Latest news with #Censorship
CNN
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Massive Attack, Brian Eno among UK and Irish musicians banding together to speak out on Israel's war in Gaza
A group of musicians from the United Kingdom and Ireland say they have formed a syndicate to advocate for artists speaking out against Israel's war in Gaza and the role of foreign governments in funding it. 'Because of our expressions of conscience, we've been subject to various intimidations from within our industry' and 'legally via organised bodies such as UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI),' read a social media post by the band Massive Attack, a version of which has been shared by Kneecap and Fontaines D.C., as well as musician and producer Brian Eno. The musicians said they are aware of 'aggressive, vexatious campaigns operated by UKLFI and of multiple individual incidences of intimidation within the music industry itself' designed to censor and silence artists. CNN has reached out to UKLFI for comment. The posts come after Northern Irish rappers Kneecap and the British rap-punk duo Bob Vylan drew criticism for their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rhetoric. Both are facing police investigations for their performances at Glastonbury music festival, following reports by UKLFI. UKLFI said it reported a singer in Bob Vylan to the police for chanting 'Death to the IDF' during their Glastonbury set, referring to the Israeli military. It also reported UK public broadcaster the BBC for showing the set. The BBC later called Bob Vylan's performance 'antisemitic' and said it should not have been broadcast. A member of Kneecap, which has been a vocal critic of Israel and the war in Gaza, was charged with a terrorism offense last month for allegedly displaying a flag 'in support of Hezbollah,' according to London police, following a report by UKLFI. UK counterterrorism police said they were investigating the group after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for British politicians to be killed and shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah,' in apparent support for the militant groups from Gaza and Lebanon, respectively, both enemies of Israel. Kneecap has previously said it has never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and that the footage circulating online has been 'deliberately taken out of all context' as part of a 'smear campaign' following their criticism of Israel and the United States over the former's 20-month war in Gaza. Both Bob Vylan and Kneecap have faced widespread gig cancellations. UKLFI said it had written to the UK venues where Kneecap was due to perform this summer and warned them 'of the risks of allowing them to perform.' The US State Department banned Bob Vylan from performing in the US. In their joint social media posts, the musicians in the newly-formed alliance encouraged other artists who wish to speak up but are afraid of repercussions to contact them. 'The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description,' said the post announcing the formation of the syndicate, which calls for a ceasefire; the 'immediate, unfettered access' of aid to Gaza; the end of UK arms sales to Israel; and other measures. 'Having withstood these campaigns of attempted censorship, we won't stand by and allow other artists – particularly those at earlier stages of their careers or in other positions of professional vulnerability – to be threatened into silence or career cancellation.' The English singer Paloma Faith lent her support on the post shared by Kneecap. 'Keep going everyone it's going to eventually change! Hang in there,' she wrote in a comment via her verified account on Instagram.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ben Folds Admits It's Hard to Reason Why He Didn't Stay at Kennedy Center to Combat Trump
Ben Folds reflected on his decision to step down as the artistic adviser of the Kennedy Center's National Symphony Orchestra earlier this year, telling MeidasTouch Sunday that it's a choice that he knows was right, but he still struggles to articulate why. Folds served as the first artistic adviser for the NSO from 2019 to 2025, but he resigned following the Trump administration's takeover of the Kennedy Center in February. More from TheWrap Ben Folds Admits It's Hard to Reason Why He Didn't Stay at Kennedy Center to Combat Trump | Video 111 BBC Journalists Blast Broadcaster for 'Censorship' of Gaza Coverage, Call for Robbie Gibb's Board Removal CBS' John Dickerson Says Trump Settlement Jeopardizes Network Holding 'Power to Account After Paying It Millions' | Video Elizabeth Warren Rallies for 'Full Investigation' Into Trump-'60 Minutes' Settlement, Says Paramount Has Refused to Answer Inquiries 'I know I did the right thing,' Folds said. The musician explained that while he's 'not used to messaging this sort of thing,' he's spent several years advocating for arts funding in the United States, but he could no longer remain in the role at the Kennedy Center because 'what I saw was an abuse of power, a very extreme one.' 'There was why I resigned, and then there's kind of the other question that I think people want answered, which is, 'Why not stay?'' he shared. Watch the musician's interview below: 'People might not realize how the arts work in the government, but it's very separated from the art itself. The government, artists and politics is separated with a firewall from what we say, how we say it, who says it — that's up to the people,' he continued. 