After China, India. The battle between state power and corporate power has taken a new turn in India, and at stake is the false mutual exclusivity between freedom of expression and freedom from fear.

The Indian Government has reached an agreement with BlackBerry manufacturers Research in Motion, allowing the state limited access to date from the mobile devices.

India’s concerns are not entirely out of place. Anyone who saw the harrowing documentary about the terrorist attacks carried out in Mumbai by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba on 26 Nov 2008 would have noticed the ease with which the terrorists communicated with their masterminds in Pakistan, using satellite phones. Their handlers were able to pass on information Indian broadcasters were providing — not always accurate — to the men on the ground.

No country would want to live through such an experience again, and India believes that BlackBerry’s enterprise server and messaging services are so well disguised, that its intelligence agencies cannot intercept the messages they want to monitor. India’s next targets are net-based phone systems -Skype and Google.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia too, have sought restrictions on BlackBerry. It is a fair question to ask if India, the world’s most populous country, wants to keep such company. But in making such demands, these countries are not alone.

The very seamlessness and instantaneity which links us with colleagues, friends and family around the world also links criminal gangs and terrorists. While not acknowledged openly, western intelligence agencies maintain surveillance over electronic communication. Counter-terrorism strategies require that. No politician wants to be caught saying he could have intercepted communication that led to a terrorist attack, but did not, out of concerns over privacy.

Here, the logical clash between the right to seek, receive, and impart information clashes with the right to privacy. And within that mix, add the state’s obligation to protect lives. Nowhere, in this equation, is there any clarity about the role of a company.

Companies do not sign or ratify human rights treaties; states do. Companies have an obligation to comply with the law; states have the obligation to ensure that the laws that they enact are consistent with the human rights standards adopted universally. It is odd to expect businesses to run foreign policy. While they can get it right — as Google does with China — they can get it spectacularly wrong, as when they interfere with legitimate government functions or end up being complicit with abuses others commit. An apt example is junior mining companies in conflict zones where state authority does not run.

It is hard to trust the state given its pathetic record in protecting individual liberties.

Today, India wants access to messages exchanged by terrorists. Tomorrow, it might want access to messages among NGOs, commercial rivals of state-owned companies, newspapers, indeed private individuals sharing material the politicians consider ‘sensitive’ or ‘pornographic’. India’s dismal record in protecting freedom of speech does not inspire confidence. Its constitution places many restrictions on freedom of expression, and permits anyone claiming offence to seek bans on this or that film, play, or book. Why, a mobile phone operator was sued because someone sent ethnic jokes about a community as a text message, and someone was offended. Indians have elevated the culture of taking offense into an art form. There is no guarantee that it won’t extend its tendency to censor to other areas which have nothing to do with security.

Ultimately, this requires an international solution, where countries adopt a liberal governance model that does not restrict free flow of information that includes commercial, academic, literary, and yes, even what some might consider repugnant or pornographic, except where human and not national security is threatened.

It is hard to trust governments; but it is more complicated to have Google, Skype or RIM deciding foreign policy.

From the Index on Censorship website.

Though a copy of the volume, titled ‘A Journey’, has made it to Free Word in the hands of a visitor to English PEN we haven’t had a chance to read it. If, like us, you are curious about its contents but probably won’t get a chance to digest all 624 pages properly until the weekend you might find these two links to the guardian website useful:

Julian Glover’s article on the biography and John Crace’s Digested Read condensing the whole book into just 818 words!

In the latest move on press censorship Iran has ruled that “Leaders of Sedition” is the only admissable name when referring to any member of the opposition movement in newspapers and magazines.

In a letter addressed to editors and news agencies throughout the country, Iran’s Ministry of Culture stated “The role of the media is to nurture calm in society and public opinion” and that reporting on the activities of defeated presidential candidates Moussavi and Karrubi as well as former president Khatami and printing photographs of them isand was officially banned. Any necessary reference to them must be made as “leaders of sedition”, the label “bestowed” on them by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Khamenei and Iran’s president Ahmadinejad are both included in Reporters Witohout Borders’ list of “Predators of Press Freedom” and this ruling that was stamped “Urgent” and “Top Secret” is an open declaration of censorship, bypassing Iran’s constitution. In practical terms the ruling promotes little adjustment, the press and authorities forever play a game of hide in seek, with more than 20 newpapers shut down in the past year, journalists are forced to censor themselves to remain afloat. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimates that 300 journalists are currently unemployed in Iran since last year’s government crackdown and there is a reluctance to employ anyone who has previously published reports or opinion in support of the Green Movement.

Earlier this year CPJ reported that a third of the world’s jailed journalists are in Iran, with 170 arrested since June 2009 and 37 still in prison today. The Ministry of Culture’s Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance most recently suspended Asia newspaper and revoked the licences of Sepidar and Parastoo weeklies “for publishing images contrary to public virtue”.

