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A copy of the Belfast Agreement signed by the main parties involved and organised by journalist Justine McCarthy of the Irish Independent newspaper. Photo: Whytes Auctions

Every day the professional staff at Index meet to discuss whats going on in the world and the issues that we need to address. Where has been the latest crisis? What do we need to be aware of in a specific country?Where are elections imminent?Do we have a source or a journalist in country and, if not, who do we know?During these meetings we are confronted with some of the worst heartbreak happening in the world. Journalists being murdered, dissidents arrested, activists threatened and beaten, academics intimidated and while we know that we are helping them by providing a platform to tell their stories it can be soul destroying to be confronted by the actions of tyrants and dictators every day.

Which is why grabbing hold of good news stories helps keep us on track. The moments when weve helped dissidents get to safety, when a tyrant loses, when an artist or writer or academic manages to get their work to us. These are good days and should be cherished for what they are because candidly they are far too rare.

Its in this spirit that Ive absorbed every news article, reflection and op-ed column discussing events in Northern Ireland 25 years ago. I was born in 1979, my family lived in London the Troubles were a normal part of the news. As I grew up, the sectarian war in Northern Ireland seemed intractable, peace a dream that was impossible to achieve. But through the power of politics, of words, of negotiation, peace was delivered not just for the people of Northern Ireland but for everyone affected by the Troubles. That isnt to say it was easy, or straightforward and that it doesnt remain fragile, but it has proven to be miraculous and is something that we should both celebrate and cherish.

The Good Friday Agreement delivered the opportunity of hope for the people of Northern Ireland. It gave us a pathway to build trust between communities and allowed, for the first time in generations, people to think about a different kind of future. For someone who firmly believes in the power of language, who values the world of diplomacy and fights every day for the protection of our core human rights there is no single moment in British history which embodies those values more than what happened on 10 April 1998.

We can only but hope that other seemingly intractable disputes continue to see what happened in Belfast on that fateful day as inspiration to challenge their own status quo.

Read more from the original source:
25 years of the Good Friday Agreement - Index on Censorship

NEW DELHI, April 14 (Reuters) - A proposed Indian government unit to fact-check news on social media is not about censoring journalism nor will it have any impact on media reportage, a federal minister said on Friday.

Recently amended IT regulation requires online platforms like Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) Facebook and Twitter to "make reasonable efforts" to not "publish, share or host" any information relating to the government that is "fake, false or misleading".

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India minister of state for IT, said in an online discussion it was "not true" that the government-appointed unit, which press freedom advocates strongly oppose, was aimed at "censoring journalism".

The Editors Guild of India last week described the move as draconian and akin to censorship.

Reporting by Shivam Patel, Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by Richard Chang

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read more from the original source:
India says new IT fact-checking unit will not censor journalism - Reuters India

On View

The artworks are included in the current show, 'Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds.'

Scholars of Islamic art have accused New Yorks Asia Society and Museum of censorship over a virtual tour of its exhibition that blurred out two artworks featuring depictions of Muhammad. The museum has called that decision a mistake, and announced a plan to restore the artworks to the online version of the show.

The virtual tour was created by an outside contractor without sufficient oversight, Asia Society interim vice president for global arts and culture Peggy Loar told theNew York Times. Our goal with this exhibition has always been to display these historic works fully while also including necessary context and information. The images should not have been blurred, and we take responsibility for this error, but this was not an active choice to censor and is being corrected.

The societys website now states that the virtual tour is currently being updated and will be reposted soon.

Many Muslims believe that to create a depiction of Muhammad is idolatrousalthough there is no prohibition against doing so in the Koran. Though figurative Islamic art is quite rare today, there is also a well-documented tradition of devotional art featuring Muhammad, and many museums hold examples of this work in their collection.

Day of Judgment, a folio from a manuscript of the Falnama or Book of Omens (ca. 1555). Collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Two of those pieces are on loan to the Asia Society for Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, the first exhibition to offer a comprehensive view of depictions of hell in Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, and Islamic faiths.

One, from the David Collection in Copenhagen, shows Muhammad ascending into heaven, the gates of hell behind him filled with burning flames. The other, on loan from the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at the Harvard Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows Muhammad on the Day of Judgement, kneeling to advocate for mercy for the deceased. His face is obscured with a white veil.

In the Asia Society galleries, there is wall text warning viewers ahead of time, in case they do not wish to see the artworks. The written descriptions contextualize these images, noting that they were created at a time when such images were acceptable within the realms they were made, and signs ask that visitors not photograph those pieces.

The Prophet Muhammad at the Gates of Hell from a manuscript copy of al-Sarais Nahj al-Faradis or Paths of Paradise (ca. 1465). Collection of the David Collection, Copenhagen.

But such warnings are not always enough to prevent offense. In December, Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, declined to renew the contract of an adjunct professor who showed two images of Muhammad in an online art history class, describing the lesson in a university-wide email as Islamophobic. Students were told ahead of time and given the opportunity to turn off their display, but one still filed a complaint with the school.

