Friday, 17 July 2020

"It was a clear message to civil society in Turkey: Stop." Exclusive interview with Turkish human rights activist Özlem Dalkıran

Human rights activist Özlem Dalkıran, one of the Istanbul 10, has just been handed a 25-month sentence for allegedly aiding the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization, the body which President Erdoğan blames for 2016’s failed military coup. Index on Censorship's editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley speaks with Dalkıran in our exclusive video interview.

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Ruth Smeeth: "We must make sure that journalism survives the pandemic"

"July 2020 has been an awful month to be a journalist in Britain. The BBC, The Guardian and Reach (the owner of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express as well as numerous local and regional papers) have all announced redundancies. Meanwhile, the Archant group (which also own dozens of local papers) is desperately seeking a new buyer. Covid-19 is having a devastating effect on the media on which we rely to make sure that corruption is reported, that repressive regimes are exposed and that provides a platform to speak truth to power." Read the weekly blog post from our chief executive.

Index holds virtual Slapps roundtable

Last week, Index on Censorship brought together a group of distinguished legal experts and practitioners from across Europe for a virtual roundtable to discuss the vexatious use of the law (particularly strategic lawsuits against public participation or Slapps) and the threat it poses to media freedom of Europe. The discussion took place on the back of the publication of the report "A gathering storm: the laws being used to silence the media", which was published by Index on Censorship in June. The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss the trends raised by the report with a view to identifying best practices and potential solutions to preventing the abuse of the law. The group also heard from a United States-based media lawyer, who outlined the anti-Slapp legislation that has been enacted in California. The roundtable took place under the Chatham House Rule, but the discussion will form the basis of a summary report, to be released later this year.

Since March, we have been working with our network of contributors and partner organisation Justice for Journalists to build an interactive map showing attacks on media freedom that have been carried out around the world under cover of Covid.

We have now reported on 230 incidents. This week, we have reported our first incidents in Tunisia, Peru, Cuba and Chile. View the map here.

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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