'And the firewall was breached in the biggest way. I mean, [Trump] let go of the board, which was bipartisan. Once the board was gone, installed loyalists, the loyalists came in and voted in — guess who — Trump to be the chairman, the head of the Kennedy Center.' The situation was 'alarming,' Folds said, 'because now he can put, or they can put their fist on the scale of what is programmed, who gets to speak and who doesn't get to speak at our greatest arts institution, the Kennedy Center.' 'The thing I have a hard time explaining to people is why not stay and sort of fight it out,' Folds admitted, turning to MeidasTouch co-founder and interviewer for the video Ben Meiselas. 'And I think I can really use some coaching on this because I know I did the right thing.' Meiselas agreed. 'My thought is, is that you don't want to be used as a puppet for the regime, and they're going to use someone like you with your distinguished career,' he said. 'And they're going to say, look, Ben Fold supports me, you know, take a look at what Trump does.' 'What he loves the most is celebrity,' Meiselas continued. 'And when he just has Kid Rock over and over and over again, he wants Ben Folds to say, look, here's an artist with kind of deep intellectual roots who supports me, and if Ben Folds supports you, you should too. So that's my belief about why you have to leave because you're just used as a prop.' Trump was elected as Kennedy Center Board Chair in February. 'The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces executive leadership changes, effective immediately. At a Kennedy Center Board meeting this afternoon, the Board elected President of the United States Donald J. Trump as Kennedy Center Board Chair, replacing former Chair David M. Rubenstein. The Board also terminated Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter's contract and announced Richard Grenell as interim Kennedy Center President,' the Center announced in a press release at the time. 'Fourteen new Kennedy Center Board of Trustee members were also announced today including President Donald J. Trump, Susie Wiles, Dan Scavino, Allison Lutnick, Lynda Lomangino, Mindy Levine, Usha Vance, Pamela Gross, John Falconetti, Cheri Summerall, Sergio Gor, Emilia May Fanjul, Patricia Duggan, Dana Blumberg, bringing the total number of board members to 31.' The post Ben Folds Admits It's Hard to Reason Why He Didn't Stay at Kennedy Center to Combat Trump | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Ray Burke on how the books of almost every Irish writer of note were banned in the last century
President Michael D. Higgins told a gathering of librarians that he was hosting at a Bloomsday Garden Party at Áras an Uachtaráin last June about a visit he made to the public library in Galway shortly after he moved there more than 60 years ago to work for the Electricity Supply Board before enrolling at the local university. Having climbed the stairs to the library (housed at that time in Galway's 19th century county courthouse) he asked if he could borrow the book 'Why I Am Not a Christian' by the British philosopher and Nobel Literature Laureate Bertrand Russell. He said that the librarian told him: 'I cannot give you that book'. He said that when he asked her why not, she replied: 'Because it would not be good for you'. The impromptu denial suffered by the future President of Ireland was possible under the Censorship of Publications Acts that dated back to 1929 and that prohibited the importation into Ireland of more than 12,000 publications, mainly books or magazines, that were deemed by State-appointed censorship boards to be 'indecent or obscene' and likely 'to corrupt or deprave'. READ MORE Almost every Irish writer of note had their books banned under the acts during the last century, irrespective of their international renown. Brendan Behan used to quip that in Ireland he was 'the leader of the banned'. Edna O'Brien had hardback first editions of her early novels confiscated by customs officers at Dublin Airport in 1966 when she arrived from London to attend a debate on censorship. Galway libraries had been banning books even before the Censorship Acts came into force. 'Every effort has been made by the committee to ensure that no books of an objectionable nature should be allowed to circulate', the minutes of the first meeting of the Galway County Council Libraries Committee in May 1926 state. At the same meeting, the committee – successor to the County Galway Carnegie Libraries – approved a report from the chief librarian that said: 'No little difficulty has been experienced in book selection, particularly in dealing with works of fiction as the general tendency in recent years of authors has lain more in the realm of sex, psychoanalysis, and other objectionable studies totally extraneous to any story'. In February 1927, the committee resolved that copies of all books recommended for purchase be supplied 'to each member of the committee, the [Catholic] Archbishop of Tuam, and the Bishop of Galway'. Two months later it invited the two bishops to submit lists of books for purchase. An early-1950s annual meeting of the committee noted: 'It was proposed by county councillor Tom King, seconded by Tadg O'Shea, and resolved that printed slips be inserted in every book issued at headquarters, branches and centres, asking readers to draw the attention of the county librarian 'to any objectionable book' and that lists of books for purchase be submitted to the book selection sub-committtee (which included a number of Catholic priests). This may explain how Tom Kenny, of Kennys Bookshop in Galway, came into possession of a rare copy of James Joyce's 'Ulysses. 