The universitys decision made national news, attracting widespread censure as a breach of academic freedom. Its president, Fayneese Miller announced her retirement last month, and the professor, Erika Lpez Prater, is suing the university for religious discrimination and defamation.

The Asia Society exhibition opened in February, in the wake of the Hamline controversy, so it makes sense that its organizers would be sensitive to the potentially offensive nature of the depictions of Muhammad on loan to the museum.

The David Collection director, Kjeld von Folsach, told the Times that his museum had not been told that the artwork would be blurred in the virtual tour, and that he was surprised by the decision. So was Christiane Gruber, a professor of Islamic art at the University of Michigan who was an advisor on the Asia Society showand helped publicize the Hamline University incident.

She had told the Times that blurring the artworks was a breach of ethics but is glad the Asia Society is now changing course.

Besides the fact that these paintings are freely available online, they also should be shown and taught in an integral and contextually accurate manner, Gruber wrote in an email to Artnet News. Additionally, since these paintings represent the creative output of Muslim patrons and artists in premodern Sunni Turkic Central Asia and Shii Iran, it is critical that they not be visually excised from the historical corpus, which cannot and must not be retroactively altered to fit the view of some individuals. If such artworks are omitted or censored, Islamic artin all its richness and diversitywill be flattened into but a mere Colonialist-Orientalist clich.

Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds is on view at the Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, February 28May 7, 2023.

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The rest is here:
Asia Society Walks Back Its Decision to Blur Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in an Online Exhibition Following Accusations of Censorship - artnet...

Scholastic authors are sharing concerns over the publisher's recently recanted censorship attempt.

According to Publishers Weekly, author Maggie Tokuda-Hall was asked by Scholastic to cut the words "virulent racism" from her new book, Love in the Library, after the publisher offered to license her book for a Scholastics Rising Voices Library collection of books called "Amplifying AANHPI." The book, published in 2022 by Candlewick Press and illustrated by Yas Imamura, tells of how Tokuda-Hall's Japanese American grandparents met one another and fell in love while imprisoned in a camp in Idaho during World War II.

RELATED: Anne Frank Graphic Novel Banned From Florida High School for Being Inappropriate

Love in the Library ends with an afterword by Tokuda-Hall where she explains some of the historical context surrounding the story and how its themes relate to ongoing issues in America. [My grandparents] improbable joy does not excuse virulent racism, nor does it minimize the pain, the trauma, and the deaths that resulted from it," Tokuda-Hall wrote. "But it is to situate it into the deeply American tradition of racism."

An editor for Scholastics Rising Voices Library told Tokuda-Hall, "We love this book! And we want everyone in the schools we serve to read it. However, our audience is comprised of elementary school-aged children and there are some details in the Authors Note that, although eloquently stated, are too strongly worded for what most teachers would expect to share with their students. This could lead to teachers declining to use the book, which would be a shame. To that end we are requesting make an adjustment to the Authors Note. Our suggested change is attached."

On April 11, 2023, Tokuda-Hall wrote a blog post, "Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain," explaining the situation and why she ultimately rejected the publisher's censorship proposal. She wrote, "For a moment I wondered if there was a way to edit it so we could agree on it? But then I looked at the proposed edit, the one my offer was contingent upon again. The removal of the word RACISM made it all too clear. There was no compromise to be had here. There was no way to work with this. It was a Faustian Bargain, and I couldnt take it.

RELATED: Assassination Classroom Has Been Banned in Florida and Wisconsin Schools

"...Every time I see a marginalized creator tell the truth about what they face, I feel this way: frustrated. Furious. Disheartened. But also less alone. Each incident reminds me that we are braver than they are, even if its only because we have to be. And that the more of us who do this, the more likely there may come a day when we can stop doing this. I cant imagine what that looks like, and most days I cant believe that day will ever come. I also cant imagine not at least trying to get there."

On April 16, 2023, author Kelly Yang posted a video on Twitter supporting Tokuda-Hall and asking the publisher to take a stand against matters such as censorship and book bans. "As one of your top authors, I'm asking you to have more courage," she said. "You can not be quietly self-censoring. Whatever pressure you may be facing, know that your authors are facing even more pressure and yet we're still out here writing these books, risking our lives, bleeding to make you millions [and] trying to write the books for the next generation that will hopefully improve the world -- stories that reflect our times, books that don't sugarcoat reality or gloss over history."

On April 14, 2023, Scholastic President and CEO Peter Warwick put out a public apology regarding the proposed censorship. "Love in the Library is a beautiful and important book, and we all agree that it would be a tremendous addition to this classroom library collection," Warwick said. "However, in our initial outreach we suggested edits to Ms. Tokuda-Halls authors note. This approach was wrong and not in keeping with Scholastics values. We dont want to diminish or in any way minimize the racism that tragically persists against Asian-Americans."

