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I E T M R E P O R T

by Vassilka Shishkova

Report from the IETM Brussels Plenary Meeting, 23 – 26 November 2017

ALL ABOARD FOR SELF-CENSORSHIP

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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institutions to develop different strategies in the fight against censorship.

Pelin introduced the definition of censorship which Siyah Bant has elaborated based on research of multiple cases:

“… censorship not just as the banning of artistic expression through legal means but included process of delegitimization, threats, pressure, targeting and hate speech directed at artists and arts institutions that foreclose or delimit the presentation and circulation of artworks.”1

Siyah Bant contributors have been following closely the series of acts of violation of freedom of expression that took place in Turkey in the recent years and regard them as part of the growing

IETM is steadily engaged with the topic of artistic freedom of expression and has dedicated a number of sessions and publications to the theme:

• Ethical Behaviour and Moral Responses in the Arts, IETM Amsterdam Plenary Meeting, April 2016

• Freedom of Expression, IETM Beirut Satellite meeting, October 2016

• Open Space on Arts and Democracy, IETM Budapest Plenary Meeting, October 2015

• FRESH PERSPECTIVES 3: The Art of Disobedience. Arts and Politics, October 2015

• The Cultural Sector Megaphoning Free Expression, IETM Bergamo Plenary Meeting, April 2015

Public condemnation, prohibition from working, repressions, prosecution, trial and imprisonment, forced exile, ban for travel, economic censorship are mechanisms through which authoritarian regimes silence free speech and artistic expression. The cases of censorship from Turkey, Poland, and Iran revealed the graveness of the situation today. The speakers put the emphasis on the ways to fight back - by gaining wide public support, by being resilient but flexible, and most of all, by being courageous.

Turkey: standing for human rights that costs you your work and freedom

Pelin Basaran is a Turkish cultural policy and management researcher currently based in Manchester, UK. She takes part in the Siya Bant (Black Ribbon) network which is dedicated to defending the freedom of expression by gathering resources and investigating reported cases of censorship in Turkey. It also supports artists and art

number of human rights violation acts by the government of AKP.

To understand the extent and intensity of censorship in Turkey under the current regime would hardly be possible without some political background information. The year of 2013 brought an end to seeking a peaceful settlement of the long-term conflict in the Kurdish minority territories in Turkey. Kurdish cities were bombed and civilians killed. Many intellectuals in Turkey, artists, academics, writers, cultural workers, engineers, medics, human rights activists, stood in support of the peaceful resolution of the conflict but it became clear that was not the government’s

Moderator:

Geoliane Arab, Managing Director, Hammana Artist House - Strategy and management consultant

Speakers:

Pelin Basaran, Curator & Researcher, Contact Theatre, UK, SiyahBant.org, TurkeyMichal Merczynski, Director of Malta Foundation Festival, Poland Sina Saberi, Co-Founder/Manager of MaHa and Kahkeshan, IranPieter De Buysser, Artistic Direction at Robin, Belgium

© Jana Gellinck

1. Siyah Bant Research Reports 2013

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inclination, and it was determined to silence any subjections on that matter…

Since 2013, after signing an open letter against the military action by the Turkish government in the Kurdish region, thousands of academics in Turkey has been facing repressions2. The 2016 coup attempt and the following state of emergency fuelled the persecutions further3. On the base of accusations in treason and support for terrorism, the repressions spread from the academic circles to journalists, writers, artists, a broad circle of public figures and institutions. Over 48 000 people were arrested in 2017 over their alleged links to the Gülen movement and the coup attempt. Since July 2016, more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants are dismissed from work4.

The situation is no less grim in the arts field. Since 2013, no theatre director who signed the protest was ever allowed to stage, Pelin stated. Exhibitions are being banned or cancelled. For instance, in 2016 the 5th Çanakkale Biennial was cancelled5 as well as Post-Peace, a war-themed exhibition at the non-profit cultural centre Akbank Sanat in Istanbul6, among others. In 2017, authorities banned all LGBT cultural events7, and as of 29 April 2017, Turkish authorities have banned access to Wikipedia across the state territory8.