'It was a surprise some years ago when we bought an elderly local priest's library to discover a two-volume paperback set of Ulysses' by James Joyce which was published by the Odyssey Press. We got an even bigger shock when we opened the flyleaf and discovered the signature ` + M. Browne 1938′ – Cross Michael himself, the bishop', Tom has recalled. An earlier, even-rarer copy of Ulysses had been censored by immolation in Galway shortly after its publication in 1922. Joyce sent a first edition to another Galway bookseller, Frank O'Gorman, in whose printing works Joyce's partner and future wife, Nora Barnacle, may have worked occasional, casual shifts. It was inscribed 'To Frank, with best wishes, Nora and Jim', but Frank O'Gorman's mother promptly burned it. Her grandson Ronnie, a respected local historian and founder of the Galway Advertiser freesheet, last year donated his collection of rare and valuable books to the University of Galway shortly before his death after an illness. It included an expensively acquired first edition of Ulysses and also a limited first edition of the book with illustrations by the French artist Henri Matisse, signed by both the artist and by Joyce. A few months before Ronnie O'Gorman's death, the then minister for justice, Helen McEntee, announced, in November 2023, that she had obtained government approval to repeal the Censorship of Publications Acts. She acknowledged that censorship boards 'are of limited relevance in a modern society'.
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Iranian political thriller It Was Just an Accident wins Palme d'Or at Cannes
At about 10am on the last day of the 78th Cannes film festival , it looked as if the event had come to a premature (and spectacular) conclusion. A huge electrical blackout across the city and surrounding area – reportedly the result of sabotage – caused shops and restaurants to shut their doors. Those that remained open traded only in cash, a commodity that was no longer available from ATMs. Traffic lights failed. Screenings at the Palais des Festival paused for about 15 minutes, before the complex's generator kicked in. The many screenings in satellite cinemas remained suspended. Yet, about nine hours later, the stars were back on the red carpet for the closing ceremony and the presentation of awards. This year's Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, went to Jafar Panahi for his political thriller It Was Just an Accident. It was an enormously popular result for the best-reviewed film of the festival. The crowd rose in genuine exultation for a film-maker who has long fought against censorship and prosecution in his native Iran . In 2010, charged with 'propaganda against the government', he was sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on directing. At that year's Cannes, Juliette Binoche, who headed the current jury, brandished a placard with his name as she won best actor. 'Let us set aside all differences and problems,' Panahi said after accepting the top award from Cate Blanchett. 'What's most important now is our country and the freedom of our country. Let us join forces. No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear – or what we should do or what we should not do.' Panahi has persevered and, this year, delivered a simple, but gripping, film about a group of former Iranian detainees who, almost by accident, end up kidnapping their former torturer. Screening late in the event, it delivered taut action and complex dialectics. READ MORE The Grand Prix, essentially the second prize, went to Joachim Trier's lavish Sentimental Value. Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning star in a drama about an ageing film director who tries to cast his daughter in a project that dives into sensitive family secrets. Joachim Trier accepts the Grand Prix Award for Sentimental Value from Coralie Fargeat at the Cannes film festival on Saturday. Photograph: Pascal'Cannes holds a special place in my heart,' the Norwegian director said from the stage. 'My grandfather Erik Løchen was here with his film in 1960 called The Hunt. He was a resistance fighter during the second World War in Norway during the occupation and was captured. And I think his way of trying to survive after the war was to play jazz music and to make movies.' Critics viewed the 2025 competition as consistently strong, but, perhaps, less studded with noisy successes such as last year's Anora, winner of both the Palme d'Or and the best picture Oscar. Newcomer Nadia Mellit beat out Jennifer Lawrence's bravura, scenery-munching performance in Die My Love to take best actress for the French drama The Little Sister. 'Thank you, mummy, because I know you're looking at me this evening,' she said. 