RELATED: A Record Number of Library Book Censorship Demands Were Made in 2022

According to Warwick, Scholastic has reached out to Candlewick, apologized to all the creators involved with Love in the Library and now "hope" to restart conversations around including the unchanged book in the Amplifying AANHPI collection.

"We also met today with the collection's mentors (authors and educators from the AANHPI communities) to apologize for our actions in seeking to change the authors note, to hear their most recent thoughts, and to answer their questions and concerns," Warwick continued. "It was a moving and instructive experience for us. We had not consulted them on such an important issue as this, we had therefore put at risk their trust in us and caused personal anguish and harm. We must never do this again. We will be reviewing our curating and publishing processes to ensure that all our decisions and actions are consistent with our Credo, which unequivocally states our belief in the value of every individual, as well as the importance of representation, accuracy, and diverse voices in the stories, information, and teaching materials we share with educators, families, and communities."

Source: Publishers Weekly, Scholastic, Pretty Ok Maggie, Twitter

Continue reading here:
Scholastic Authors Share Concerns Over Recanted Censorship Attempt - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Though we have been deep in the current wave of book bans for over two years, new groups and organizations continue organizing campaigns to raise awareness of the situation. There are so many big and small groups doing good work on the issue, and they have done tremendous work in not only ensuring that people know about book bans but that they have access to resources, tools, and support to take action.

Unfortunately, were well past the needs of more hashtag activism and online resources to bring attention to book bans. This is not what groups like Moms for Liberty or No Left Turn in Education are doing they are not wasting precious time and energy creating hashtags or portals with web links to resources that are the same ones on so many other resources.

Theyre showing up to school board meetings, hosting in-person meetings, and doing the work on the ground.

Because heres the thing: the people who dont know about the book banning fervor are not online. Theyre not on Twitter or Facebook and if they are, theyre not engaging with the groups who are putting together these awareness campaigns. These people are in their homes and communities pursuing other things. Book bans are the furthest thing from their minds, especially since so much information about local book bans goes unreported or sits behind paywall.

Hashtag activism has a purpose, but were years past its effectiveness for changing the fascism underlying book bans. The people who need to know about whats happening in their community are not going to see them, not going to read them, and not going to see their impact. What these campaigns do is allow the organizations behind them to have their name attached and as such, bolster their own image. Unfortunately, this is the way of the left: everyone wants to be the singular hero without bolstering or collaborating with those who are and have been on the ground doing the hard work since the start. The people who dont have the shiny spotlight on them because theyre too busy coordinating the next move.

No amount of online resources, no amount of hashtags or glossy campaigns, and no amount of screaming on social media is going to change the fact that the only way to truly make a difference is to show up.

Illinois held elections earlier this month for school and library boards. Despite how much more attention these municipal elections have had online, the turnout was still abysmal. My county, which had several contentious elections for school board, recorded an embarrassingly low turnout in my town specifically, 10% of the electorate showed up. TEN PERCENT.

What would help is seeing more community engagement. Seeing more money poured into awareness campaigns on the ground, with actionable tools and scripts for people to use to get out in their communities would make a difference. Because the reality is, this is what the book banners have, and this is what theyre doing.

It is akin to thinking that the radical solution to the dissolving of our First Amendment Rights is to sell or donate scads of banned books to kids whose schools have removed them. It makes a nice NPR story one NPR conveniently ignored those countering this method about at least three times and it might give a few minutes of name-recognition. But until we give a shit about the people who arent already in the know about this and until we show up and do something, itll all be a lot of hot air.

A few celebrities, either those with name recognition to the general populous or those known to the chronically online, are not going to move the book ban needle unless they have direct calls to action: vote, run for office, host community information meetings, and show up in person to school, library, and city council meetings. You have been given the tools already in the form of templates, in the form of the game plan, and in the form of ceaseless coverage by leaders in fighting book bans since they began in earnest in 2021.

How many hashtag campaigns have the right-wingers used to ban books? The answer is zero. Theyre following the leaders in book banning and implementing those tactics on the ground in their own community. They sow the seeds of fear and ignorance in person, where people are far more vulnerable to their cleverly-crafted rhetoric.

Until we do the same, were going to keep digging ourselves in this hole.

Were going to keep disappointing the kids who need us to be there for them and not for our own selves. Were going to keep considering it a problem in THOSE states, in places where THOSE people have the majority mindset (neither of these are true and both are also quite bigoted statements from those claiming to be open minded people of color and queer people live in red states, too).

Book banners are in the offices of their representatives, coxing from them bills which codify hate and censorship. Theyre not taking pictures of themselves in anti-book ban shirts on Twitter to show their support of anti-censorship. Those people are doing something.

At the end of the day, these glossy campaigns railroad the people putting in the work on the ground and do little more than allow the groups behind them to pat themselves on the backs and call it good work. Its easy to do that when there are not deliverable or measurable outcomes in direct action or financial contributions.

Go here to see the original:
The People We Need to Reach Arent Online: Book Censorship News, April 14, 2023 - Book Riot