Friday, 30 October 2020

US elections: media freedom and the black vote

US voters go to the polls on Tuesday 3 November and the result is proving difficult to call despite Joe Biden's lead in the opinion polls.

In her blog this week, our CEO Ruth Smeeth discusses Donald Trump's attacks on media freedom and we hear about plans from the Department for Homeland Security to restrict the visas that foreign journalists require to report from the country.

Meanwhile, Index's head of content Jemimah Steinfeld talks to acclaimed author Darryl Pinckney about the barriers black voters still face in the USA.

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#FreeNazanin: Charity worker faces new charges on Monday

“We are caught up in a shadow play, only part of which we get to see.”

These are the words of Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in solitary confinement and prison in Iran since 2016 for plotting against the Iranian government, charges she denies and which most people believe are fabricated.

Richard's comments come as it has been revealed that Nazanin will have to return to court next Monday, 2 November, to face yet more charges.

In this article, we hear from Richard and their local MP, Tulip Siddiq, who recites the poem Autumn Light which Nazanin wrote from prison in 2018 and which we published in Index at the time.

Index and Justice for Journalists launch Covid media freedom report

In February, as the world began to recognise the seriousness of the Covid outbreak, Index on Censorship and Justice for Journalists Foundation started working together on a new interactive mapping project that would track attacks on media freedom that we anticipated would happen as a result of the crisis.
Eight months on, we have produced a report showing the extent of the other epidemic that has been caused by Covid - one in which journalists have been fined, physically attacked and even disappeared just for doing their job of reporting on the growing health crisis. The report is launched today.
Join Index's associate editor Mark Frary and JFJ's Maria Ordzhonikidze for a Safe Havens talk today, Friday, 30 October at 1.30 pm GMT / 2.30 pm CET, about the findings of the project. Register for the event here.

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