It should be noted that censorship does not affect only the artists and art of Turkey. Just a few years ago, Istanbul was an arts melting pot, and now institutional directors and curators face the reality, when artists decide to cancel their visits because they find the situation in Turkey not secure enough. Working with foreign institutions and funds has become increasingly problematic too. The government is not closing the foreign cultural institutions but is marginalising them.

These are just a few examples of state censorship under the pretext of defending ‘national security and good morals’ or whatever the government agenda decides to define as ‘societal sensitivities’. The repressive apparatus is backed up by legislation; it has become legal to infringe the freedom of expression. Moreover, it

clicked well with the populist concepts of the strong state, the rising religiosity and the righteous defence from terrorism and bad influences.

So how could art and artists endure in such harsh environment? It may be by complying with (self-)censorship, avoiding taking a side and raising an opinion, not making art, emigrating and fighting the regime from abroad. Another way is to state disagreement clearly and bear the consequences which might range from sacking to imprisonment. And there are also the routes that try to navigate between the risks. Pelin depicted a convincing example of such sailing between the dangers.

A film by a Kurdish director was listed in a festival’s programme. In order to screen it, the film creators had to apply for a permission paper. The authorities replied that the film could be screened, but certain scenes had to be removed. The director agreed the film to be censored but instead of cutting out those ‘sensitive’ scenes, he decided to keep them in the film with a black band over them with the words: “You cannot watch this scene, because it was found objectionable by the government.” The creators’ decision was to bring to the attention of the audience what actually is considered ‘dangerous’ by the censorship, because the most dangerous thing about censorship is that it goes unseen. After this screening, the permission for the film was cancelled and it was prevented from screening. But the point was made.

For Pelin, censorship and self-censorship are becoming a norm after the coup attempt in July 2016, but they are a continuation of the authoritarian policies implemented after the Gezi Park Protest9. Self-censorship is difficult to trace. Talking about self-censorship needs a free speech environment. It can be justified in its historical context and can be pinned down in a 5-10-year distance.

The understanding of populism as complementing the views and feelings of the majority calls for rethinking. Who are the majority which are considered the subject of populist ideas? Is this majority a homogenous group with similar views?

What are the societal sensitivities which populism addresses? Understanding these sensibilities will help us rethink populism in society and how it legitimises censorship not only in authoritarian societies but in any society. Whose sensitivities and sensitiveness are deemed legitimate in the political discourse and whose – not? And why?

How to raise solidarity with the artists under censorship became one of the topics in the discussion. In cases of infringement of freedom of speech, it is critical to raise voices in protest, but when it comes to fighting the restrictions of the authorities, the artists are usually left alone. Rarely would a film festival, a gallery, a theatre or any artistic institution stand along with the targeted artists. Indeed, the institutions are at risk to have their funds suspended or to be closed for good. However, solidarity can help everyone involved to be less of a victim.

To engage larger groups with the cases of censorship in the arts takes time and dedicated efforts, Pelin explained.

2. In January 2016, 2,212 academics working in or researching on Turkey signed a declaration calling on the Turkish government to end the war in the Kurdish region, seek a peaceful resolution of the decades-long Kurdish question, and allow international observers to monitor the situation in Kurdish towns and cities destroyed by security forces. Since then, the signatories, also known as Academics for Peace, have been subjected to attacks ordered by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and implemented through joint effort by the government and the higher education establishment; Call for Targeted Academic Boycott of Turkey, Do not be a party to crimes in Turkish higher education (petition)

3. Artistic Freedom of Expression in Turkey: State of Emergency (IETM)

4. Turkey’s Interior Minister: Over 48,000 People Jailed In 2017 Over Links To Gülen Movement (Stockholm Center for Freedom, Jan 2018); As Repression Deepens, Turkish Artists and Intellectuals Fear the Worst (DW, Feb 2017); Turkey Purge (Twitter account)

5. The 5th Edition Of Chanakkale Biennial Is Cancelled (Chanakkale Biennial, Sept. 2016)

6. Istanbul Gallery Cancels War-Themed Exhibition, Citing “the Delicate Situation in Turkey” (Hyperallergic, Feb. 2016);Istanbul Art Space Blocks Its Own Exhibition (ArtAsiaPasific, March 2016)

