Index on Censorship is Britain’s leading organization promoting freedom of expression. Founded in 1972 by a group of writers, journalists, and artists, Index publishes a quarterly magazine and maintains an excellent website dedicated to censorship issues.
In 2003, I interviewed then editor Judith Vidal-Hall. Our conversation has only become more relevant with the passage of time. Last week Obama advanced new arguments in defense of the warrantless wiretaping program authorized by Bush days after September 11th.
Jenny Montasir: How did Index on Censorship change after the fall of communism?
Judith Vidal-Hall: The magazine went off the market for a brief period after the wall came down and communism collapsed. And people said you’ve done a fantastic job, we don’t need you any more. Money was withdrawn and the magazine went off the market for a time. What we really did was re-think the word “censorship.” There was a perception that censorship was something that happened “out there” and that it was something done by the communist state. But while the generals had gone in South America, the dictators had not in South Africa. So there was still the old-fashioned censorship. Ideologically, communism was no longer the great enemy. There was a huge sort of freedom of access, but suddenly economics became a problem.
JM: Like the ownership of the papers?
JVH: Precisely- those who were there to buy the papers. So you basically get the old apparatus are the only ones who’ve got the money. Or you get the mafia, or you get foreign owners. Like Bertelsmann in Germany who is now the biggest media group in Europe, or Robert Maxwell who bought a lot of papers in the Czech Republic and Beirut and indeed in Israel. So money and the ownership and the particular perspective of an owner could be a problem. We really thought that censorship was about any silence- any voice that could not break through the silence to get out. So we’ve done issues on madness, we’ve done issues on migration. We published the literature of small migrant groups and minorities in [the United Kingdom] because for them to find a publisher, for their voice to be heard, is extremely rare and difficult. We’ve done an issue on the Roma or the gypsies of Europe because they again are very much abused.
JM: So instead of just banned writing Index began to give a platform to people who would not otherwise be heard?
JVH: I think its very much that. It’s giving a voice to minorities, to groups or to people for whom access to media is denied for whatever reason. I also want to say to you that though it’s true that we had this watershed in 1991, I think 9/11/01- ten years later- I’m coming to realize personally more and more, that in a sense is another watershed. And what do I mean by that? I mean that I find freedom of expression, freedom of any kind has always had a certain relative quality. But I suppose we take as the gold-standard the First Amendment of the United States as an institution which is absolutely, categorically establishing freedom of speech and excluding interference. The next best thing to that would be Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where the person has the right to give and to receive information free of hindrance. So if you take those as the gold-standards, then I think at the moment we’re hearing arguments that should cause concern. Yes, Article 19- BUT- and the but seems to be things like would you allow Al-Jazeera to say all these things it wants to say? Would you want to allow all these Arab-Americans to go free to write what they like in their e-mail and say what they like on their telephones? So I think to some extent- though I don’t think there’s a rigid line- I’m getting the feeling very strongly that even on the side of the angels, the free expression line, people are temporizing more. Yes, of course the First Amendment- BUT. And what it’s doing is targeting much more than before certain people under the disguise of terrorism. Things are being allowed to happen: access to e-mail, listening in on telephones, general surveillance. It has been happening with much more frequency. So I think in a way, post-9/11 is another period like post-1991 where we have to watch very carefully and guard what we have.
JM: Who reads Index on Censorship?
JVH: I’m afraid the audience is relatively old, relatively wealthy- sort of the higher catacombs. But I comfort myself by the fact that the issues which are distributed free go to Eastern Europe, and to academic institutions. In Africa, they go much more to schools, libraries, so that every copy that goes, you will have maybe ten, twenty people reading it. Obviously the language means that our audiences on the whole will be smaller. And again I comfort myself by saying, well, I wish it could be glossaries, but these are the people who will effect more, who will eventually be in teaching, in government, in universities. These are the guys, these are the women who are going to have the jobs that are influential in terms of the next generation.
JM: How do you judge the effectiveness of your magazine?
JVH: I don’t know. I think that is the most difficult thing. You can do your reader surveys- which we have done- but your reader surveys will only in the end tell you what the people who respond think. What effect this has on law and policy and the way individuals think, I truly don’t know. And I want to be honest with you, I don’t know any way we can measure that. I haven’t noticed a huge liberalization in the attitudes in our own country. I think it’s very hard to measure, and it’s a long game. I mean, you plug away and plug away and plug away.
JM: What of your work are you most proud of?
JVH: I’m not proud of myself. I love what I do. I actually think I’m quite lucky at 65 to have this to do. I love it, and I’ve been a journalist for a long time. I suppose I am most proud when I have an issue and my hand and it is good.
JM: And by good you mean?
JVH: When I have the issue in my hand and it turned out what we wanted it to be. Then I am proud, knowing that others are reading this work. And with the subscription program, it’s the people in these countries who normally Index wouldn’t reach. Does it have an effect for them? I suppose if they are reading something that they wouldn’t normally have access to, then we were effective.
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Trigger: Index on Censorship