Moussavi responded with the following in an interview published online yesterday: “They’ve interfered with our national media turning it into a one-sided, division demolishing media. They want to pollute the atmosphere created by the green movement with their viruses and deprive us of this beautiful window that has opened, but this conspiracy will have the opposite end result.”

From the Index on Censorship website

Régis Iglesias Ramírez, poet and activist for the pro-democracy Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and the Varela Project, was released on 17 August 2010 and travelled immediately to Spain with his family, arriving the next day. Two other dissidents, another MCL member and a doctor, were reportedly released and exiled at the same time.

The previous writer to be freed was José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, freelance journalist (independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro and CubaNet), librarian (director of Sebastián Arcos Bergnes library) and pro-democracy activist, who arrived in Spain on 23 July. Izquierdo reportedly intends to resettle with his family in Chile, which has offered him political asylum.

Press reports indicate that the release of Iglesias and the two other activists marks the beginning of a second phase of releases, following the freeing of 11 journalists between 12 and 22 July. Three more imprisoned journalists are reportedly due to be sent to Spain in the coming days; two Honorary Members of English PEN Fabio Prieto Llorente and Juan Adolfo Fernández Sainz, and journalist Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta.

Background

Under a deal brokered by the Catholic Church and the Spanish foreign ministry and announced in July, the Cuban government has reportedly agreed to release all 52 dissidents imprisoned since the March 2003 crackdown. However, it is now thought that the government is ready to go further and may release all of the country’s Cuba’s political prisoners, estimated to number around 150 in total.

One of the conditions of the prisoners’ release is apparently that they agree to be exiled to Spain, although they will be free to move elsewhere thereafter. Both the USA and Chile have reportedly offered to take in the dissidents. The remaining detainees are due to be released over the next three to four months. However, some are reportedly refusing to leave Cuba; it is still not clear what will happen in these cases.

The Cuban government has not explained why it has agreed to the releases. However, the regime has come under increasing pressure from the international community following the 23 February death of imprisoned dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo after an 85-day hunger strike for better prison conditions, harassment of the dissident group ‘Ladies in White’ during protests in March and April, and reports in early July that the journalist Guillermo Fariñas who went on hunger strike following Zapata’s death was himself in danger of dying. Fariñas reportedly called off his hunger strike after the releases were announced. However, Zapata Tamayo’s mother has reportedly suffered repeated harassment during the regular marches she carries out in memory of her late son.

Twenty-two of the 52 Cuban dissidents to be released are writers, independent journalists and librarians whose cases have been followed by International PEN. Following the release of the 12 writers since 12 July, a total of 13 other writers remain in jail, 10 of whom have also been held since March 2003.

Details of the two most recently released writers:

Régis IGLESIAS RAMÍREZ: poet, writer and member of the pro-democracy Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement) and Varela Project. Date of birth: 18 September 1969. Sentence: 18 years. Charge: Article 91. Publications: Two volumes of poetry written while in prison: Historias gentiles antes de la Resurrección (Aduana Vieja, Cádiz, 2004) and Memorias de otoño (Editorial Hispano Cubana, Spain, 2010). Honorary Member: New Zealand PEN.

José Ubaldo IZQUIERDO HERNÁNDEZ: freelance journalist (independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro and CubaNet), librarian (director of Sebastián Arcos Bergnes library) and pro-democracy activist. Date of birth: 6 November 1965. Sentence: 16 years. Charge: Article 91.

Useful links

• Report on release of José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Click Here. (English Only)
• Report by the BBC on the new lives in Spain of some of the journalists released in July, including José Luis García Paneque, Julio César Galvez, Ricardo González, Normando González Hernández, Mijail Bárzaga and Léster González Click here.(Spanish only)

Please send appeals:

• Welcoming the release of two more writers, Régis Iglesias Ramírez and José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, as well as the Cuban government’s reported intention to release the other writers who have been imprisoned since March 2003;

• However, expressing concern that the writers have apparently been obliged to leave Cuba as a precondition of their release;

• Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the 13 writers, journalists and librarians still held in violation of their right to freedom of expression, 10 of whom have been imprisoned since 2003.

Appeals to:

Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: 53 7 8333085 (via Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Su Excelencia/Your Excellency

Interior Minister
General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba
Fax: 53 7 8333085 (via Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
1 2127791697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Señor Ministro / Dear Minister

We recommend that you send copies of your appeal letters to the Cuban Embassy in London:

His Excellency Renee Juan Mujica Cantelar
Cuban Embassy
167 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6PA

Email:embacuba@cubaldn.com
Fax: 020 7836 2602

For further details contact Tamsin Mitchell at International PEN: tamsin.mitchell@internationalpen.org.uk

Responding to cuts

There’s no point pretending libraries will escape cuts. We are very concerned about the threats to the network and its crucial work to support reading. As councils reshape library services, we urge them to factor in the entrepreneurial, development staff capacity needed to engage with the local community.