7. Turkey Bans All LGBT Events in Capital to ‘Protect Public Security’ (Independent, Nov. 2017) 8. 2017 Block of Wikipedia in Turkey (Wikipedia)

9. A Year after the Protests, Gezi Park Nurtures the Seeds of a New Turkey (The Guardian May 2014); Gezi Park Protests: Brutal Denial of the Right to Peaceful Assembly in Turkey (Amnesty International)

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At Siyah Bant they undertake actions into several strategic directions. They gather recourses and conduct research in order to keep the community informed and updated on as many cases of freedom of speech violation as possible. Raising the awareness on censorship turns it into a sensitive topic for wider communities. They also offer support to the artists to undertake legal actions to defend themselves.

Sometimes the critical response and the joint support of the artistic community induce change as in the case with the ban of Kurdish productions from The Amed Film Festival, which resulted in the resignation of its artistic director and the cancellation of the festival after many artists withdrew their productions in a gesture of solidarity10.

Of course, it is important not to blame people who did not openly stand behind the subjects of censorship because of fear. Fear is a very human reaction.

Similar situation has occurred in Israel, at the ACCO Festival of Alternative Theatre. The 2017 edition did not include Arab works and the controversial play, Prisoners of Occupation, by Einat Weitzman, was banned on political grounds, despite the artistic support it received11. But sometimes artists choose not to support, not to enter in such controversial situations, because around sensitive issues like this, the arguments are not rational, and you can just become marked as a traitor, despite who you really are.

In justification of the uneasiness of the institutions and festivals to stand along with the censored authors was brought another example of the Theatre Confrontations Festival in Lublin, Poland, presented by one of its curators, Marta Keil. She agreed with Pelin that the hidden censorship, the reasons why one complies with self-censorship are equally important to investigate. A highly controversial play which tackles sensitive issues about the Polish Catholic church has become a subject of censorship in Poland (see below). When Marta and her colleagues saw the play, they knew they would invite it to their festival, but being aware of the Ministry of Culture’s attitude to it, they

had second thoughts about how this might affect their organisation. The stirring committee of the festival also hesitated to approve it. There was an actual risk their funding would be reduced or worse, denied for their next edition. So they induced themselves into self-censorship with the purpose to save the festival. But what are the consequences of our choices to avoid certain works which are too controversial and tackle with sensitive issues? How does this affect the art scene? How does this affect our audiences who are deprived of seeing these works?

A concrete answer to what happens when self-censorship is thrown off provided the next case, the Malta Festival in Poland, and their struggle with the Ministry of Culture.

Poland: programing a controversial work that costs you your funding and sustainability

With the Law and Justice party (PiS) gov-erning Poland, far-right conservative ideas are at rise. Subsequently the spectrum of issues that become sensible and hence, a subject of restrictions from the conserva-tive government, alarmingly widens12.

Artistic freedom of expression is at the fore-front of right-wing conservative religious attacks13. In 2017, there was a huge stir around Curse, a play staged by Oliver Frljić,

a Croatian director, at Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw. Loosely based on a play from the 19th century, it focuses on the Catholic Church’s political power in Poland in the past and present, speaks openly about the cases of paedophilia in the Polish church and criticises the ardent worshiping of John Paul II. Right-wing religious groups, backed by the conservative government, initiated investigation over allegations of inciting the audience to murder the chairman of PiS14. Public media widely condemned the play as ‘blasphemy’ and religious groups broke into the theatre claiming their religious feelings being offended15.

A scene from Curse © Magda Hueckel

10. Turkey: Bans on Kurdish arts festivals spark solidarity actions (Index on Censorship)

11. Festival Director Speaks out on Terror-Supporting Art (Arutz Sheva - Israel National News, Aug 2017) Banned Play on Palestinian Prisoners, Occupation Throws Israeli Theater Festival Into Turmoil (Haaretz, June 2017)

12. Freedom of the Press 2017: Poland Profile (Freedom House)

13. Poland: Controversies over theatre plays (Freemuse)

14. Play in Polish Theatre Accused of Inciting Audience to Murder (The Guardian, June 2017)

15. For further information on the issue and the arts and culture sector response you can read the following: Theatre and Democracy: Institutional Practices in Polish Theatre (Polish Theatre Journal) Contemporary Theatre in Poland Under Fire: The Curse [Interview] (Political Critique) Appeal for International Solidarity with Culture Makers in Poland (Political Critique) Poland: Call for the Defense of Artistic Freedom, (IAFT)or watch the video from the theatre siege here.

