Knowledge and news about Artistic Freedom of Expression

Russia: Request for parole from Pussy Riot member rejected in court
Published April 30, 2013 - No Comments
A court in the Russian region of Mordovia has denied a request for parole from 23-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, mother of a five-year-old and one of two jailed members of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot, reported Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty with quotes from Interfax, AFP, ...
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Lebanon: Award-winning film banned for being shot in Israel
Published April 30, 2013 - No Comments
Lebanese authorities have banned the award-winning film ‘The Attack’ from cinemas in the country because it was partly shot in Tel Aviv using Israeli actors. “I regret to inform you that the Interior Minister of Lebanon, Minister (Marwan) Charbel, has decided to punish us and the fil ...
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Pakistan: Online music video banned by Telecommunication Authority
Published April 30, 2013 - No Comments
“They are helping us by making this video controversial,” Beygairat Brigade’s lead singer Ali Aftab Saeed said to Pakistan’s The Express Tribune, after the band’s online music video ‘Dhinak Dhinak’ was banned by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Beygairat Brigade put out ...
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UN report on the right to artistic expression and creation
Published April 29, 2013 - One Comment
A 25-pages report on the right to artistic expression and creation is now available in all UN languages. “This is the first time such a comprehensive study is carried out. Unfortunately artists all over the world are trapped between political, religious, cultural and economic interests,� ...
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Algeria: Singer prosecuted for song which mocks police
Published April 29, 2013 - No Comments
The young Algerian raï singer Cheb Fayçal appeared in court before the Attorney General in Oran on 25 April 2013, and the public prosecutor requested six months imprisonment. The verdict will be delivered on 2 May. The 29-year-old singer is prosecuted for having performed a song that pok ...
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Uzbekistan: Writer released after over 14 years in prison
Published April 23, 2013 - No Comments
The award-winning Uzbek writer Mamadali Makhmudov has finally been released after over 14 years in prison, reported PEN International on 23 April 2013. In the late evening of 19 April 2013, Mamadali Makhmudov walked out of prison and met his five grand-children for the first time. His wife ...
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Egypt: Novelist prosecuted for blasphemy
Published April 17, 2013 - No Comments
The prominent Egyptian novelist Youssef Zeidan, author of the bestselling book ‘Azazil’, stands trial for blasphemy and contempt of Islam, Christianity and Judaism because of his book ‘The Arabic Theology’. Zeidan appeared in front of the High State Security Prosecutor in mid-Feb ...
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Cameroon: Abducted filmmaker found with a finger cut
Published April 11, 2013 - No Comments
On 3 April 2013, the young filmmaker Richard Djimeli was found lying in the bush in the Mendong neighbourhood in the capital Yaoundé. One of his fingers had been cut. The kidnapping of Richard Fouofie Djimeli (also called Richard Djiff), a young film maker and multitalented artist, sent s ...
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In-depth article collection: ‘All that is banned is desired’
Published March 25, 2013 - No Comments
A series of commissioned in-depth articles produced for artsfreedom.org to provide an overview of violations of artistic freedom of expression in certain countries, and to feature stories as well as interviews with artists, who have been persecuted or experienced that their art works were ...
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Download and distribute the conference report
Published March 25, 2013 - 2 Comments
Written by Robin Denselow, a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who reports for The Guardian, BBC tv and radio, this report is a catching, touching and enlightening publication about the current state of freedom of expression among artists around the world. It reflects on the nume ...
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Harstad in Norway: First ever safe haven city for persecuted musicians
Published February 28, 2013 - No Comments
On Thursday 14 February 2013 at the Nordic music industry conference by:Larm in Oslo, the Norwegian Musicians’ Union presented their new project SafeMuse – and the first ever ‘safe haven city’ within the field of music: Harstad. Imagine that the police would come to the door of the ...
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India: Major media attention on lack of artistic freedom of speech
Published February 21, 2013 - No Comments
India has been enthralled in what Salman Rushdie called a ‘cultural emergency’, with writers and artists harassed for opinions. “In India today, it seems, free speech is itself an atrocity,” wrote Suketu Mehta in New York Times on 5 February 2013: “Writers and artists of all kind ...
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Freemuse Award to Festival au Désert in Mali
Published February 6, 2013 - No Comments
“The Freemuse Award 2013 is given to ‘Festival au Désert’, which in spite of extreme Islamists’ attempts to silence all music in Mali, defends freedom of musical expression and struggles to continue keeping music alive in the region”, says Marie Korpe, Executive Director, Freemu ...
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Several musicians brutally killed in Mexico
Published February 1, 2013 - No Comments
Several of the musicians from the Mexican group Kombo Kolombia who have been reported missing since 24 January, have been found dead. It is still uncertain how many band members that have been killed. Kombo Kolombia had been playing a gig in a private bar on Thursday 24 January and alled ...
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Violations of artistic freedom of expression in 2012
Published February 1, 2013 - No Comments
Violations of artistic freedom of expression was monitored and documented by Freemuse on this website as part of the world conference ‘All that is Banned is Desired’. The documentation found the basis for a statistical compilation presenting a glimpse of the situation for artists world ...
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Iran: Singer Arya Aramnejad released from prison
Published January 29, 2013 - No Comments
Less than two weeks after a group of international artists joined Freemuse in a campaign for the release of the Iranian singer Arya Aramnejad, who was given 91 days prison sentence, he was able to leave prison. According to Freemuse’s sources, he was released due to so called “internat ...
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Qatar: Poet Al-Ajami sentenced to life in prison
Published December 7, 2012 - No Comments
A Qatari court’s life sentence for the poet Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb Al-Ajami after a grossly unfair trial on 29 November 2012 “flagrantly violates the right to free expression”, Human Rights Watch said on 4 December 2012. AMY GOODMAN, journalist, Democracy Now: “So, i ...
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Conference videos online now
Published December 4, 2012 - No Comments
The video material from the first world conference on artistic freedom of expression, ‘All that is banned is desired’, held in Oslo, Norway, in October 2012, is now available online – whole sessions as well as interviews with some of the artists and speakers. So this is the m ...
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European Commission: Artists are free to ‘offend, shock or disturb’
Published November 8, 2012 - No Comments
The European Union criticised Poland’s supreme court for allowing prosecutors to try Adam Darski, lead singer in the heavy metal band Behemoth, for illegal artistic expression. At issue is the interpretation of Article 196 of the Polish penal code referring to “the crime of off ...
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Syrian actor killed – allegedly for supporting the president
Published November 7, 2012 - No Comments
The well-known Syrian-born Palestinian actor Mohammed Rafia is believed to have been killed by rebels because of his support for President Bashar al-Assad. “His death is a sign of the abyss of personal hatred and violence into which Syria has fallen,” wrote BBC’s reporter ...
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The conference is over – but this is only the beginning
Published November 1, 2012 - No Comments
More than 40 artists and speakers from all over the world came, spoke, performed, listened and shared experiences with colleagues and an audience from more than 20 countries thus making ‘All that is banned is desired’ the melting pot we had hoped it would become. Around 300 people atte ...
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Somalia: Poet, playwright and songwriter killed by unknown gunmen
Published October 31, 2012 - No Comments
Somali poet, playwright and songwriter Warsame Shire Awale was killed in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, on 29 October 2012 in the evening, reported BBC World. Warsame Shire Awale who was in his 60s worked for the Radio Kulmiye where he wrote and acted in radio plays critical of the mi ...
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Vietnam: Two musicians sentenced to four and six years in prison
Published October 31, 2012 - No Comments
A Vietnamese court convicted two renowned musicians to four and six years imprisonment for anti-state propaganda and links to a banned political group, one of their lawyers said on 30 October 2012. Viet Khang, 34, (real name: Vo Minh Tri) was given a four-year prison term while Hoang Nhat ...
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Uganda: Theatre producer face a two-year prison sentence
Published September 27, 2012 - No Comments
British theatre producer David Cecil, 34, was granted bail after a couple of days in a prison near the capital Kampala, but his passport was confiscated, and he is due back in court on 18 October. He could face a two-year prison sentence if convicted. David Cecil is charged with “disobed ...
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Nepal: Death threats against artist who painted Hindu deities
Published September 17, 2012 - No Comments
Manish Harijan, a Nepali artist, whose works are on show at an art gallery in Kathmandu, has received death threats from activists of the Nepal-based World Hindu Federation in reaction to his paintings which combine images of Hindu deities and Western superheroes, reported UNESCO on 14 Sep ...
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China: Provocative artists intimidated with seizures and imprisonment
Published September 4, 2012 - No Comments
Issue 34 of the German magazine Der Spiegel contains a long article about how authorities in China allegedly intimidate provocative artists with tax laws, seizures, and imprisonment as tools to repress dissident voices. The article is primarily based on interviews with two gallery owners a ...
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UN report on the right to artistic expression and creation

