Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 10 May 2024
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Italian journalists have gone on strike over the repressive atmosphere under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Photo: Italian Government/CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 ([link removed])
Public service broadcasters in democracies constantly find themselves in the crosshairs of governments. Their role is to hold politicians of the day to account without annoying them too much, occupying a unique position as a trusted news source. But public broadcasting is by its nature vulnerable. Key management positions are usually decided or heavily influenced by politicians, and governments use legislation to control their finances, even if, as with the BBC licence fee, funding is at arm's length.
The slide from public service broadcaster to state broadcaster can be rapid. In Hungary, one of Viktor Orban’s first acts after taking office in 2010 was to bring all public media under one organisation called MTVA ([link removed]) and sack staff and critical journalists. Something similar now appears to be happening to Rai in Italy.
This week journalists went on strike protesting budget cuts and what they see as an increasingly repressive atmosphere ([link removed]) under right-wing populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They accuse the broadcaster of “reducing Rai to being the megaphone of the Government.” The latest clash between the USIGRai union, presenters and the broadcaster happened a few weeks ago when Antonio Scurati, best-selling author of a nove ([link removed]) l about Mussolini’s rise to power, was disinvited from the Rai 3 talk show Chesarà. He was due to read out an anti-fascist monologue as part of celebrations around National Liberation from Fascism Day on 25 April. Editorial reasons were cited for his last minute non-appearance, but the show’s presenter Serena Bortone was so outraged she read out the monologue on the show herself
([link removed]) . That day she posted on Instagram ([link removed]) that she hadn’t been given sufficient explanation for what happened. Late this week, it emerged she had been sent a letter of disciplinary complaint for her comments ([link removed]) .
Rai has been nicknamed Telemoni ([link removed]) because of the increasing influence of Meloni’s government on the broadcaster. As Index reported last year ([link removed]) , immediately after her election, she inserted her followers into management positions and cancelled anti-mafia author Roberto Saviano’s show ([link removed]) . Rai has always, to some extent, come under the influence of the government of the day, but Meloni has gone faster and further than any of her predecessors. All this, of course, comes weeks after the EU Media Freedom Act ([link removed]) passed its
final hurdle - but Brussels looks increasingly toothless faced with illiberal European governments.
Meanwhile, in another attack on media freedom by a democratic government, Israel has shut down all of Al Jazeera’s operations in the country and confiscated their equipment. As Index reported in early April ([link removed]) the Knesset last month passed a law to prohibit the broadcaster and from last Sunday, TV and internet providers blocked and cut off all access. The ban lasts 45 days and can be extended. Al Jazeera has said it will continue to broadcast from Gaza and the West Bank, but it will mean Israeli audiences will no longer be able to see their programmes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s justification is that Al Jazeera incites violence against Israel and harms Israel's security, and that its owner, the Qatari state, finances and harbours Hamas leaders. Qatar rejects this accusation and has been reconsidering its relationship with Hamas
([link removed]) as part of its role with Egypt, as mediator in the conflict. I can’t help feeling it is the Israeli public who will be the main losers of the ban, unable to see all that is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and cut off from the narrative which is being broadcast to their Arab neighbours.
Sally Gimson, editor
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** Sting, Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak and Coldplay among those calling for the immediate release of Toomaj Salehi
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Over 100 artists, musicians, writers and leading cultural figures have joined Index on Censorship in solidarity with the persecuted rapper Toomaj Salehi who is facing the death penalty in Iran. Read our statement here ([link removed]) .
** New magazine Atar fills information void in Sudan
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As a brutal war rages in Sudan a new publication fights to share stories which would otherwise be lost, writes Yassmin Abdel-Magied ([link removed]) .
** Protesting to save democracy in Georgia
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Tens of thousands of people have been protesting on the streets of Tbilisi against the proposed "foreign agent" law. Photo: Jelger Groeneveld via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 Deed (http:// [link removed]) )
In the south-eastern corner of Europe, in the small country of Georgia, a monumental struggle is unfolding between the government’s authoritarian ambitions and civil society’s determination to advance fundamental freedoms, writes Kety Abashidze ([link removed]) .
** The death of North Korea’s propaganda chief marks the end of an era
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In the tightly controlled information environment of North Korea, the recent passing of Kim Ki Nam, a key figure in the regime’s propaganda apparatus, marks the end of an era, writes our CEO Ruth Anderson ([link removed]) . Kim Ki Nam, who spent decades shaping the narrative of the totalitarian state and building a personality cult around the ruling Kim dynasty, leaves behind a legacy of censorship and manipulation.
** From the Index archives
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** Zaire prison poem
by Jules Myango Witanene Kapuku
March 1982
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Pro-Palestine demonstrations have been growing in UK universities but student protest is far from new. In 1979 and 1980, students at higher education institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, were protesting over the low level of grants, bad conditions in student residences and the poor quality of food supplied in university accommodation. The protests were considered "subversive" by the authorities and the author ended up in jail where he wrote the poem Anguish, which you can read here ([link removed]) .
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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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