Feed
donate 
Articles published in Eurozine
Secret trials
Drug study secrecy puts lives at risk
Studies to test drugs are too often never made public, putting lives at risk. All results from medical trials need to be released so that evidence-based policy making replaces policy-based evidence making, writes Deborah Cohen of the British Medical Journal. [more]
Art or vandalism?
Where the Mubarak regime was once the target of political graffiti in Cairo, now it is the interim council. But when there's little to distinguish graffiti from burning flags, veteran oppositionist Yasmine El Rashidi is in two minds about its artistic value. [more]
Age of insecurity
Cooperation between the communications industry and governments creates unprecedented opportunities for surveillance. Lets not repeat the mistakes of the past and allow companies to assume that users are uninterested in what happens to their data, urge Gus Hosein and Eric King. [more]
Egypt: Days of anger
Egypt has been building up to a showdown with the regime for over a decade, writes Salwa Ismail. To appreciate the magnitude of the revolution, one needs to consider the kind of restrictions that have long been imposed on any expression of opposition. [more]
Reluctant heroes
"The first call is the one you never forget." International recognition offers a degree of protection to investigative reporters on the receiving end of death threats, writes Lydia Cacho. However being in the limelight presents a new set of dilemmas. [more]
Bring music, bring life
Daniel Barenboim talks about why the taboo on performing Wagner has no place in Israel today, and why openness towards the other, the founding principle of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, continues to be relevant across the Middle East. [more]
Russia's rules of engagement
"The fact that peole who were working freely in the 1990s now work in a way that is no longer free is the result of fear." Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of independent Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, tells Maria Eismont about dealing with death threats, censorship and the Kremlin. [more]
Cyber wars
The "next generation" controls with which authorities aim to manage the Internet mark a shift from heavy-handed filtering to sophisticated multi-pronged methods. Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski on the attempt to normalize the exercise of power in cyberspace. [more]
See no evil
"They have turned my book into another chapter of this fruitless debate." Jytte Klausen talks to "Index on Censorship" about the controversial decision of Yale University Press to publish her book on the Danish cartoon crisis without reproductions of the cartoons themselves. [more]
Table talk
"It is an unnatural but positive development when democracy trains people to believe that, overall, it is better to let the bastard speak." Former Solidarity actvist and journalist Konstanty Gebert on censorship post-'89 and anti-Semitism in Poland today. [more]
In God's name
A new UN proposal condemning "defamation of religion" cements oppressive governments' control of free speech while still sounding compatible with the advanced multiculturalism of liberal democracies, writes Miklós Haraszti. [more]
Pretty babies
When it comes to representing children, art and law are on a collision course, writes Anne Higonnet, and photographers are in the dock. "If it is the objectification of children that shocks us about child pornography, then let us consider cute," she proposes. [more]
Shadow of the fatwa
Salman Rushdie's critics lost the battle but they won the war against free speech, writes Kenan Malik. The argument at the heart of the anti-Rushdie case - that it is morally unacceptable to cause offence to other cultures - is now widely accepted. [more]
Seeds of spring
A rebellion against censorship
When Ivan Klima and fellow writers spoke out against censorship in Czechoslovakia at the 1967 Writers' Congress, the literary weekly "Literární noviny" was taken out of the hands of the writers union and its editorial board dismissed. Yet the seed was sown for the Prague Spring of 1968. [more]
Murder in Mexico
Chronicle of a massacre
Sent to Mexico City in 1968 to cover the Olympics, sports journalist Brian Glanville instead found himself reporting on the anti-government demonstrations at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. He recalls how, despite the ensuing massacre, indifference reigned at the Olympic Village. [more]
Seeds of resistance
While the resistance in Tibet has drawn the most attention, two other groups are making life uncomfortable for the Chinese government: dispossessed landowners and environmentalists. Popular protest is set to dominate the agenda beyond the Olympic Games, writes He Qinglian. [more]
Towns without censorship
Just as Russia's economic growth has obviated talk of democracy, the media's financial successes leave no place for ethical debate. Market imperatives do the censors' work for them; nevertheless, counter-examples exist, writes Maria Eismont. [more]
They know where you are
"It is almost as though freedom and flexibility is being designed out of the Internet, where previously they were essential." Gus Hosein of Privacy International on how the Internet is turning into a data goldmine for governments that want to keep track of their citizens. [more]
Why they killed Hrant Dink
Following the protests at the murder of Hrant Dink, observers hoped that prime minister Tayyip Erdogan would be forced to take action. That nothing happened ought to be no surprise, writes Maureen Freely. [more]
The edge of the volcano
Forced labour is widespread in Europe. But until policy makers recognize the need to manage the demand for migrant workers, there will continue to be a market for those prepared to risk exploitation. [more]
The retreat of reason
"Set up a straw man, then knock it down with a few killer facts and a dose of common sense." On the anti-PC campaign in the rightwing British press and how it plays into the hands of the far-Right. [more]
Surfing the dragon
Can China ever break out of the narrative in which it has bound itself? Can there be peaceful change and equal space for political and economic freedom? [more]
Cities of migration
How do outsiders negotiate the new urban space in which they arrive? How do they make it their own? [more]
Parallel lives
We may live in a multicultural society, but we need a more positive approach to breaking down segregation. [more]
All history is the history of migration
Throughout history, the ambivalent presence of the migrant Other has aroused extremes of sentiment within the host community. [more]
Multiculturalism: A failed experiment?
