The climate for media and free speech in India is in a dangerous place. The country is already ranked 161 out of 180 countries in the press freedom index, but the actions of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government in the past few weeks have shown how many more clampdowns await. Desperately in need of distraction tactics – given the many failures in governance, tackling inflation or delivering jobs – the regime is after a fresh dose of sound and fury against political opponents. And so a decade-old case has been…
Tag: Freedom of speech
‘We don’t feel safe here’: Hongkongers in UK fear long reach of Chinese government
Ah Man*, 28, was forced to leave Hong Kong at the end of 2020 after being arrested at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when millions took to the streets in defiance of the growing influence of Beijing. But the UK has felt anything but a safe haven for the former Hongkonger after a string of incidents involving Chinese activists. In 2021, pro-democracy campaigners were reportedly attacked in Chinatown, central London; again in 2022 outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester; and once more this summer in Southampton. “Of course there…
Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong mogul, activist … and now a prisoner for 1,000 days
It was not the first time in his long and eventful career that media mogul Jimmy Lai became the story, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it was certainly the most dramatic. On 10 August 2020, about 200 police officers frogmarched 72-year-old Lai out of the offices of his embattled newspaper, Apple Daily, as they conducted a raid on the publication, which had vigorously supported Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. More than 10,000 people tuned in to watch as the newspaper’s reporters defied police warnings and streamed the scene live…
China’s manipulation of media threatens global freedoms, says US report
China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, according to a new report from the US state department, which warned the trend could lead to a “sharp contraction” of global freedom of expression. The report released on Thursday found that Beijing had spent billions of dollars annually on information manipulation efforts, including by acquiring stakes in foreign media through “public and non-public means”, sponsoring online influencers and securing distribution agreements that promote unlabelled Chinese government content. The Chinese embassy in Washington did…
The London art student whose Chinese political slogan mural caused a storm
When Wang Hanzheng, a Chinese student at the Royal College of Art, attended a graduate show in a warehouse on Brick Lane in east London in July, he found the space crowded, unimaginative and unfit for presenting art. It was with this in mind that at 11pm one night earlier this month Wang and a team of 22 others painted a Chinese political slogan in bold red characters along a nearby wall stretching nearly 100 metres. The artwork – which spelled out the Chinese government’s “socialist core values”, including the…
Chinese political slogans spark graffiti free-for-all on east London wall
It began with a group of artists and a propaganda slogan: 24 Chinese characters painted in bold red, stretching nearly 100 metres along Brick Lane in London’s East End. But over the weekend, the Chinese government slogan promoting – ironically or not – the country’s “socialist core values” was swiftly transformed into a forum scrutinising Xi Jinping’s communist rule after garnering attention on social media. Within hours of appearing on Saturday, the slogan was overlaid with references to the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and phrases: “Free Taiwan”, “Free…
Hong Kong: fifth person arrested for allegedly supporting overseas pro-democracy activists
Hong Kong police have arrested a fifth person accused of supporting overseas activists who allegedly endangered national security, in a further expansion of a government crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents. Police detained a 24-year-old man at the city’s airport on Thursday, a day after four other people were arrested for allegedly using companies, social media and mobile applications to receive funds for the overseas activists. “Investigation revealed that the arrested person was suspected of having connection with the group of persons arrested yesterday,” police said in a statement relating to the…
The Guardian view on Hong Kong’s pursuit of exiles: these bounties should backfire | Editorial
Unless the forces of history conspire in their favour, the fate of most exiled dissidents is a slow fade into obscurity. However admirable their cause or brilliant their tactics, it is hard to maintain the world’s interest and support as time passes. Hong Kong’s exiles are conscious of this problem. But it is Hong Kong’s government which has catapulted them back into the spotlight, by placing a bounty of 1m Hong Kong dollars each – around £100,000 – on eight activists. Three of them – Nathan Law, Finn Lau and…
Hong Kong issues arrest warrants for eight overseas democracy activists
Hong Kong police have issued arrest warrants for eight overseas activists, accusing them of contravening the city’s national security law and offering a reward of HK$1m (£100,700) per person. Supt Steve Li Kwai-wah, a police officer, told a press conference on Monday that Nathan Law, Anna Kwok, Finn Lau, Dennis Kwok, Ted Hui, Kevin Yam, Mung Siu-tat and Yuan Gong-yi, high-profile pro-democracy activists, former lawmakers and legal scholars, “have encouraged sanctions … to destroy Hong Kong”, according to Reuters. The eight, who are based in various places including the UK…
Blocked, censored, jailed or laid off: why it’s never been harder to be a journalist
Taisia Bekbulatova, Russia In December 2021, I was declared a “foreign agent” by Russia’s justice ministry. I now have to declare this status on every post, even on Instagram selfies. I refuse to comply. As a result, I could face criminal charges in Russia at any moment. After the Ukraine war began, I had to evacuate the editorial team of my news website, Holod, from Russia because even writing the word “war” became illegal, and sharing unapproved information risked up to 15 years in prison. It’s difficult for me to…