'You're watching and I hope that you're very proud and happy.' Cannes tends to spread the love in its awards. The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho can, therefore, feel rightly proud to see his complex thriller The Secret Agent scoring twice. Mendonça Filho won best director, and Wagner Moura took best actor for playing a victim of state corruption in Brazil of the 1970s. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, veteran Belgian realists, won best screenplay for their characteristically gritty film Young Mothers. There was less Irish interest at the event than in 2024, but Element Pictures, the Dublin-based production company behind Oscar-winning films such as Room and Poor Things, can boast a breakout title in Harry Lighton's Pillion . The comic drama, story of a shy young man's eye-popping introduction to life as 'submissive' in a gay biker gang, secured rave reviews and took the award for best screenplay in the Un Certain Regard section. In the main competition, Oliver Hermanus's The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal as a folk music archivist, gathered no more than polite notices from critics. Akinola Davies jnr's My Father's Shadow, also an Element Pictures production, received a special mention from the Camera d'Or jury for first features. Paul Mescal at the Cannes film festival. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images As the day progressed, plots thickened around the massive power outage, which did not end until about 5pm. Franceinfo, a French radio network, reported that police and the ministry of interior believed foul play was suspected in the downing of pylons near the towns of Villeneuve-Loubet, Mougins and Cagnes-sur-Mer. 'All resources are being mobilised to identify, track down, arrest and bring to justice the perpetrators of these acts,' Laurent Hottiaux, state representative for the Alpes-Maritimes region, said. Inevitably, given the location and the timing, speculation raged that the festival may have been the target. WINNERS Palme d'Or It Was Just an Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi Grand Prize Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier Best Actress Nadia Melliti, La Petite Dernière Best Director Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent Jury Prize – tie Sirat, directed by Oliver Laxe The Sound of Falling, directed by Mascha Schilinski Best Screenplay Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Young Mothers Best Actor Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent Special Prize Resurrection, directed by Bi Gan Camera d'Or The President's Cake, directed by Hassan Hadi Special Mention, Camera d'Or My Father's Shadow, directed by Akinola Davies Jr Short Film Palme d'Or I'm Glad You're Dead Now, directed by Tawfeek Barhom
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘We speak the uncomfortable truth, but German thought police are silencing us'
It was supposed to be the killer blow to a party which has stalked the nightmares of Germany's political elite: a bombshell intelligence report with proof that Alternative for Germany [AfD] was a Nazi-style extremist group. Running to more than a thousand pages, the report by Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency announced that the AfD was a 'confirmed Right-wing extremist organisation', opening the door to a total ban on the party. But instead of turning the AfD into a pariah, the report has triggered a furious row over the rise of censorship in Germany, and damaged relations between its new government and the Trump administration. The 'Right-wing extremist' label is particularly explosive as the AfD came second place in February's elections, making it the de-facto opposition party in Germany. The new classification will also permit the BfV to intercept the party's phone calls and plant undercover agents. The Trump administration, which has already warned that a crackdown on free speech is under way in Europe, cried foul when the findings of the report were disclosed earlier this month. AfD leaders also claim it is an attempt to silence a party which could potentially defeat Germany's ruling centrist parties in the next election and form a government. Drawing on hundreds of statements, speeches and social media posts by AfD members over the past decade, the BfV's report accuses the party of holding views on immigrants that would not be out of place in the Third Reich. It is the culmination of a years-long process where the BfV has gradually upgraded the AfD's security status, from having 'suspected extremist' factions in some regions of Germany, to being a 'confirmed extremist' group nationwide. To back up its new status for the AfD, the BfV cites party members who have used Nazi slogans in speeches, have referred to non-native citizens as 'passport Germans', and have claimed that violent immigrants are waging 'jihad' on the country. One much more lurid example cites an AfD youth wing which distributed stickers claiming that Muslims were an 'invasive species.' But the BfV's actions have also raised questions about the state of free speech in Germany, which is struggling with unprecedented anger over mass-migration, as well as tensions linked to wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Speaking to The Telegraph this week, Martin Hess, a senior AfD MP, warned that the German state was trying to punish the AfD for speaking 'uncomfortable truths' about mass migration, which he said were also held by '60 to 70 per cent' of the population. The tactic amounted to the German intelligence services acting as a modern-day 'gedankenpolizei,' he said, using the German phrase for the Orwellian term 'thought police.' 