Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 24 May 2024
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Authoritarian governments are reaching out beyond their borders to target critics overseas. Photo: David Sinclair/Unsplash
There is a compelling idea that when you escape from an authoritarian regime you are safe. This may have been perpetuated by Hollywood: prisoners handed over at checkpoints are a common trope. Even The Sound of Music’s Von Trapp family singers have added to this body of evidence.
Sadly, the reality is rather different – getting through the border is no longer a guarantee of safety and as we examine in the latest issue of our magazine ([link removed]) , it is becoming a global problem.
It’s never really been safe going abroad, especially if your Government believes you remain a threat or is just vengeful.
In 1979, we reported on the inquest into the death of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov ([link removed]) . After leaving his native country, he worked in London as a journalist for the BBC and others. On 11 September 1978 he died of blood poisoning after an incident at a London bus stop when he was jabbed in the leg by a man with an umbrella”. The inquest found that his death was caused by a metal pellet containing the nerve agent ricin, presumably implanted into his leg by the umbrella. The KGB defector Oleg Kalugin later claimed that the hit had been organised by the Bulgarian Secret Service in conjunction with his former Soviet employers.
The attempted poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal ([link removed]) in Salisbury by Russian GRU agents using Novichok nerve agent in 2018 showed that little had changed in the intervening near four decades. Again, it was a storyline that could have easily been written for a Bond movie.
The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi ([link removed]) in Istanbul that same year showed that it’s not just the Russians who are in the game of transnational repression (TR). In 2021, the US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines issued a report ([link removed]) that stated: “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation…to capture or kill…Khashoggi”.
It goes on. In March this year, journalist Pouria Zeraati, a host on London-based, Farsi-language TV channel Iran International, was assaulted by a group of unidentified individuals ([link removed]) . He was left with numerous knife wounds across his body. While the perpetrators have not been identified and brought to justice, the signs are there to suggest that this was an egregious case of TR, when the long arm of dictators reach beyond their borders to attempt to silence their critics. In 2022, Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib was reported ([link removed]) to have told the official website of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei that Iran International is “a terrorist organisation” and that its employees would “be pursued by the Ministry of Intelligence”.
China is also in the TR business, as we revealed in our 2022 report China’s Long Arm ([link removed]) which looked at the repression of Uyghurs in Europe.The as-yet unexplained death ([link removed]) in a park in Maidenhead, west of London, of a former Royal Marine who has been accused of spying on pro-democracy activists for the Hong Kong intelligence services has also renewed the focus on transnational repression. It is not clear who, if anyone, is involved at this stage but it needs to be investigated thoroughly.
The long reach of authoritarian regimes will surely be among the discussion points at an event Index is holding next Wednesday, 29 May, the opening night of the Censored Memories exhibition at St John’s Church in London’s Waterloo. Find out more below or get a free ticket here ([link removed]) .
While we’re talking about protest, it would be difficult to avoid mentioning the events in 10 Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon. Just after 5pm, during a heavy downpour, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he was calling a general election. Viewers were (mostly) amused to hear Sunak accompanied by the blaring (or should that be Blairing) music of D:Ream singing Things Can Only Get Better played by anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray. Bray told The Guardian ([link removed]) that the nineties hit, famously used by New Labour, is “the top trolling song for the Conservatives”. We predict that protests and the response to them will be top of the agenda for the new government, whoever ends up forming it.
Mark Stimpson, Associate editor
** 29 May | Join us for the opening night of Censored Memories: 35 years since Tiananmen
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On Wednesday 29 May, we launch the exhibition Censored Memories at St John's church in Waterloo in London. The exhibition recalls the events and protests of 1989 and the pro-democracy movements in China through memorabilia and artworks, aiming to keep the memories alive. In reminding ourselves of these pivotal moments of history, we affirm our commitment to safeguarding the right to remember and to resisting the forces that seek to obliterate them.
The event will include an exhibition on censored memories featuring items and memorabilia of the protests from the archives of Fengsuo Zhou and the USA-based Chinese human rights NGO Humanitarian China, alongside contemporary artworks by Badiucao, Jens Galschiøt, Lumli Lumlong, Mei Yuk Wong and vawongsir. Speaking at the event will be award-winning author Ma Jian, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress Rahima Mahmut and London-based music producer and vocalist Yinfi.
Click here to book a free ticket ([link removed]) .
Help support Index on Censorship ([link removed])
** Are we sleepwalking into Orwell’s nightmare?
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Just how close are we to Orwell’s vision outline in Nineteen Eighty-Four – or are we already there? This was the question posed by a panel of freedom of expression experts at WoWFEST: FAHRENHEIT 2024 festival in Liverpool. Find out what they had to say here ([link removed]) .
** On never being able to stop
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[link removed] Anderson's time at Index on Censorship started during the pandemic when authoritarian regimes used the pretext of Covid-19 as an excuse to restrict access to a free media. Since then we’ve seen Putin invade Ukraine, the people of Afghanistan abandoned to the Taliban and the increased repression in Hong Kong and the continuing rise of populist politics around the world. As she hands over to incoming CEO Jemimah Steinfeld, she reflects on her time at the heart of the struggle for freedom of expression ([link removed]) .
** Index on Censorship seeks new editor
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Index is hiring a new editor to work at the heart of its editorial team. Reporting directly to the CEO and heading the editorial department, they will be expected to oversee agenda-setting investigations, articles, columns and fiction. This is an excellent opportunity to help curate an outstanding quarterly magazine both in print and online. Find out more and apply here ([link removed]) .
** From the Index archives
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** Culture in the cross hairs
by Andrey Kurkov
Summer 2022
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The printworks of Ukrainian publishing company Vivat, which publishes local authors such as Dara Kornii, Andrii Kokotiukha and Artem Chekh as well as names such as Boris Johnson and Luke Harding in translation, has been targeted in Russian attacks on Kharkiv this week. Two years ago, Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov wrote for Index ([link removed]) on how the country's culture is being systematically erased.
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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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