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A new study shows that artists across the world are facing greater threats to their free speechand safety. Photo: PA Images

Scottish playwright Jo Clifford is no stranger to controversy. Her play,The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, casts Jesus as a trans woman, andfirst aired at Glasgows Tron in 2009 to a reception of applauseand protest.But there is controversy, and then there is outright danger. The same play was on tour in Brazil until recently, when asmoke bombwas thrown into the performance space and armed police invaded the theatre. Brazil hasbecome a country where it is dangerous to perform, especially if your show does not tick the boxes set out by the new right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who haspushedfor local art to focus on Brazilian heroes.

The incident warns of a new threat sweeping the world right now: the censorship of the arts. Aspecial reportin the latestIndex on Censorshipmagazine published this week shows a rising hostile climate towards the arts, even in robust democracies. Artists from around the world, including Germany, Poland, Brazil, and the UK spoke of the increasing threats to their artistic freedom as a result of an emboldened right. Perhaps most startling was the frequencyof attacks in the field.Indexwent out expecting to find just a few examples. Instead, the list was endless.

A threat from the right

While the spotlightin recent years has been on censorship from the student left, with concerns about the rise of safe spaces, trigger warnings and no-platforming, real and increasing threats are coming from the right. They are taking away our libertiesand liberal arts.

We are on the front line of a culture war that will only deepen and strengthen as the ecological and financial crisis worsens and the right feel more fearfully they are losing their grip on power, saidThe Gospel According to Jesus playwright Clifford.She added that even in Scotland, her play can ruffle feathers.Last Christmas there was a run at Edinburghs Traverse Theatre. An online petition demanding the play be banned, she tells me, attracted a whopping 24,674 signatures.

Germany is particularly feeling the heat.The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has gone from newcomer on the political scene in 2013 to being the largest opposition party in the Bundestag today. They are eyeing up seats in parliamentand in the theatre. Marc Jongen, commonly regarded tobe

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There's a new free speech crisis gripping the worldand governments aren't helping - Prospect

SportFootballPremier LeagueEvasion of questions about alleged rights abuses in Qatar was weirdly off-colour from the usually erudite and right-on Liverpool manager

Wednesday, 18th December 2019, 3:01 pm

Sometimes, no matter how vexing or obtuse a problem first seems, a working solution can be distilled simply by dent of the time, resources and willing that are available to be poured into solving it.

Ever since the oppressive Gulf state was revealed as the host for the 2022 World Cup, football leaders and officials in the liberal West have known they will have questions to answer on behalf of their clubs and national associations regarding the ethics of participation.

i's fantasy football tipsnewsletter: get ahead

In Liverpool's case, these games in Qatar have been in the diary since they lifted the Champions League trophy in June. They were not dropped on them suddenly, nor did the public discussion surrounding alleged abuses of rights by the regime in Doha crystallise overnight. On the question of time and brain-power, the club had sufficient whack with which to prepare a considered response to the predictable questions that greeted Jurgen Klopp when the team arrived in Qatar.

Yet facing the press on Tuesday the manager, who has previously shared so freely and carefully his views on matters relating to social justice, spoke like he had been deprogrammed, the evasive twaddle of one who is disengaged from the question and is herding the conversation back onto company-approved ground.

"I have an opinion on football, but this is a real serious thing to talk about, I think, and the answers should come from people who know more about it," Klopp said. "Organisers have to think about these things, not the athletes. I like that you ask the question, but I think I am the wrong person."

The club's position had, in part, already been made formal in the content of a letter sent by Anfield chief executive Peter Moore earlier in December to the London-based human rights group Fair/Square who campaign on behalf of the families of migrant workers killed during construction projects for the 2022 showpiece. In it, Moore wrote that the club had sought background detail assurances from the supreme committee of the World Cup organisers regarding progress on workers' rights, and backed the group's assertion that "all unexplained deaths should be investigated thoroughly".

