In the wake of a recent wave of arrests aimed to smother free speech in China, Tienchi Martin-Liao examines the laws most frequently used to charge dissidents and influential social media voices, and how they’ve been modified to include new offenses.
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The week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature. Featured this week: imprisoned Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja releases audio message, and German-Iraqi Abbas Khider wins Literature in Exile Prize.
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To mark the American debut of an anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry, Sampsonia Way reprints Khet Mar’s interview with editors James Byrne and poet Ko Ko Thett, in which they discuss the challenges of compiling the anthology, and Burma’s transition out of a culture of censorship.
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As the pro-government ATV Channel in Turkey censures a cubist painting by Picasso, Tarık Günersel thanks the group of American actors and other intellectuals for criticizing the new oppressive regime in Turkey, which he calls “Erdocracy,” a version of Islamofascism.
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China’s president calls for all media to train journalists on “Marxist news concepts” – but what does that mean exactly? According to Tienchi Martin-Liao, the new move coincides with the recent crackdown on dissidents as the government attempts to handle economic anxiety.
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Political analyst or disruptive propagandist? A disturbing trend in newspaper editorials in Venezuela. “Analysts interpret. They don’t rebuke, punish, exclude, or explain; that is the job of a propagandist.”
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Independent Chinese PEN Center president Tienchi Martin-Liao profiles celebrated writer Yan Lianke. Longlisted for this year’s Man Booker International Prize, Yan is known to provoke and expose the CCP, despite official bans and censorship.
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