Friday 6 December 2019

Muscat is going – but not soon enough

This week, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that he would resign in January – news which was welcomed by all those who have been protesting regularly for him to quit – but which also prompted calls that he should go immediately.
One of those calls came from Sophie in ’t Veld, the Dutch MEP leading an EU mission dispatched to Malta to scrutinise the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. She said Muscat had made “serious errors of judgement” that made his position no longer tenable.
Index has been at the forefront of demands for the end of impunity for the killers of the investigative journalist, featuring work by fearless Maltese journalists such as Caroline Muscat and revealing the dark underbelly of this popular European holiday destination, where journalists face legal threats for just doing their jobs.

Magazine out soon!

The winter issue of Index on Censorship magazine has gone to the printers and will be hitting the newsstands at the end of next week. Please subscribe if you don’t already.
While we don’t want to give too much away (let’s just say it’s gonna be bigly… huge…), we’re too excited not to mention a few highlights: Stefano Pozzebon interviews Brazilian journalists about the new atmosphere of press intimidation under President Jair Bolsonaro; Hong Kong writer and protester Tammy Lai-Ming Ho tells Index how she found courage in poetry, and shares one of her latest poems; and Rob Sears – the man behind popular stocking filler The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump – has penned the ultimate guide to crushing free speech in the 21st century. It's one you won't want to miss.

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An evening with the author

Index contributing writer Hamid Ismailov launches his latest novel in London next week with an evening of Uzbek culture.
Forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1992 due to what the state called “unacceptable democratic tendencies”, he came to the UK, where he has written several award-winning novels. His latest, Of Strangers and Bees – weaving together past and present to tell a tale of the search for truth and wisdom – will be launched on Wednesday, December 11, at Pushkin House, in Bloomsbury. For more details and tickets, click here.

Election acts undermine trust

This week Index logged an alert on the Council of Europe platform promoting the protection of journalism, noting several incidents linked to the UK’s General Election.
These included the Conservative Party banning the Daily Mirror from travelling on its campaign bus and the Tory press office changing its Twitter handle to “factcheckUK” during a leaders’ debate.
There was also a formal complaint by the Conservatives to the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, in relation to a Channel 4 Climate Debate where there were threats to replace Boris Johnson with an ice sculpture if he did not attend. The party accused the channel of “a pattern of bias”, but the complaint was not upheld.

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Gift ideas to support free expression

Why not show your support for freedom of expression this Christmas? A framed piece of artwork by Chinese illustrator Badiucao would look great on any wall, or how about sponsoring a seat in the name of a freedom of expression hero at the Index awards?
And for the gift that keeps on giving, a subscription to Index on Censorship magazine lasts a whole year. You don’t even need to wrap it, just click here.

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