Digital freedom in Iran

In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the violent state crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability.

Episode 2: The search for justice
Jo Glanville meets Gissou Nia, founder and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, and Bahar Saba, a senior researcher at ARTICLE 19.  They discuss the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 and the fight for accountability for the victims. As a landmark UN Fact-Finding Mission continues its investigation into human rights violations and crimes under international law related to the protests in Iran, the podcast’s guests consider the Iranian authorities’ ongoing repressive response to the protesters, the challenges for collecting evidence, historical and systemic impunity and the pursuit for justice. 

Jo Glanville is a journalist and audio producer. She regularly produces and presents documentaries for the BBC. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and London Review of Books, among other publications. She was an award-winning editor of Index on Censorship and a former director of English PEN. She is editor of Looking for an Enemy: eight essays on antisemitism (Short Books/WW Norton) and Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women (Telegram/Saqi).

Follow ARTICLE 19 on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/article19org 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARTICLE19org 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/article19/

DIGITAL FREEDOM IN IRAN 

In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman Life Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability. 

EPISODE 1: THREATS AND SOLUTIONS 

Jo Glanville meets Afsaneh Rigot, author of ARTICLE 19’s groundbreaking report Queer Resistance to Digital Oppression in the Middle East and North Africa, and Mahsa Alimardani, Senior Programme Officer for Middle East and North Africa at ARTICLE 19. Following five years of extensive research, interviews and surveys, the report gives an in-depth insight into the threats to digital expression with far-reaching recommendations that are already making a difference for protecting a marginalised community on the front line. The podcast highlights how Iran targets the queer community online through multiple methods of repression and discusses solutions for protecting the community’s privacy and communications.  

Follow ARTICLE 19 on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/article19org 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARTICLE19org 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/article19/

In June 1989, the Chinese government launched a crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. It was a brutal response to a peaceful movement for political and economic reform across China.

To this day, no one knows how many were killed, but estimates are in the thousands. China continues to erase all memory of those events from national history - both within the country and beyond its borders.

On the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Boundaries of Expression assesses the legacy of the crackdown and the impact of a generation of censorship in a conversation with human rights activist Fengsuo Zhou, a student leader of the protests 35 years ago, and Michael Caster, Asia Digital Programme Manager, ARTICLE 19. 

Presenter: Jo Glanville

Producers: Michael Caster and Jo Glanville

Studio manager: Aamir Yaqub

Mixed by Julian Wharton and recorded at Bison Studios, London

Archive: CNN

Tune in to hear personal stories, historical insights, and a call to action for defending human rights and freedom of expression.

In this episode, we're focusing on the LGBTQI+ community and the limits on their right to protest around the world. 

Jo Glanville speaks to Rita Nketiah, a queer feminist activist in Ghana, about the tabling of a draconian private member’s bill which will introduce a five-year sentence for anyone identifying as LGBTQI+, and imposes a duty for all Ghanaians to denounce members of the community, which also carries a five-year sentence.

Nicola Kelly speaks to Marko Mihailović, a leading LGBTQI+ activist based in Belgrade who successfully ran the city's campaign to host the pan-European EuroPride in 2022. He describes the atmosphere in the lead-up to the event and crackdowns on the community from far-right groups, religious groups and other opponents, which initially led to the cancellation of the march.

In the third episode of a special series on the right to protest, we discuss the monarchy and limits on our freedom to speak out against them, looking at two very different contexts: the UK and Saudi Arabia.

Jo Glanville speaks to Laura Clancy, lecturer in media at Lancaster University and author of Running the Family Firm, about the changing role of the monarchy in the UK. They discuss the arrests that took place following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year and the chilling effect the police response has had on freedom of expression.

Nicola Kelly talks to Lina al-Hathloul, sister to prominent Saudi activist Loujain, who faced a number of horrific human rights abuses for speaking out against the ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia. She paints a bleak picture of life under an absolute monarchy, where questioning the status quo can result in imprisonment and even death. 

Presented and produced by Jo Glanville and Nicola Kelly at Bison Studios, London.

In the second episode of our series on the right to protest, we focus on women taking to the streets to protect their rights, in both Iran and Poland. 

Over the past two years, there has been an alarming retreat from the defence of women’s reproductive rights. Poland introduced a near total ban on abortion in 2020. In the US, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade last summer, ending the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years. 

But this sea change has triggered remarkable protest movements. In Poland, the Polish Women’s Strike was at the vanguard. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands came out to defend their rights in the largest protests since the fall of communism. 

In Iran, the death of Mahsa Amini in September sparked unprecedented demonstrations across the Islamic Republic, after she was arrested by the morality police for not following the obligatory dress code. ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ is the slogan of the protest movement. But this uprising has also become a call for wider radical change, as the government cracks down on the demonstrations. 

We hear from Maziar Bahari, founder of IranWire - the first outlet to break the story of Mahsa Amini’s death. We also speak to Marta Lempart, founder of the Polish Women’s Strike.

Presented and produced by Jo Glanville

Reported and produced by Nicola Kelly

Mixed at Bison Studios, London

In the first episode of a special series on the right to protest, Jo Glanville and Nicola Kelly speak to activists about the risks they face fighting to protect the planet, in the lead up to the United Nations conference on climate change in Egypt, COP27. 

We hear from Mona Seif, sister of the British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah about the decision to host COP 27 in Egypt and what protesters can expect if they call for change. 

In Kenya, we speak to environmental activist Raya Famau Ahmed who led a ground-breaking campaign, Save Lamu, that managed to stop the building of a coal-fired power plant in Lamu, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the south-east coast. We also hear from Eva Maria Anyango Okoth, a senior programme officer for Natural Justice in Kenya, working with local marginalised communities to protect their environmental and human rights. 

Produced and presented by Jo Glanville and Nicola Kelly. 

Recorded and mixed at Bison Studios in London.  

Restrictions on the rights to abortion: A global shift?

What are the implications for freedom of expression following the US Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to abortion? Does it mark a social and cultural shift beyond the United States? 

In this podcast, the second in a two-part series looking at the reversal of Roe v Wade in June, Jo Glanville talks to Venny Ala-Siurua, executive director at Women on Web, a pioneering international website that helps women access safe abortion services and contraception, Lana Dimitrijevic, lawyer and founder of the Women’s Rights Foundation in Malta, and Judy Taing, head of gender and sexuality at ARTICLE 19.

How are women’s rights to freedom of expression and access to information faring on a global level? What role does disinformation play in disrupting these rights, and how can tech companies help? In the current climate, the challenges and obstacles to protecting reproductive rights are huge — and yet the achievements of these leading activists and advocates give a reason for hope.

This podcast is part of the Boundaries of Expression series. 

The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on 24 June 2022, and with it, the right to abortion as a constitutional right. A number of states took immediate action: in South Carolina, moves are underway to make it illegal to provide information about abortion; in Texas, people are being encouraged to spy and report on anyone who offers assistance to people getting an abortion. 

Jo Glanville talks to Quinn McKew, Executive Director for ARTICLE 19, First Amendment expert, lawyer and ARTICLE 19 trustee Bob Latham, and Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO at the Center for Democracy and Technology, about the attack on reproductive rights, but also on people’s right to access information and to freely express themselves.

Jo Glanville speaks to Ronald Deibert, Director of Citizen Lab, on Pegasus spyware and how targeted surveillance has become the biggest threat to freedom of expression.

Guests: 

Ron Deibert, Director, Citizen Lab

This podcast was recorded on 21 June, before Apple announced it was introducing new protections against spyware and also donating towards funding research.