Commonality is all very well but it must work both ways: three responses to Ted Cantle's re-evaluation of nationality, citizenship, and community. [more]
Identities and the subversion of borders
The British-born Ghanaian travelled to his parents' homeland to find an answer to the familiar question: "Where are you from?" But far from getting away from the myth of European superiority that still resonated in the Britain of Eshun's youth, he found himself at its core. [more]
And now for something completely different?
Polish journalists are adept at self-censorship. Not that they would call it that; more a question of not washing dirty linen in Euro-waters and keeping up the self-image. [more]
La France: Love it or leave it
In the past year, France has seen a populist backlash often tolerated, if not supported by the media. But lately the media has demonstrated a growing awareness of the scale of racial discrimination in France and its role in reflecting diversity. [more]
Fourth arm of the state
Romania's media is a willing partner in the perpetuation of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. [more]
Great expectations
Nowhere has Al-Jazeera's independent reporting infuriated governments more than in the Arab world. But despite the channel's success in changing the media landscape in the region, some blame it for staying out of politics. [more]
Rites, rituals, and cemeteries
Ancient rituals, pagan and Christian, continue in the contaminated regions of Belarus. [more]
Children of Chernobyl
Now twenty years old, children born on the day of the catastrophe build their future. [more]
The big lie
The secret Chernobyl documents
In 1990, journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya came across secret documents about the Chernobyl catastrophe that revealed a massive cover-up operation and a calculated policy of disinformation. It has taken twenty years for the truth of the Chernobyl disaster to come to light, and even now the full extent of the consequences remains uncertain. [more]
A new map of censorship
Is freedom of speech a universal human right? Ronald Dworkin defends a principle that should allow no compromise. [more]
Getting used to offence
Should people in a multi-cultural society be protected from offence and insult simply because they demand it in the name of religion? A commentary on the British debate. [more]
Dictatorship of law
Many Russians identify democracy with an insecure and troubled existence, and hanker after the securities of the past. Active civil society is all but absent under Vladimir Putin's "dictatorship of law". [more]
Playing the trump card
The current confusion over freedom of speech is the result of liberalism's persistence in seeing a "right" as something to be claimed rather than accorded. [more]
Schmucks and miniskirts
To restrict freedom of expression to mollify Islamic extremists is patronizing and offensive to moderate Muslims, according to Salil Tripathi. [more]
Pictures, provocation, and free expression
The decision by some European newspapers to reprint the Mohammed cartoons smacked of arrogance and moral posturing, says the editor of Granta. [more]
Regulation, reponsibility, and the case against censorship
Is there ever a time and a place for censorship? Not if the media understands its responsibilities, argues the BBC's head of news. [more]
Manifesto for the dawn of communism
Saints, scriptures, and a diasporic faithful: Soviet Communism is just getting started, prophesies Zinovy Zinik from the bar of the Museum Tavern in London. [more]
Where have all the babushkas gone?
The changing shape of Russian women says more about post-Soviet society than most conventional indicators. [more]
Say what you think
It is both inevitable and important that people offend the sensibilities of others, says Kenan Malik. Without that, society would be less progressive and alive. [more]
The forgetting museum
It seems self-evident that commemoration averts recurrence of that which is being commemorated. Yet an obsession with memory blinds us to the abuses of memory and to the uses of forgetting. [more]
Spirallling out of control
The widening net cast by rapidly expanding DNA databases catches the innocent with the guilty, and scoops up whole families without their knowledge or consent. [more]
The very model of a modern IGO
But does the OSCE live up to its self-proclaimed mandate as an exceptional inter-governmental organization? [more]
Unaccountable Europe
Three significant pieces of legislation suggest Europe is "sleepwalking into a surveillance society". [more]
Three cheers for international cooperation
The US has often looked to Europe as a role model for how civil liberties should be protected. But three examples show that the Wild West legal regime is rubbing off on Europe. [more]
The thin end of the cooperation wedge
The practice of "rendition", whereby individuals suspected of having links to terrorism are extradited to countries that practise torture, is one of the darkest aspects of international cooperation. [more]
Walking on the dark side
Whenever the G8 meets, there is some expectation that tensions will flare between the US and Russia on issues dealing with Iraq or Iran. But we are never in any doubt that each summit will finish with another declaration on surveillance of travel and communications, or the standardization of identity documents. [more]
The genie in the information bottle
The US smuggles its own intellectual property protection standards into trade agreements with developing nations. But resistance is gathering. [more]
The irresistible rise of a right
In the past ten years there has been a global movement towards freedom of information at national levels. Now international organizations must subject themselves to the same standards they demand of others. [more]
The complete ID primer
In the face of strong resistance, the British government is introducing a far-reaching ID card. Other countries' experiences of similar systems could be instructive. [more]
Summitry and strategies
Much is at stake in the final meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society, but stakeholders don't see eye to eye. [more]
Is the tide of German memory turning?
