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Friday, 12 January 2024

Photo: ITVX

Ask anyone in the UK what they’ve been watching on TV this week and you’ll be met with a unified response: Mr Bates vs The Post Office. With the bandage freshly ripped off the wound, it’s all anyone’s been talking about — the scandal of how hundreds of sub-postmasters in the UK were left destitute, with severe mental health conditions or even jailed, after being blamed for losing (or stealing) thousands of pounds from their Post Office branches, when the reality was faulty software. Each person was told: you are alone, there is nothing to see here.

In 2007, in a little New Forest village near me, the sub-postmaster was found guilty of £55,000 of theft, and later jailed for 18 months. I remember locals talking about their disbelief, and how sure they were of his innocence — I don’t know what came of him, or what really happened. Most people in the UK probably have a similar memory.

Journalists have been talking about the issue for years. But now with the heft of an ITV drama humanising a complicated and widespread scandal, the UK public is really very cross. Even comedian Rosie Holt (as seen in the latest issue of Index and our upcoming comedy evening) has joined the chorus of dismay, with her satirical MP persona asking why it took Toby Jones so long to make a TV show on the topic: “The government can’t do anything — uh, everything — but it can watch dramas.”

Stamps are not typical Index territory. But the legal ethics surrounding the Post Office scandal are, insofar as people have been stripped of their voices through threats and nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). Neither the nearly 1,000 people who were prosecuted for false accounting or theft between 1999 and 2015 nor the band of people who tried to demand justice afterwards were what we might traditionally call dissidents. But consider this: the heavy hand with which the Post Office dealt its blows, the criminal charges pitted against those who refused to play the game and the façade of justice for those wronged does have a whiff of authoritarianism. Add in the requirement that sub postmasters not blame the Horizon computer system for the accounting discrepancies and the practice of silencing through NDAs and perhaps the story we have on our hands is a microcosm of the authoritarian mindset. Then consider those individuals, each silenced through fear, pressure or legal systems, who chose to stand up against their oppressors, to seek justice not just for themselves, but for others. Perhaps this really is a band of very British dissidents.

It’s a British example of the type of story we see playing out worldwide. Zelda Perkins, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, broke a gagging order and became the first woman to speak out against the now convicted rapist, sparking the global #MeToo movement. For years, Perkins was forced to remain silent for fear of legal reprisals, until her decision to break her silence forced her into becoming an activist, or perhaps a dissident, if we can consider the culture of silence around sexual assault in Hollywood as another authoritarian microcosm. Her bravery and refusal to remain silent gave other women the courage to also break their silence.

Our summer 2021 issue dealt with the importance of whistleblowers in upholding democracy, and in championing free expression. We spoke to Jonathan Taylor, who exposed a network of bribes within the oil industry and published a piece by the sister of Reality Winner, who went to prison for exposing Russian interference in the US elections, and who still wasn’t allowed to talk even after her release. It’s well worth revisiting now.

“The question of censorship has become a matter of impassioned debate; and it is one which does not only concern totalitarian societies,” Stephen Spender wrote in his announcement of the creation of Index on Censorship, back in 1972. Today, we continue to keep our eyes trained on our home turf, and other corners where the spirit of autocracy could be hiding. And we know that if these things are going on in democracies, much worse is happening in the world’s worst autocracies.

So this week, we salute Alan Bates and his dissident crew, for speaking up when it would be easier to remain silent.

Katie Dancey-Downs, assistant editor

Bangladesh, a bad start to the bumper election year

Photo: Picture: Russell Watkins/Department for International Development

We have watched events in Bangladesh with increasing concern. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her party, the Awami League, were re-elected for a fifth term on 7 January, but the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) chose to boycott the elections. The elections were criticised by the British and US government for not being free and fair, while Sheikh Hasina’s victory was welcomed by India, China and Russia.

The Bangladeshi PM’s rule has become increasingly authoritarian and international observers have condemned what has been seen as a campaign of harassment against Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus. The intellectual and entrepreneur is a pioneer of the concept of “micro-financing”, which provides small loans to individuals in the global south to allow them to climb out of poverty. Earlier this month the 83-year-old was convicted of breaching Bangladesh’s labour laws via his company Grameen Telecom. He has been sentenced to six months in prison. The former head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, now a UN special rapporteur, has condemned the legal action against Yunus.

Bangladesh politics has been hamstrung by the ferocity of the battle between the Awami League and the BNP. Yunus’s attempts to set up a new political party to break the deadlock ended up in failure.

Index has taken a keen interest in Bangladesh since its first edition in 1972, when we published an article by Jenefer Coates on the country’s struggle for cultural independence from Pakistan.

Chaos in Ecuador

President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency in Ecuador after violence escalated following gang leader Fito's escape from prison. Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador (PDM 1.0 DEED)

Horrifying events have played out in Ecuador this week, with violence sweeping across the nation after a prison break by a notorious gang leader, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency. Daisy Ruddock breaks down what happened, and what it means for free expression.

Fined thousands for a joke

Rizal Van Geysel has previously been arrested and fined for jokes he made during a stand-up set in Malaysia. Photo: Rizal Van Geysel

As our comedy special, Having the Last Laugh, lands with subscribers during January, Francis Clarke speaks to Malaysian comedian Rizal Van Geysel about his farce-like experience of ending up in court over his comedy material.

Win one of our exclusive prizes with our
Moments of Freedom campaign

Incredibly some positive things did happen in 2023. We’d love you to vote in our Moments of Freedom campaign, and choose the moment that resonated most with you. You’ll be in with a chance of winning a signed Lumli Lumlong print of Jimmy Lai, along with other fantastic prizes. Vote now here.

From the Index archives

Divided in grief
by Malu Halasa
March 1998

Deaths in the Gaza strip during the current conflict now number more than 20,000. The Hamas attack on 7 October and the subsequent military action by Israel has created many widows. It is not a new phenomenon, as this article by Malu Halasa from 1998 shows.

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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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