It was officially launched in September with a three-week festival hosted by residents including readings, book launches, talks and topical debates. Free Word’s mission is innovation and collaboration, pushing boundaries to promote, protect and democratise the power of the written and spoken word for creativity and free expression. It will be a national resource, with strong links to associates and partners throughout the UK and internationally.

Joint activities
ARTICLE 19 and Index on Censorship worked closely on a number of campaigns and initiatives in 2009. The two organisations responded quickly to news affecting the free expression community, collaborating on joint statements and press releases concerning Burma and Sri Lanka, among others. In late September, the two organisations were among international organisations that participated in a mission delegation to Belarus.

This year, English PEN and Index on Censorship conducted a year-long Inquiry into English libel law and its negative impact on freedom of expression. Their report, published in November 2009, provides strong recommendations for how the law needs to be changed and illustrates how the legal framework has become increasingly unbalanced.

ARTICLE 19
The organisation’s varied work in 2009 included:

ARTICLE 19 also lobbied and provided submissions to the UN Human Rights Council on Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Russian Federation and Sudan.

Index on Censorship
It reinforced its institutional capacity, in monitoring, analysis, publishing and direct advocacy. Among other activities, we:

    • expanded our website, providing news daily
    • published original, challenging writing in our magazine, including issues on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, libel law and obscenity
    • worked with local journalists to secure media rights in Iraq
    • commissioned a documentary play as part of our support of artists’ freedom in Burma

English PEN
It continued their work promoting literature and freedom of expression around the world, through a series of UK campaigns, their Writers in Translation programme, and the very active Writers in Prison Committee. In 2009 English PEN:

Situation for Human Rights Defenders in UK
Those working to protect and promote human rights in the United Kingdom are able to go about their work relatively safely and without threat. The environment for human rights work is largely a supportive and productive one.

But conditions are not perfect – and in 2009, some of the challenges for those working to protect free speech and access to information were revealed. A request lodged under the Freedom of Information Act led to the publication of the expenses of members of Parliament, exposing the lack of transparency that had characterised British politics for decades.

Also in 2009, a campaign to reform libel law has shown how English courts have increasingly threatened free speech in England and Wales, but also in other countries. The case of Suzanne Breen, a journalist from Northern Ireland who refused to hand over source material relating to an article, demonstrated how important it is to ensure that journalists are able to go about their work unhindered. 

Coordinator: Rohan Asoka Jayasekera (picture), acting CEO of Index on Censorship

Contact person: Natasha Schmidt, natasha@indexoncensorship.org