Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 27 September 2024
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Just Stop Oil protesters after they threw soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers at London's National Gallery on 14 October 2022.
Photo: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
Today two young British activists, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, have been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of criminal damage following a stunt at London's National Gallery. The pair, part of Just Stop Oil (JSO), famously threw Heinz tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers back in October 2022. At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced Plummer to two years in prison while Holland was jailed for 20 months. Judge Hehir said ([link removed]) the pair “couldn’t have cared less” if the painting had been damaged. But please note no person or painting was harmed in the making of this protest. The iconic painting's frame, however, was (hence the charges). Should they be punished for the damage caused? Perhaps. But surely a simple fine, a suspended sentence, or community service would do? Jail time (and quite significant jail time at that) is problematic to say the least
and follows a pattern of climate protesters being punished harshly in a way that makes it harder for others to join their cause and chorus.
Under the last government a series of legislation was introduced (the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Public Order Act 2023 and Serious Disruption Prevention Orders), each with the aim of restricting peoples' right to protest and increasing the punishment for those who fall foul of the new laws. Their scale was evidenced earlier this summer when other JSO protesters were sentenced to four and five years' imprisonment respectively for planning protests on the M25. Commenting at the time of the sentences Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, said they should "put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom."
It's not just in the UK that the rights of non-violent protesters are being threatened. As Mackenzie Argent reports for Index here ([link removed]) , it's happening throughout Europe, Australia and North America. And while Argent's article argues that it's most pronounced in the UK, if the current Italian government gets its way the UK won't be the worst for long. There, a new security bill ([link removed]) proposes outlawing hunger strikes, one of the most powerful forms of protest open to a political prisoner, amongst other measures. All of the countries cited above claim to be democracies and yet these actions make the label look more decorative than substantive.
It's the same story in Israel. Last weekend soldiers marched into the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah, confiscated equipment and closed it for an initial 45 days. Israel's military said a legal opinion and intelligence assessment determined the offices were being used "to incite terror" and "support terrorist activities", and that the Qatari-owned channel's broadcasts endanger Israel's security. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been pressed on these points by organisations like the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) but has not responded (and indeed when the IDF has made similar accusations in the past, it has provided little evidence to hold them up to scrutiny. See the BBC report here ([link removed]) for example). So it simply looks like another attack on media freedom, a way to silence an outlet that can (and should) report to the world what is happening in the West Bank.
People need to be able to protest and they need to be able to report the news. When these two essential pillars are shut down in countries like the UK, the USA, Israel and Italy, the dividing line between democracies and autocracies becomes thinner and the former's ability to call out the latter on their human rights violations becomes weaker.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO
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** The hypocrisy of how Western democracies respond to protest
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London’s Metropolitan Police has declared that it plans to use pre-emptive arrests more frequently in response to ongoing protests. Photo: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
Heavy-handed responses to peaceful protest are not just confined to authoritarian countries, writes Mackenzie Argent ([link removed]) . There have been multiple arrests at both climate and pro-Palestine protests in the UK in recent years, and the Conservative government led by Rishi Sunak introduced the much-criticised Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Public Order Act 2023, and Serious Disruption Prevention Orders, all of which significantly inhibit people’s right to protest. The UK is not alone - the USA and Germany are also cracking down harder on protesters.
** The most ridiculous book bans
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Photo: Kennedy Library (CC-BY-NC.20)
Banned Books Week is here once again. And so too are more stories of books being censored across the world. This week, Pen America ([link removed]) reported that the number of book bans in public schools has nearly tripled in 2023-24 from the previous school year.
While the week-long Banned Books Week event, supported by a coalition including Index on Censorship, looks largely towards bans in the USA, we’re taking a moment to reflect on global censorship of literature. We asked the Index team to share what they think is the most ridiculous instance of book censorship ([link removed]) , from the outright silly to the baffling but dangerous.
** ODEE and Fishrot: Index signs letter in support of artistic freedom
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The performance artist ODEE. Photo: Whistleblowing Network
An artist is being sued by one of Europe's largest fishing companies and now dozens of organisations, including Index on Censorship, are asking for the case to be dropped. Find out why here ([link removed]) .
** United Nations member states must call for Toomaj Salehi’s release
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Iranian hip-hop artist and rapper Toomaj Salehi. Photo: Handout
In advance of a speech by the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, to the United Nations General Assembly this week, Salehi’s family, his international counsel team at Doughty Street Chambers, Index on Censorship, and the Human Rights Foundation called for the country to immediately and unconditionally release Salehi ([link removed]) .
** From the Index archives
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** Tapestry of tyranny
by Katie Dancey-Downs
Spring 2022
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It was Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski's 62nd birthday this week but he spent it in a Belarusian jail. Two years ago, our assistant editor wrote about an innovative campaign designed to remember political prisoners like him through embroidery. Read the story 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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