The latest on threats to freedom of expression around the world
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Friday, 09 December 2022
** Tears in rain: let's not lose sight of what is happening in Iran
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A protester holds an image of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody in Iran in September.
Photo: Max Zindel/Unsplash
Working in the freedom of expression world, bad news is our bread and butter. So it says a lot when even we are shocked. That was what happened this week when news reached us of Iran executing the first person implicated in the recent protests and of police shooting women protesters in the genitals and face ([link removed]) .
Protests have been happening since the death in “morality police” custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September. The NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) says that at least 458 people have been killed ([link removed]) in the protests since then.
The organisation also says that 11 people have now been sentenced to death by the Iranian authorities but their names are intentionally withheld while defendants have no access to their lawyers. This number includes Mohsen Shekari, just 23 years old, who was hanged on Thursday morning ([link removed]) after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of moharebeh (enmity against God), according to state media. He was accused of being a "rioter" who blocked a main road in Tehran and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete. We do not have any way to verify if these facts are correct, but an activist has commented that his conviction came after a "show trial without any due process". His execution, which has been tipped as the start of many, is a clear act of terror. The Iranian state want to instil fear in all those who continue to protest.
As for women being shot at, in many ways this news is not surprising - the protests have, after all, been about violence against women. Once again women's bodies are the battlefields. Unsurprising though does not make it any less horrific and we condemn in the most extreme terms violence directed towards protesters.
The week has also seen conflicting reports about the future of Iran’s morality police with some media reporting that the hated Garsht-e-Ershad morality police were to be abolished following an announcement from Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri. ([link removed]) Others ([link removed]) believe his words were misinterpreted and that guidance patrols, which monitor women’s wearing of the hijab, would continue.
Index has a long history of covering Iran. In 1974, just two years after we first started publishing, we devoted an entire issue to the country entitled Repression in Iran ([link removed]) . We were one of the first publications to openly denounce the Shah. Only of course what replaced him was equally awful and so our coverage did not end when the Shah was removed a few years later. A reading list ([link removed]) from our archive gives you a sense of how autocracy has governed Iran over the last half century.
Recently, we have been covering the internet shutdowns ([link removed]) as the authorities try to keep news of the protests spreading inside the country and also how women and girls are bearing the brunt of the protests ([link removed]) . And, without giving too much away, we had the privilege to sit down with exiled Iranian writer Masih Alinejad recently to talk to her about the protests for our winter magazine, which is due out in a few weeks.
The torrent of news coming from the country is heart-breaking but we must not become inured to it and forget these moments, like tears in rain.
** An insidious and unlegislated form of policing?
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On a very different note, this week we revisited drill music. For those who are unfamiliar, drill is a type of music in which rappers tend to speak about their lives, which can include gang warfare and drug use. It originated in the USA and has since become popular in London, with a drill track topping the charts for the first time in 2021 ([link removed]) .
The police here hate it. With several of the big artists being linked to real-life crime networks, they think it's a case of life imitating art and not the other way round. Turns out they have Meta on their side, and are working side-by-side to remove drill videos from social media platforms. The Metropolitan Police have made hundreds of requests to remove online content in the year to June 2022, all of which relate to drill music and no other genre. With drill music particularly popular among black and brown youth, this is dangerously close to systemic racism, believes barrister turned free speech activist Shereener Browne ([link removed]) .
** "I struggle with Kanye West being given a platform by anyone"
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"Every day there seems to be a new public controversy, with clear free speech elements, which dominates our public discourse," writes our CEO Ruth Anderson ([link removed]) , raising recent pronouncements by rapper Ye. "Each one typically leads to a discussion within Index, our professional staff debating not just whether we should make an intervention and what that could look like. But sometimes, more importantly, the team has the intellectual debate about where the lines on the right to freedom of speech fall. What are the rights and responsibilities we all have towards the societies we live in? Where is the line on incitement, on hate speech, on civility?"
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** Vote for your Tyrant of the Year 2022
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[link removed] has started in our annual Tyrant of the Year poll and there are already a couple of frontrunners, thanks to coverage of our poll in independent media around the world. This is your moment to decide on the authoritarian leader that you think has done their worst to oppress their opponents, through threats, detention, torture and worse. It's tough competition with some truly despicable despots - read here ([link removed]) about this genuinely awful bunch. Last year Erdogan won by quite a significant margin. Who will pick up the unwanted accolade this year? We'll announce the winner in this newsletter in early January. Don't forget to cast your vote now ([link removed]) .
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** From the archive
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** China's dark secret
May 2008
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As we mark Uyghur Genocide Recognition Day, take a moment to read this article about life in a Uyghur family during China's Great Cultural Revolution ([link removed]) by Alim Seytoff.
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