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repeatedly stated in the media that Malta will not receive the funding, which the Ministry of Culture was obliged to transfer under the agreement concluded in the previous year. This was a clear threat of censorship: the government would mute them by refusing to fund them. For Michal, this is an act of economic censorship.

It has become apparent that the Minister could slip into the populist move to infringe the agreement and withdraw the funding. So the Malta Foundation started to seek public support for the festival despite the law was on their side. The Mayor of Poznan sent an open letter to the Minister of Culture, asking him to keep his legal commitment and to transfer the due grant. On 25 April Mariusz Wilczyński, an eminent Polish cartoonist, wrote a

Having in mind this tense situation, it was not unexpected that Malta Festival Poznan, featuring as one of its chief curators Oliver Frljić, the director of Curse, got into conflict with the Ministry of Culture of Poland which refused to fund the festival for 2017.

Michal Merczynski, Director of Malta Foundation Festival, presented the dynamic developments around the latest edition of the festival.

The Malta Festival Poznan takes place in Poznan, Poland, each June since 1991. Along with independent and experimental theatre, the festival has opened for dance, music, film and has become one of the biggest festivals in Central and Eastern Europe. The production of such large scale event relies on the financial support of the City of Poznan, the Office of the Marshal of the Wielkopolska Voivodship and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as on numerous sponsors, companies and institutions.

To secure the funding, the festival foundation submits grant applications with three-year programmes for the festival editions. In 2015, Malta Foundation submitted its plans for the period 2016 – 2018 in which Oliver Frljić and Goran Injac were appointed as curators for the 2017 edition.

The Minister of Culture approved the decision to award the funding to the Festival for the years 2016 – 2018, and by June 2016, a contract for the funding was signed.

In February 2017, the premiere of “Curse” by Oliver Frljić happened in Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw. The right-wing outrage and attacks escalated. Along with many other artists and institutions, Malta Foundation expressed solidarity with the artists.

The first public statement by the Minister of Culture that Malta Festival Poznan might not get funding if they do not dismiss Oliver Frljić as artistic director of the festival, came in March 2017, in the press.

By the end of April 2017, the Minister

letter in which he invited everyone who cherished the Malta Festival to support it. Painters, sculptors, graphic artists, actors, directors, composers, musicians, dancers, choreographers – the whole artistic community – offered their works and personal items in an auction to collect funds in support of the festival.

In May 2017, parallel to the auction, Malta started a crowd-funding campaign in support of the festival. Become the Minister of Culture crowdfunding campaign started with the threshold of est. 11 000 euro. They were still hoping that despite the populist statements, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage will fulfil the obligation to transfer the grant of over 70 000 euro.

Malta Festival Poznan - from Michal Merczynski presentation

Faces of the crowdfunding campaign - from Malta Festival Foundation’s social media accounts

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Unfortunately, in the beginning of June 2017, the Minister of Culture issued an official statement, in which he clearly declared that he would not transfer the funds. Therefore, Malta Festival decided to risk and increase the amount of the fundraiser campaign, hoping they would meet the target.

Things turned well for Malta Festival Poznan. Being a large-scale event of established importance, but also being loved by the audiences helped to gain significant support. The items in the auction were sold out. Become the Minister of Culture crowdfunding campaign turned into a viral phenomenon. 1838 individuals and 2 start-up companies joined the online campaign and contributed to collecting the amount due by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

In June 2017, the Malta Festival Poznan released its 27th edition without complying with any of the conditions of the Minister of Culture. The Festival managed to fight censorship with the help of those members of the society who would not imagine the cultural landscape without this major art event in the city of Poznan.