In Germany, it has now become possible to acknowledge the German victims of WWII. This is not historical revisionism, but a movement to subsume the memory of National Socialism under the general memory of crimes against humanity committed in the twentieth century. [more]
Balancing the books
Sixty years and more since the end of WWII, eastern European experiences of subjugation are often glossed over. This creates misunderstandings that could be avoided by an awareness of a common European history. Then, solidarity rather than national prejudice would motivate public opinion on matters of European politics. [more]
A one-sided wall
Jerusalem
On the political and psychological effects of the Israeli-built security fence. [more]
A strange kind of peace
Belfast
Protestants and Catholics are not ready to live side by side. [more]
Caught in the matrix
Iraq: The gulf between the political elite and the rest of us. [more]
Necessary lies
Fabricated identities have become a valuable commodity for asylum seekers for whom credibility is the bottom line. Meanwhile, the media adds to the climate of disinformation. [more]
No laughing matter
A satirical look at the South African government's treatment of Aids. [more]
Old wine in new barrels
US aid to Africa has less to do with combating Aids than with securing new and safer supplies of oil. [more]
Aids in Russia
Ignorance, exclusion and denial
The Russian government remains quiet on the country's Aids epidemic. [more]
Forging the social contract
The rule of law is no substitute for the bonds of friendship. [more]
Who drives the agenda?
Has the media fatally undermined the right to a fair trial for every defendant? [more]
Free expression
More equal than others
Few rights successfully challenge the supremacy of the right to free expression. In law that is, governments are another matter. [more]
Legal evil
The legal precedent of the Eichmann trial: from rights of the accused to victims' rights. [more]
A nation's narrative
Both the virtues and dangers of patriotism depend on how the story is told. [more]
Strangers know us best
Why are the British so careless with "Britishness"?
The careless British pose a greater threat to Britishness than any number of willing migrants to their shores. [more]
The voice of hate
The rise and rise of anti-Semitism
Harold Evans on the dangerous ways in which Arab anti-Semitism takes hold in the everyday life of our (mis)information age. [more]
Politics into Economics don't go
Akash Kapur on the pitfalls and politics of diasporic writing. [more]
Control by Other Means
A Matter of Image: Putin and the Media
The last of the media barons has fallen to President Putin's need to control his image and determine the news agenda. [more]
Is this the new fascism?
The apathy and incoherence of the left are letting the Italian right have it all their own way and there are disastrous consequences in the offing, says Italy's leading playwright. [more]
Cleaning up
"Sanitisation" in Chechnya
Anna Politkovskaya was the journalist to have done most to uncover the Kremlin's dirty war in Chechnya. An article published in Index on Censorship in 2002 is exemplary of the reporting that earned her a reputation for fearlessness and ultimately cost her her life. [more]
Goodbye Solidarity
... and Welcome to Poland's New Breed Democrats
Irena Maryniak describes Poland's new breed of democrats as europhobic, catholic-backed, warm and xenophobic, glowing from their unexpected triumph at the polls. [more]
Losing Friends and Influencing People
The Media after 11 September
What happened to the media debate on the threats to civil liberties, the right of dissent, freedom of expression and other legal rights since 11 September? [more]
The Patriotic Syndrome
Florence Amalou talks to Freimut Duve
The OSCE representative for free expression critices the US media in the wake of the 11 September attacks and exposes the attacks on freedom in Chechnya. He also expresses his disquiet on the media landscape in Silvo Berlusconi's Italy. [more]
Few Tongues, Many Voices?
The Media and European Identity
Perhaps even greater media concentration can save Europe from homogenised cultural globalisation. [more]
The Most Dangerous Place
Journalists in the Ukraine
Last year, Ukraine, along with Russia, became the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to work. [more]
Forging Peace
Balkan media, particularly the Serbian press, were actively engaged in forging war in the region. Now they have to learn a new role. [more]
Inside Story
Austrian Politics and Media
International and domestic perceptions of Jörg Haider and his Freedom Party differ sharply. A leading Austrian journalist urges a closer look at the record of previous governments and points to the unique degree of media concentration as a problem that has a history. [more]
Eurokid and Colonel Blimp
National Identity goes far deeper than a European one and, if we want to avoid a nationalist backlash, we should learn to live with that reality, writes Norman Stone. [more]
Focal points click for more 
Social media 