We’ll be exploring how we can help libraries work more efficiently. One of our trustees Nicky Parker is Head of Transformation in Manchester City Council. In a recent speech at the Remodelling Libraries conference she said “The Reading Agency is an important partner in every UK library authority. The Reading Agency is innovating and modeling new ways of working that is really making a difference to people’s lives. It’s training the library workforce, helping library services become more efficient by encouraging joint procurement and enabling major partnerships with stakeholders like the BBC and publishers.

“I hope The Reading Agency will continue to test the boundaries as we push library development and efficiency work and innovation nationally. These are the very things that encouraged me to become a Trustee in the first place. ”

Library Support Programme

The mist is clearing in terms of the government’s intentions on library policy. Various speeches about the Big Society have referenced libraries as potentially important players. Ed Vaizey, the DCMS Minister with responsibility for libraries, had hoped to create a Library Development Agency but there is no funding for this. Instead there will be a library support programme led by MLA and the Local Government Association.

We were delighted that Ed Vaizey said that he would like to involve The Reading Agency in this. We think we have much to offer as a model for helping libraries make more impact despite diminishing resources. We look forward to injecting our innovative approaches, and to finding the right way to support this important work.

It was great to hear Ed speaking warmly about our work at two July events, praising “the really impressive Summer Reading Challenge” and “absolutely fantastic Reading Partners initiative showing how libraries and publishers can enhance each others’ work.”

The image shows Ed Vaizey talking to TV personality Hardeep Singh Kohli at a Reading Agency event at Free Word.

The two-day conference will feature high-level discussions and debates focusing on how transparency and free flow of information can play a vital role in the fight against poverty and the realisation of the MDGs.

Throughout the conference, delegates and ARTICLE 19 will be issuing updates via twitter and a dedicated website. To follow developments please visit www.right2info-mdgs.org or follow us on twitter.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
• For more information please contact: Oliver Spencer, oliver@article19.org, +44 20 7324 2507

On 19 August, the Azerbaijani Supreme Court considered the case of imprisoned bloggers and youth activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade. In its decision, the Court upheld the lower courts’ rulings, which convicted Milli and Hajizade of hooliganism and sentenced them to two and a half years and two years of imprisonment respectively. The two were arrested on 8 July 2009 after appealing to police as victims of an assault following an incident in which they were attacked in a restaurant.

“Milli and Hajizade are clearly in prison for exercising their right to freedom of expression“, comments ARTICLE 19 Executive Director Agnès Callamard. “Yesterday’s ruling demonstrates the lack of independence of the Azerbaijani judiciary.”

Milli and Hajizade’s lawyers plan to apply to the European Court of Human Rights now that the domestic appeals process has been exhausted. The OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media and the Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights have both expressed concern regarding Milli and Hajizade’s imprisonment, noting that the move seemed to be an attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to silence critical voices.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the Azerbaijani government to release Milli and Hajizade and others currently imprisoned for expressing critical opinions, including Realniy Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan newspaper editor-in-chief Eynulla Fatullayev and Yeni Fikir youth movement leader Ruslan Bashirli. ARTICLE 19 further calls on the Azerbaijani government to cease its imprisonment of persons for political reasons, and to fully comply with its international commitments to freedom of expression.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• For more information, please contact:
Rebecca Vincent
rebecca@article19.org
+44 20 7324 2500

Submissions for the 2011 Prize – which can be novels or single author short story collections – are now being accepted and will close on 30 September 2010

A longlist will be announced in March 2011, followed by the shortlist in April. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Central London in May.

Click here to download the entry form (.pdf 42Kb)

Click here to download the terms and conditions (.pdf 46Kb)

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was first awarded in 1990 to Orhan Pamuk and translator Victoria Holbrook for The White Castle. The Prize ran until 1995 and was then revived in 2000 with the support of Arts Council England, who continue to fund the award. Earlier this year, the 2010 prize was won by Phillippe Claudel and translator John Cullen for Brodeck’s Report

Booktrust have taken over the administration of the Prize and are well placed to celebrate and broaden readers’ awareness of foreign fiction having launched the Translated Fiction website in 2007. The site provides a wealth of information about translated fiction, from books and authors to publishers and events. Booktrust manages and promotes a wide range of prizes, awards and campaigns to celebrate excellence in contemporary literature for all ages.

