Journalists under fire and under pressure: summer magazine 2016 by Vicky Baker.
From the post:
Index on Censorship has dedicated its milestone 250th issue to exploring the increasing threats to reporters worldwide. Its special report, Truth in Danger, Danger in Truth: Journalists Under Fire and Under Pressure, is out soon.
Highlights include Lindsey Hilsum, writing about her friend and colleague, the murdered war reporter Marie Colvin, and asking whether journalists should still be covering war zones. Stephen Grey looks at the difficulties of protecting sources in an era of mass surveillance. Valeria Costa-Kostritsky shows how Europe’s journalists are being silenced by accusations that their work threatens national security. Kaya Genç interviews Turkey’s threatened investigative journalists, and Steven Borowiec lifts the lid on the cosy relationships inside Japan’s press clubs. Plus, the inside track on what it is really like to be a local reporter in Syria and Eritrea.
Also in this issue: the late Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell explores colonialism in Africa in an exclusive play extract; Jemimah Steinfeld interviews China’s most famous political cartoonist; Irene Caselli writes about the controversies and censorship of Latin America’s soap operas; and Norwegian musician Moddi tells how hate mail sparked an album of music that had been silenced.
The 250th cover is by Ben Jennings. Plus there are cartoons and illustrations by Martin Rowson, Brian John Spencer, Sam Darlow and Chinese cartoonist Rebel Pepper.
You can order your copy here, or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions. Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.
Index on Censorship magazine was started in 1972 and remains the only global magazine dedicated to free expression. It has produced 250 issues, with contributors including Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Marquéz, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and many more.
Sadly, there is no lack of volunteers for the role of censor.
There are the four horsemen of internet censorship, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, attempting to curry favor with the EU by censoring content.
Other volunteers include Jonathan Weisman (The Times deputy Washington editor), Andrew Golis (founder and CEO of This.cm), and of course, Hillary Clinton, a long time censorship advocate. To mention only a few of them.
Despite the governments and other forces supporting censorship and the never ending nature of the war against censorship, mine is not the counsel of despair.
The war against censorship cannot be waged by front line fighters alone.
The Other End of the Spear: The Tooth-to-Tail Ratio (T3R) in Modern Military Operations by John J. McGrath (2012), summarized the ratio of combat to other troops in Iraq with this graphic:
Professional armies recognize the value of non-combat roles.
Do you?
Subscribe to Index on Censorship today!
PS: While we are talking about war, remember that professional military organizations study, practice and write about war. Stripped of the occasional ideological fluff, their publications can help you avoid any number of amateurish mistakes.