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Friday, 26 January 2024
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Photo: Brendan Kavanagh ([link removed])
Let’s talk about pianos and cameras.
Nestled in the heart of London’s St Pancras station is a public piano, gifted by Elton John no less. One of its regular players is Brendan Kavanagh (pictured above), who livestreams his performances to his 2.3 million YouTube followers. Last Friday his livestream ([link removed]) took an unexpected turn when he was interrupted by a group of people brandishing Chinese flags. They said they worked for Chinese TV. They asked him to not film them because it was “not allowed” and they wanted to protect their “image rights”.
The interaction starts off jovially enough before getting nasty. The TV crew threaten legal action, which prompts Kavanagh to tell them “we’re in a free country mate. We’re not in Communist China”. It gets nastier still when Kavanagh touches one of their flags resulting in him being screamed at. The police get involved. They don’t instinctively side with Kavanagh (in fact they even tell him that while he can film in public he now must stop filming because it’s a “police matter”, to which he retorts “it’s a free speech matter”). In a further bizarre twist, Kavanagh starts debating with one of the officers about whether saying things like “you’re not in Communist China” is racist and she tells him he should be careful with his words, especially because it’s Chinese New Year soon (yes, she really did say that). It finally calms down. Kavanagh goes back to playing.
There’s a lot to unpick in this 37-minute video. Firstly no one comes across well. Kavanagh’s initial labelling of the group as Japanese, his request that one of the women dances - these kinds of comments are othering to say the least. Free speech is not the get-out-of-jail-free-card that some people think it is. It doesn’t mean a free ride to say whatever you want without being pulled up on it, so Kavanagh, I love your music, less so the way in which you address people.
As for those on the TV crew side (who should definitely be schooled on the Streisand Effect - the video has now been watched more than eight million times), the intimidating behaviour on display is never OK. It also feels part of a broader pattern in which the more autocratic norms of CCP-controlled China are now playing out elsewhere, as highlighted in our Banned By Beijing reports ([link removed]) , albeit this is a much more tame, entry-level example.
As an aside I did have an element of empathy for the TV crew at the start when they kept on repeating that his filming was not allowed without saying why. It’s a familiar scene in China, where the penalties for transgression can be very high, so people don’t always ask “why”.
At the heart of the episode was the role of cameras and how we consent to our images being used in the public space. And what a group of people to fight this battle. On the one side the Chinese TV crew, representing a nation that is home to more CCTV cameras than anywhere else in the world. On the other side a British man living in London, a city that regularly tops the charts for its huge number of CCTV cameras. Of all the cameras to be annoyed about I’d place the one belonging to a pianist fairly low down a list.
Cameras are not net bad. Indeed, they’re very much an integral part of the free speech landscape. Just look at Gaza right now, where videos taken on phones are one of the few ways we’re finding out about life on the ground. The smartphone documented the Arab Spring. It exposes Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Still we can’t avoid the fact that they do serve the purposes of authoritarian states well and the blossoming of CCTV cameras across London is an uncomfortable reality which we must monitor very closely. We’re now in a situation in which we’re constantly in someone else’s shot. Is that ok? If this odd episode serves any purpose it’s to reignite a conversation around that question.
Kavanagh repeated “free speech”, “free speech”, “free speech” and as much as I agree with some of his points I’m not sure he’s quite who I would term a free speech hero. But do you know who is? The band of activists who took to ([link removed]) the very same piano just days later to play Glory To Hong Kong. And the irony is if anyone should worry about being filmed it’s these people.
Jemimah Steinfeld, editor-in-chief
** The Scottish Anti-SLAPP Summit
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After an anti-SLAPP amendment to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act and Wayne David's Anti-SLAPP Private Members' Bill, progress to stop legal threats being used to stifle public interest reporting may be on the horizon. But all this progress stops at the border and currently Scotland remains exposed to SLAPPs, without any commitment to stamp them out. This is why we are partnering with the University of Glasgow Law School to host the Scottish Anti-SLAPP Summit on 26 February. This event will bring together SLAPP targets, lawyers, journalists and experts, such as Paul Radu of OCCRP, Rosalind McInnes of BBC Scotland, former MSP Andy Wightman, the journalist David Leask and the writer Rebecca Stott, as well as many others. This important event will look at what needs to change to ensure free expression in Scotland is protected. Register for tickets here ([link removed]) .
** The fragility of freedom
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Joan Salter, a child survivor of the Holocaust, holding a photo showing herself, her sister, and the group she travelled to America with after rescue by the Red Cross
"We like to think of a world where each generation will be healthier, wealthier and safer than the last," writes our CEO Ruth Anderson in her blog this week. "There are undoubtedly periods in our global history where this happens. The fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s saw generations of people in Eastern Europe stepping into the light and gaining independence of thought once more. The end of apartheid in South Africa brought with it hope for a better tomorrow: one based on equality and respect. We desperately wished that the moving aside of the military junta in Myanmar for Aung San Suu Kyi would herald a new beginning for the Burmese."
Sadly history seems destined to repeat itself. Read the blog here ([link removed]) .
We have also learned that Ruth will be leaving us soon and we are on the hunt for a new inspirational leader. Read about the role here ([link removed]) .
** From the Index archives
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** Who now remembers the Roma?
by Valeriu Nicolae
Spring 2005
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As the world marks 79 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, a plea to remember ([link removed]) all of those who were victims of the Nazi’s genocidal reign.
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