Friday, 12 June 2020

Nabeel Rajab freed in Bahrain but charges must be dropped

Index welcomes the news that Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been freed from prison. Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award winner in 2012, had been held since 2016 and convicted of offences including “spreading fake news”.

As Index wrote during one of his many appeals: “Those are not crimes. Opinions are not crimes.”

Rajab has suffered relentless harassment since his involvement as a peaceful activist during the Bahrain uprising in 2011, during which he was in and out of prison on numerous occasions. Index has been campaigning for his release throughout the years, including protesting outside the Bahraini Embassy in London on multiple occasions and writing open letters to the Bahraini government.

Earlier this week, Rajab’s lawyer said he would serve the remainder of his sentence in a non-custodial setting. Index welcomes the news but we continue to call for all charges to be dropped against Rajab, as well as all others who are imprisoned in Bahrain simply for their views and advocacy.

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Countries are banning print newspapers during Covid-19 despite there being little to no scientific evidence they can carry the virus. Is it being used as a cover to restrict the news? Meanwhile publishers of local and regional newspapers around the world have suspended publication because of a lack of financial viability. Will publishers return to print once the crisis ends, asks Mark Frary?

Toppling statues tears down barriers to discussing slavery and racism

Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol pulled down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston last weekend. It was then rolled through the city centre and dumped in Bristol Harbour.

Colston was a member of the Royal Africa Company, which had a monopoly on the slave trade at the time and is believed to be responsible for an estimated 30,000 African deaths.

The toppling of the statue has been both celebrated and criticised.

In an article for Index, journalist and political commentator Kiri Kankhwende said of those that have criticised the protestors that erecting a statue in the first place is also a political act. "Those who decry the removal of statues as erasing history might consider that in the many cases where statues represent editing or curating the past, that is itself a form of erasure," she said. Photo: Caitlin Hobbs

"The lawsuit broke me completely"

“For me it was a shock, maybe because it was the first time I was dealing with the penal code. I didn’t do anything wrong [but] at trial, I passed prisoners in handcuffs in the corridors. It broke me completely.”

These are the words of a Polish journalist facing a vexatious lawsuit for her work and one of many we spoke to when producing our detailed new report on the laws being used across Europe to stop investigative journalism being published or broadcast.

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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