The letter stopped short of proffering a condemnation of Doha's record on safeguarding workers' rights, what the group that called for it had euphemistically termed "a public statement of concern", a reminder that football has installed itself behind a kind of flood barrier to protect against the need for taking a meaningful position on the wider implications of the game's continued global growth. You expect it from the suits at the very top echelons. But from the erudite and usually shoot-from-the-hip Klopp, the dreary on-the-fence neutrality felt weirdly off-colour.

It's telling that this has come in the same week as Mesut Ozil's public criticism of the rights of Muslim minorities in China, and the various responses - or lack of - that his words have drawn from different quarters. His employers Arsenal broke their silence only to confirm that they intended to remain silently "apolitical" on the matter, whilst the ex-Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure condemned Ozil's temerity in speaking out. Footballers have to stay with football and politicians to politics," said Toure. "Because you cannot be involved with this kind of thing, because it's going to attract a lot of problems." It's more sensible not to upset the apple cart when the apple cart is doling out your wage slips. Maybe the price of a conscience has simply become too high.

It isn't necessarily about placing income directly in jeopardy - though the fallout in China from NBA executive Daryl Morey's support for public protesters against the Chinese government in Hong Kong suggests that broadcasters, merchandisers and publicists will be prepared to pull their support for a sporting product over politics (several Chinese companies and brands have suspended or cut ties with the NBA following Morey's remarks in October.) China's state broadcaster was also quick to shelve plans to broadcast Arsenal's game against Man City on Sunday in the wake of Ozil's remarks.

This is really more a matter of culture, of the football establishment - of which Arsenal, Liverpool and Toure are intrinsically a part - showing public respect for those newest stakeholders in the global game who are paying astronomical sums for their seat at the table. They expect to be treated with the respect that their investments warrant. After all, what is the point in ploughing billions into campaigns to align rotten regimes with the world's most popular sport if organically likeable actors like Klopp are going to spit on you?

It's worth noting that the issues raised by Ozil and by Fair/Square don't come from conspiracy theories peddled by outliers and cranks. The causes of workers and LGBT rights in Qatar and of the situation of Muslim minorities in northern China are the concern of the United Nations and international NGO Human Rights Watch. There has been no moving of the moral goalposts, only a re-positioning of where football sits between them.

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Football is sliding into a bubble of self-censorship and even Jurgen Klopp has gone quiet - inews

WASHINGTON A freshman congressman, troubled by allegations of climate censorship by the President Trump administration, is attempting to make it harder for political appointees to scrub scientific information from government reports.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) introduced legislation this month dubbed the Stop Climate Censorship Act. If enacted, it would require political appointees at federal agencies to provide data to back up any decisions to remove climate change content from scientific studies or press releases.

Theres any number of examples of controversies surrounding climate censorship under the Trump administration, Neguse said. He pointed to one of the highest-profile examples in his own congressional district.

Maria Caffrey, a former University of Colorado research assistant and a paid partner of the National Park Service, said her research on how climate change would impact national parks was sidelined by Trump administration officials.

Shetestifiedat a hearing before the U.S. House earlier this year that National Park Service officials made explicit attempts to get me to remove references to anthropogenic or human-caused climate change from my report.

Flint, PFAS raised in D.C. hearing on Trump admin.s scientific research clampdown

Agency management gradually cut off her access to research funding, Caffrey testified: I had become an outcast for standing up.

In July, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Rochester Hills) led a hearing of the U.S. House Science Subcommittee on Research & Technology looking into scientistic research being stifled by the Trump administration. The Flint water crisis, PFAS contamination and climate change were key issues raised.

This is not a Democratic or Republican issue, Stevens said during the hearing. Its not about one administration or another. It is about ensuring public trust in the conduct dissemination and use of scientific research in the federal government.

The hearing featured several experts, including Joel Clement, Arctic Initiative senior fellow for the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Clement was a top U.S. Interior Department adviser who said he was reassigned by then-Director Ryan Zinke in a purge after raising climate change concerns. He became a whistleblower against the Trump administrations anti-science and pro-fossil fuels agenda.