The battle was won, but the case is not closed. The Malta Festival Foundation is taking legal action against the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, in order to compel the Minister to reimburse all the funds and to meet the legal obligations under the contract from 2016. Also, they need to make sure that the Festival edition in 2018 and on will go unhindered.

Iran: engaging into a forbidden art form that could cost your freedom

Manoeuvring with the plausible

In Iran, it is forbidden to dance in public spaces, especially if female dancers are involved. Simple as that16. Sina Saberi, co-founder/manager of MaHa and founder of Kahkeshan revealed the manoeuvres dancers in Iran undertake in order to evade the Islamic law rules which could possibly threaten them with months and years in

prison if caught dancing with the opposite sex in public space.

It wasn’t always like that, Sina explained. Persian dance tradition can be traced back till the cult of Mithra17 in the 4th century BC or earlier. Modern times brought international recognition to The Iranian National Ballet Company, but since the Islamic revolution in 1979, dancing is banned as sinful18. Despite all the dangers, dance classes and dance performances are happening in secluded places, in private dwellings, and since recently, the Iranian dance has scene started to emerge again. Sina has become a part of Tehran’s dance community since 2012-13, and in several concrete examples he presented how they manage to legitimise and revive the art of dance in Iran.

In early 2013, Sina was interested in the question of gender identity and decided to bring it on public stage in Tehran. A straightforward approach was impossible, so Sina went for staging the classical and ‘safe’ farce play by Dario Fo, House Painters Have No Memories, and wrote a whole new character, turning the play into a queer rendition of the piece. The show had a suc-cess with the audience, and no troubles occurred, although Sina remembered he was anxious each night that the show would be taken off or he would be arrested.

By March 2013, Sina and a group of inde-pendent underground artists started the MaHa Collective, driven by the desire to

study the art form in its global context and to introduce broader audiences to dance by inviting them to the otherwise “private” dance events. Thus No. 3, Tehran was staged. MaHa Collective invited their audience through private emails and were well aware they could put everyone’s live at risk. An audience of fifty to seventy people gathered at a private venue to see No. 3, Tehran which was staged without respect-ing the state regulations and obtaining the necessary permissions to present show publically.

In the past years, a lot has changed in the art climate in Iran, and the Iranian under-ground dance scene has become recogni-sable on the mainstream cultural field.

Still, dance is illegal in Iran, Sina reminded. He elaborated that it is not easy to deter-mine what types of dance are under the ban, because for instance, traditional dance performances are allowed. Obviously, there are certain types of body movement which are permitted, while others are not. To legitimise somehow dance and to be able to stage dance as an art form in pub-lic spaces, it is important to identify those types of movement that are accepted as legal and bring them forward as core ele-ments of the performance when trying to overcome censorship.

One of the consequences of this state censorship is the 40-year gap in the devel-opment of Iranian dance as an art form and a considerable detachment from the Western dance context. Sina and his col-laborates felt the need to reach out to the international dance field, to explore it, and to introduce themselves and the Iranian dance scene to the world. Furthermore, they wanted to open up the Iranian audi-ence to the examples of international dance works.

Sina Saberi © Jana Gellinck

16. Iran: Happy Video Dancers Sentenced to 91 Lashes and Jail (BBC, Sept 2014)Iran Arrests Six for Dancing Zumba (The Telegraph, Aug 2017)

17. Persian Dance and Its Forgotten History (Iran Chamber Society);No More Music, No More Dancing in Iran (JÆGER)

18. The Illegal, Underground Ballerinas of Iran (Broadly. Vice)

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In May 2015, Saba Nazi in collaboration with MaHa Collective ventured to stage a repertory of Trisha Brown’s Early Works in Tehran’s Sa’dabad Palace, the residence of the last shah, now a museum complex with huge gardens. Was it a safe way to take a more inclusive, public approach to dance? With its soft movements and sense of spirituality and harmony, The Early Works of Trisha Brown resembles a physical practice (which seemed doable in Iran!), rather than a forbidden modern dance. So the manoeuvre to overcome censorship happened through a resemblance to Tai Chi practice. Interestingly, the objections were against the loose white clothes the dancers, 10 females, 1 male, were wearing, and two hours before the show, the authorities announced it could not be performed because of the costumes. However, the performance did happen in front of the audience in the palace garden.

