has written to the Presidents of the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament to urge a pause and a rethink ([link removed]) ahead of the 2024 elections.



** From the Index archives
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** View from Iran by Shirin Ebadi
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** August 2008
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In Iran this week, Mahsa Yazdani was sentenced to 13 years in prison after calling for justice for her son, who was killed during anti-regime protests. With punishments being handed out to ordinary citizens like Yazdani, who have had activism thrust upon them, we return to 2008, when Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi reflected on the state of free expression ([link removed]) in Iran.
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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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