Another controversy surrounding scientific censorship occurred earlier this year when officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationreportedlybacked President Donald Trump over the agencys own researchers.

After Trump asserted without evidence that Alabama would most likely be hit much harder than anticipated by the approaching Hurricane Dorian, National Weather Service staff was told to only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arose about Trumps assertions and to refrain from providing any opinions, the Washington Post reported.

Trump famouslyuseda black Sharpie marker to add an extra loop onto a map of Dorians predicted path to encompass Alabama.

In light of recent attempts by this administration to censor science, includingthreatsin September to fire NOAA officials who failed to back President Trumps inaccurate statements on Hurricane Dorian, legislation to prevent the political interference of federal science is critically needed, Neguse said in a statement.

A January 2018 reportby the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, which analyzed websites across the federal government, found substantial shifts under the Trump administration in whether and how the topic of climate change and efforts to mitigate and adapt to its consequences are discussed across a range of federal agencies websites.

U.S. House passes climate bill in a rebuke to Trump

The report also found a significant loss of public access to information about climate change.

Taking action to curb the impacts of climate change is critical for Colorado, Neguse said.

Afact sheet published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the former President Obama administration in August 2016 and archived online outlines some of the ways that climate change caused by humans will impact Colorado.

The expected consequences include more common heat waves, decreased water availability and agricultural yields, and increased risk of wildfires.

Neguse introduced the bill with two of his Democratic colleagues, U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Sean Casten of Illinois.

The congressman said hes optimistic that itll get a vote in the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee, where Bonamici is a senior member. Neguse is also hoping to include the legislation in a package of bills that will be considered by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Neguse, a member of that committee, has made climate change one of his key focuses. He was a strong and early supporter of the Green New Deal.

Pelosi contradicts Trump at U.N. climate conference: Were still in the Paris agreement

Along with U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), he traveled to Spain this month for the U.N. Climate Change Summit as part of a delegation led by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

He said hes optimistic that companion legislation will be introduced in the Senate, but recognizes that the bill is unlikely to see movement in that chamber.

Neguse acknowledged the realities of the Senate under its current GOP leadership and the fact that many bills continue to languish under U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

That scenario makes the road much more difficult in the upper chamber, but were going to continue to push, Neguse said.

To become law, the legislation would also need to win Trumps signature or win enough votes to override a White House veto both of those scenarios are highly unlikely.

Dingell, Democrats roll out ambitious climate bill

Max Boykoff, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research and an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, welcomed Neguses legislation.

Irrespective of anyones political party affiliation, this is important legislation for those seeking improved accountability among political appointees and ongoing access to important information about climate change for decision-making, Boykoff said in a statement.

In order to implement bold policies to tackle climate change, Bonamici said, those policies must be informed by the best available science. At a time when the Trump Administration regularly dismisses and denies climate science, it is our responsibility to protect the work of federal science agencies and to make sure that scientists are heard and supported rather than censored.

Advance Editor Susan J. Demas contributed to this story.

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Dems have a plan to fight Trump on climate censorship - Michigan Advance

2019 has been a good year for creative music-marketing campaigns, as youll know if you read our end-of-year Sandbox report earlier this month. If you havent, you can find it here: its our pick of the best campaigns of the year.

Anyone looking for more inspiration for their music marketing in 2020 would do well to check out the winners of the 2019 Clio Music awards. The event aims to spotlight content and campaigns that push boundaries, permeate pop culture and establish a new precedent for artist self-promotion, music marketing, brand collaborations and the use of music in advertising.

There were two Grand winners this year. The first was a project called The Uncensored Playlist, entered for Reporters Without Borders by agency DDB Group Germany. It won its Grand award in the Innovation medium, while also bagging Gold awards for Social Good and Use of Music.

It was launched as the worlds first playlist that fights censorship, turning articles from five journalists in countries with repressive censorship into songs uploaded to streaming services, and gathered in a playlist that launched on World Day Against Cyber Censorship.