The next important step in the development of the Iranian dance scene was overcoming the restriction for men and women to dance together. Staging works of the Iranian female choreographer Atefeh Tehrani was a way to introduce mixed dance to Tehran’s audiences. Back in 2009, she presented a physical theatre piece that was a rendition of the classical Othello play. It received a lot of attention in Tehran, and then Atefeh Tehrani went on an international tour, showing it at the Dancing on the Edge Festival in the Netherlands and in some festivals in Germany. The show was highly praised, but when Tehrani returned home and the media echoed the fact that the performers were dancing at a dance festival, she was summoned for questioning. Obviously, participating in Dancing on the Edge Festival was a bit too loud for the authorities. This incident caused a six year break in Tehrani’s career: she was unofficially banned from staging any work.

In 2013, she started to work on a new piece which involved dancing as an ensemble of male and female dancers, and Sina joined the group after an audition. They received no public support, and the choreographer was not sure she would be allowed to show the work in the end. The creative process took two years. It took a lot of passion and

dedication to accomplish the piece and put it on public stage at Tehran City Theater. The revision committee refused to allow a mixed ensemble of male and female dancers. However, after a government shift, in the end of 2016, Atefeh Tehrani received an authorisation to show the piece. In 2017, Café Lethe had 30 performances in Tehran and toured to international festivals, like Dancing on the Edge, for instance, without any subsequent problems for its creators this time.

By 2016, the Iranian dance community has broadened, new actors emerged, new works were staged so the MaHa Collective and Sina started to think of a way to organise somehow a dance festival in Tehran. Obviously, it could not be named a ‘dance festival’. Therefore they devised a whole set of new terminology that would be safe for communication with the authorities. ‘Dance’ was translated into ‘performing body-based creations and processes over the ground’. That is how the Body Movement Festival was announced to take place in March 2016 for a week in Tehran’s Daa Theater House.

After accomplishing everything so far, the question was whether an international piece can be staged in Iran, whether they can invite a choreographer from abroad and work on a project together. The collaboration between the Lebanese Maqamat Dance Theater and MaHa Collective brought Zaafaran in

December 2016, a piece based on the idea of sacrifice, a notion which is very integrated in eastern cultures. This performance takes place on a Persian Carpet, “a rich ground that reminisces a past, no longer present”. The manoeuvre to succeed showing it in Tehran was first gaining international acclaim in seven different cities around the globe and then presenting it at home.

Personally, Sina has always been intrigued by the dance tradition of Iran. He wanted to stage a work that is talking about the history of dance and the disruption in dance tradition in the last decades. In April 2017 the art piece Damnoosh was introduced to the public. Sina explained he wanted to make a safe and likable performance, so the work is about gathering together, making tea, sharing stories, reading poetry – while talking about the history of dance in Iran and remembering the grandmothers’ forgotten dance.

In conclusion, Sina suggested that all the restrictions of the Iranian context instigated the dedication with which the young and fragile dance community is asserting its right to exist. It is asserting dance as a part of human culture which no one could simply take away and ban.

Iranian dance scene is a scene in the making, and many new independent dancers and collectives start to emerge after the paths have been established. On one hand, there are a lot of things to advance in. There is

That looks like Tai Chi! © Klaartje Lambrechts

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no single professional dance floor at the venues, no academy, no institutions. On the other hand, when Sina compares Iran with the situation in the Western world, where institutions are thought not to be effective any more, then he thinks everyone is in a way at the same situation, so some kind of new, unconventional system needs to be invented. Currently the dance community in Iran is working on two projects that are designed to meet the needs of their specific context. Kahkeshan is about setting up a meeting place dedicated to dance. It is a cultural initiative focused on dance practices, creation processes of Iranian dance artists. Setting up IPAC - Iranian Performing Arts Community will hopefully bring the dance community closer and make it more resilient.