Click here to download the press release (.pdf 53Kb)

Prize administration

For prize information, please contact the prizes team on 020 8516 2972 or prizes@booktrust.org.uk

For press-related queries about the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, please contact the press team on 020 8875 4583 or press@booktrust.org.uk

The visit, petitioned for by ARTICLE 19 alongside a collective of national and international organisations, follows months of delays by Mexico’s government in effectively tackling the worsening situation. In spite of numerous statements and assurances, attacks against journalists have continued to increase and impunity has become the standard response.

August has been mired by several violent attacks on the media. At the beginning of the month, four journalists were kidnapped following their exposé of a corrupt penitentiary. Two were later liberated following an intense public outcry and the others rescued by federal police. Last week saw yet another brutal attack against a media outlet and there is no sign of a government response.

“The joint visit of the Special Mandates comes at a crucial time for Mexico” explained Dario Ramirez, Director of the Mexico and Central America Office of ARTICLE 19. “We hope their visit will induce the State to provide the answers that have been constantly denied to victims and their relatives.”

ARTICLE 19 recommends that the Special Mandates address the following specific issues, pertaining to the protection of freedom of expression, during their mission:

• Protection: The urgent need to implement a policy to prevent aggressions against journalists, including the creation of a Protection Committee to provide emergency measures in a timely and diligent manner to journalists at risk.

• Impunity: All cases of aggression should be investigated fully; currently the majority of incidents fail to reach a Court of Law.

• Legal Reforms: Pending reforms, requesting all cases of aggressions against journalists are investigated at the federal level, should be passed immediately. In addition the Especial Prosecutor Office responsible for investigating aggressions must be strengthened.

• New Media Law: Crucially, a new media law is needed to effectively promote and protect diversity in all its forms and ensure a pluralism of voices.

• Defamation: A total of 16 local legal frameworks, out of 32, still punish defamation with jail. The full decriminalisation of defamation in Mexico must be made a priority.

ARTICLE 19 hopes that the Special Mandates will engage with these critical issues and that the Mexican government will respond quickly, and effectively, to the deteriorating situation.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• For more information please contact:
Ricardo Gónzález
ricardo@article19.org
+52 55 10546500

• ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech

http://www.article19.org/

The cause of death of Ardiansyah Matra’is, a journalist working in Papua, remains unknown since his naked body was found in the river Gudang Arand in Merauke on 30 July, with his arm tied to a tree, after going missing for two days. Papuan police said that the victim’s family have been reluctant to give permission for an autopsy.

Matra’is was a stringer for the national television broadcaster Anteve, before joining local broadcaster Merauke TV. He had received death threats in the days before his disappearance, and was allegedly kidnapped last year by soldiers who threatened to kill his family after he wrote a series of articles for Jubi magazine about illegal logging by local military officers.

Other journalists in Papua received a series of threats by SMS in the run-up to the 8 August election for district head in Merauke. In one incident, Lala, a reporter with Bintang Papua, received a bloodstained letter which read: “Remember, we’re not playing around with our threats. We know that the police are looking for the perpetrators. Sorry, we’re not dawdling. You die!” She has since been taken into protective custody by the police.

On 26 July, environmental journalist Muhammad Syaifullah was found dead in his home in Balikpapan, Borneo. Syaifullah was the Borneo bureau chief of Kompas, Indonesia’s biggest daily newspaper, and reported extensively on illegal logging and environmental issues relating to coal mining. Local journalists believe that Syaifullah - who was found frothing at his mouth - was poisoned, casting doubt on the autopsy report which attributed the cause of death to a brain haemorrhage as a result of diabetes and hypertension.

These cases are evidence of the growing risks faced by journalists when reporting on environmental degradation and local politics in Indonesia, with threats escalating prior to local elections. In the last 12 months, the Alliance for Indonesian Journalists (AJI) documented 40 cases of violence against journalists with 12 instances of brutal assault in a recent report.

The protection of the free flow of information and public debate is fundamental to the realisation of meaningful democracy and to the mitigation of environmental impacts. ARTICLE 19 calls for the Indonesian government to conduct thorough and impartial investigations into these attacks on journalists and to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice.

“Journalists must be able to operate in a safe environment free from intimidation,” says Dr Agnès Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director. “The efforts to combat the impact of climate change will be significantly undermined should such violent acts against journalists go unpunished.”

In the report Changing the Climate for Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information, published in December last year, ARTICLE 19 has indicated that climate change debates and interventions have failed so far to fully integrate and guarantee freedom of expression, and that journalists across the world have been threatened, harassed or prosecuted by authorities or companies, and risked their lives to cover environmental degradation.
ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• For more information please contact:
Amy Sim
Senior Programme Officer for Asia
ARTICLE 19
amy@article19.org
+44 207 324 2500

• To view the ARTICLE 19 report Changing the Climate for Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information click here.