The second Grand winner was Share Your Gifts, entered by Kobalt Music Group. It was the Christmas advertisement for Apple in 2018: an animated commercial using Billie Eilishs track Come Out And Play for which Kobalt is the publisher. The ad won its Grand award in the Use of Music medium.

The Clio Music awards also gave out 29 Gold awards, including the two for The Uncensored Playlist. The directory of winners (which also includes Silver and Bronze gongs) is well worth a browse.

Some of Music Allys favourites within the Gold winners include: another project involving Billie Eilish, Spotifys pop-up Billie Eilish Experience, entered by the streaming service and getting its Gold award in the Design medium.

Theres also BMGs 30th anniversary deluxe box-set of Keith Richards Talk Is Cheap album, which won a Gold in Design; Microsofts Muse Simulation Theory VR Experience (Digital/Mobile); YouTubes artist spotlight story for Burna Boy (Film/Video); and RocNations A New Set Of Rights, a film for the New York Times featuring Meek Mill which focused on the problems of the US criminal justice system.

You can see the full list of winnersat the Clio Music site. Entries for the 2020 edition of the awards will open in the first quarter of next year.

Music Ally

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Read More Clio Music awards winners offer music-marketing inspiration 2019 has been a good year - Music Ally

Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, an annual observation supported by and dedicated to those that participate in the sex trade. Its also nearly the end of 2019the first full calendar year since Congress passed the Internet censorship law SESTA/FOSTA. EFF fought the bill in Congress, concerned that its vague, ambiguous language and stiff criminal and civil penalties would drive constitutionally protected content off the Internet. And we represent organizations and individuals that are challenging the law in federal court. Activists and organizers from within the sex working community made it clear from the beginning as well: though this bill was intended to curb violence that occurs in the sex trade, its result would be just the opposite because it deprived a community of many of the online tools they used to stay safe and to organize. 2019 has brought us the unfortunate statistics to prove that they were right.

In a recent study of sex workers completed by the grassroots sex worker advocacy organization Hacking//Hustling, in collaboration with Whose Corner Is It Anyway, 40% of participants reported experiencing increased violence after FOSTA became law. Additionally, an overwhelming 99% of participants said they do not feel safer because of FOSTA. The details of this study were recently reviewed at a conference hosted by Harvards Berkman Klein Law Center, and the full results will soon be available. But these grim statistics arent an outlier: last year the San Francisco Police Department reported that human trafficking and street-based sex work offenses had spiked 170% since FOSTAs passage.

These numbers affirm what those who participate in the sex industry warned would happen. FOSTA has ensnared a wide array of platforms and online marketplaces whose operators, fearing that comments, posts, or ads that are sexual in nature will result in new liability, have censored users speech or shut down entirely. The absence of these sites have prevented sex workers from organizing and utilizing tools that have kept them safe. Taking away client-screening capabilities, bad date lists, and other intra-community safety tips leads to putting more workers on the street, which leads to increased violence and trafficking. The consequences of this censorship are most devastating for trans women of color, who are disproportionately affected by this violence. In NYC, the unfair targeting of trans women by local ordinances are so prevalent, loitering laws are colloquially known as "Walking While Trans" laws.

After SESTA/FOSTAs passage, plaintiffs Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Alex Andrews, the Internet Archive, and Eric Koszyk filed suit to invalidate the law. EFF is part of the legal team representing the plaintiffs, who are asking a court to declare the law unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced. On this International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, it's clear that the first step to actually ending such violence is to repeal SESTA/FOSTA, and to listen more closely to the communities affected by such laws. Destigmatization and full decriminalization is the battle cry of many sex work advocacy groups;but under FOSTA, this advocacy may be illegal. Its time for us to start taking these risks, and the real-world implications of FOSTA's censorship, seriously.

Excerpt from:
On International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, We Must Look Closely at the Results of FOSTA - EFF