Belgium: living in a democracy that is actually debateful

Pieter De Buysser, writer, director and performing artist who is lucky – in his words – to live in Brussels, in an open, secular democracy. He had no particular case of censorship or repressions to present. But does this mean everything is alright? On one hand, Pieter underlined, democratic states like Belgium should care about censorship and should take responsibility and show solidarity with any artist who is a target of censorship, wherever that might be. On the other hand, there is censorship or at least, attempts for censorship in any society. Pieter has been interested in the subversive ways censorship has been appearing in the capitalist society for a long time.

Pieter shared three examples. First was the fictional story about a small village in a totalitarian country where every citizen was collaborating with the secret police. Telling on your neighbour brought extra benefits to the betrayer while the accused went to trial and prison. In the course of time everyone in the village had betrayed somebody else. After years, the regime fell. Slowly, the life in the village was restored. Decades later, some citizens discovered the archive of the village and put it on the internet for everyone to see who had betrayed whom. The peace in the village was broken by that transparency.

“This is a clear case where radical transparency is problematic”, Pieter concluded. Many supporters of freedom of expression advocate for such radical transparency but it may open old traumas and stir conflicts.

A very popular Belgian singer edited one of her famous songs from years ago because it featured the word ‘niger’ in it, because it is not acceptable anymore. Her huge fan base reacted she is self-censoring herself.

The terms of censorship/self-censorship are often used to mask the uncomfort-able for many acknowledgment of one’s own unspoken, often racial prejudices. As soon as a mostly unthoughtful, instinctive expression is corrected and unmasked as racist, offensive or as the expression of white privilege, people hurry to denounce what they call the “censorship”. Most of the time they do so in the name of some “Enlightment” values. And nearly all the time they mix up (self-)censorship with an advancing insight in implicit power structures.

Lastly, Pieter shared his personal experi-ence with the parents of his sons’ classmates at a school in Molenbeek, a neighbourhood in Brussels with a dense Muslim population and, reportedly, many radicalised members of the community19. Soon after the Charlie Hebdo attack, Pieter and other parents were discussing the events, and the par-ents were horrified and condemned that act of violence, but, nonetheless, noted

that the works of the satirical newspaper were highly provocative and offensive. For example, in the USA those cartoons would not be published in the media. They would censor themselves out of some respect for people’s sensitivities.

As it was noted before, censorship is legitimised out of respect for sensitivity of each other. The question is whose sensitivity is taken into account. Usually, it is the sensitivities of the majority or those in power. But sometimes it is not clear who is in power. “What would happen if you offend the Salafist movement here in Molenbeek20? Are they the ones in charge? Are they in power?” How far should we go in respecting the sensitivities of these radical Muslims which differ from our own? “If we in Belgium still have the freedom to express ourselves, we should also acknowledge the freedom to think about all these ambiguities around censorship”, Pieter suggested.

As for radical transparency, not everything should be disclosed, according to him. One of the main difficulties in fighting populism comes from the social media where everyone has an opinion. Some of those opinions are very explicit and highly offensive. Should we censor these people, should we call for self-censorship or not?

A scene from Zaafaran © Mostafa Kazemi Motlaq

19. Molenbeek: the Brussels Borough Becoming Known as Europe’s Jihadi Central (The Guardian, Nov 2015)

20. Brussels Mayor: All Our Mosques Are Controlled by Salafists (Politico, March 2017)

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Wrapping up the session, Geoliane Arab assumed that navigating along all the limitations and sensitivities brings the idea that freedom of expression should never be disconnected from the idea of social justice and we cannot dissociate it from the specific context. The examples of Malta Festival Poznan and the Tehran dance scene proved that in order to protect the freedom of expression, we should seek social solidarity and take responsibility for the results.

The practical exercise of reflecting on self-censorship: “What have you wished to say – in personal or professional situation, online or offline – but you have prevented yourself from saying” brought out the various facets of self-censorship:

“I am hesitant to discuss if and how my institution positions itself, or how it relates to the black people discussion in my country.”

“I didn’t say that I don’t like the artistic content of the festival I am trying to get a

job at.”

“I stopped myself from correcting someone who incorrectly assumed my sexual orientation in front of a group of people.”

“They are simply ticking the ‘right’ boxes…”

and more...

Every day, we engage in self-censorship for all sorts of reasons ....