Published April 29, 2013

A 25-pages report on the right to artistic expression and creation is now available in all UN languages. “This is the first time such a comprehensive study is carried out. Unfortunately artists all over the world are trapped between political, religious, cultural and economic interests,” said Programme Manager Ole Reitov, who has worked as a [...]

In-depth article collection: ‘All that is banned is desired’

Published March 25, 2013

A series of commissioned in-depth articles produced for artsfreedom.org to provide an overview of violations of artistic freedom of expression in certain countries, and to feature stories as well as interviews with artists, who have been persecuted or experienced that their art works were censored or attacked. All nine articles are gathered in one PDF [...]

Download and distribute the conference report

Published March 25, 2013

Written by Robin Denselow, a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who reports for The Guardian, BBC tv and radio, this report is a catching, touching and enlightening publication about the current state of freedom of expression among artists around the world. It reflects on the numerous accounts and incidents of censorship, persecution and imprisonment of artists, [...]

Violations of artistic freedom of expression in 2012

Published February 1, 2013

Violations of artistic freedom of expression was monitored and documented by Freemuse on this website as part of the world conference ‘All that is Banned is Desired’. The documentation found the basis for a statistical compilation presenting a glimpse of the situation for artists worldwide in 2012 and includes cases in more than 50 countries [...]

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CNN’s ‘On China’: Talk about censoring contemporary art May 14, 2013
Iran: Report from Tehran where banned tunes thrive May 13, 2013
India: Artists protest against state-sponsored censorship May 13, 2013
Russia: Request for parole from Pussy Riot member rejected in court April 30, 2013
Lebanon: Award-winning film banned for being shot in Israel April 30, 2013
Pakistan: Online music video banned by Telecommunication Authority April 30, 2013
UN report on the right to artistic expression and creation April 29, 2013

Published April 29, 2013

Published March 25, 2013

Published March 25, 2013

Published February 1, 2013

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