'I'm grateful the report has been made public, so that every citizen can read for themselves how you can be labelled Right-wing extremist for presenting the facts, which is what the AfD does,' Mr Hess, a former police officer and party spokesman for interior affairs, told The Telegraph. 'We speak uncomfortable truths, that migration has led to a massive deterioration in the security situation for Germany, and that migration, since 2015, has made Germany more unsafe than ever before in its history,' he added. The BfV's report has deeply irritated the Trump administration, members of which backed the AfD in the February elections and has repeatedly expressed concerns about the erosion of free speech in Europe – with particular emphasis on Germany and the UK. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, called the BfV's conduct 'tyranny in disguise', while JD Vance, the US vice-president, accused the German 'establishment' of 'rebuilding' the Berlin wall by demonising the AfD. It comes after Mr Vance snubbed a meeting in February with Olaf Scholz, the then-chancellor of Germany, at the Munich Security Conference, instead holding a meeting with Alice Weidel, the AfD leader. As the meeting was held just days before the German elections, it was viewed as the US in effect endorsing Ms Weidel as the country's next Chancellor. Germans are no strangers to having their language tightly controlled by the state, which is partly a legacy of postwar censorship rules aimed at preventing the return of a new fascist regime. All symbols and signs associated with Nazi Germany are banned, while playing down the scale and severity of Nazi war crimes is a criminal offence. But there are other examples which may seem excessive to British and US eyes: Rudely addressing a German policeman with the informal pronoun 'du' [you] carries a fine of €600 (£500). Making rude gestures, such as giving someone the middle finger, can lead to a fine of potentially thousands of euros. In one recent bizarre case, police raided a Bavarian man's house after he called former Robert Habeck, the former vice-chancellor, a 'schwachkopf' [moron] in a post on social media. But the BfV's new report is a step too far for the AfD, which says that censorship laws designed to block the return of Nazism are now being misused against critics of immigration policy. Mr Hess also suggested that the BfV drew up its report under pressure from Germany's ruling centrist parties, which are concerned that the AfD could emerge from the next general election as the largest party. 'The Verfassungsschutz [BfV] is currently being abused by those in power. It is a fact that the Verfassungsschutz is subject to the administrative and technical supervision of the interior ministry,' he said. 'It is therefore a fact that the Verfassungsschutz is bound to its instructions, and it's a fact that the Verfassungsschutz is led by so-called political officials.' Extracts of the BfV's controversial report, leaked to the German tabloid Bild, show that the AfD's views on immigrants were a key factor in its decision to declare the party a 'confirmed Right-wing extremist organisation.' But there were other factors: the party's track record of playing down Nazi war crimes, its uses of anti-Semitic 'ciphers and innuendo', and its links to the extreme-Right Identitarian movement in Europe. The report also accuses the AfD of violating Germany's postwar constitution, by drawing a distinction between native Germans and 'passport Germans,' meaning citizens of foreign origin. A key piece of evidence for this was a statement by Hans-Christoph Berndt, an AfD leader in Brandenburg state, that only ' 20, 30, 40 million Germans' were left in the country. The BfV interpreted the statement to mean that the remainder of Germany's citizens were not true Germans. BfV officials also included statements from Ms Weidel, such as her claim that 'cultural circles in Africa and the Middle East' were the cause of a surge in violent crime in Germany. Another remark labelled extremist by the BfV was Ms Weidel's view that violent migrants were waging a 'religious war' on Germany. The AfD denies such remarks are extremist as they refer to specific violent crimes committed in Germany by migrants, rather than migrants in general. Germany was hit by a string of terror attacks committed by rejected asylum seekers in the run-up to the February federal elections. In one of the most serious attacks, a rejected Syrian asylum seeker went on a stabbing rampage in a west German city's 'festival of diversity', killing three people. Mr Hess was speaking to the Telegraph three months after the AfD won 20 per cent of the vote in the federal elections, making the party the de-facto opposition in Germany. The party was frozen out of coalition talks by the centre-Right Christian Democrats and centre-Left Social Democrats, as both believe that the AfD is too extreme to govern. The election result was a major coup for the AfD, which started in 2013 as an obscure Eurosceptic movement but has since shifted ever further to the Right, largely in response to the 2015 refugee crisis. In the same interview, Mr Hess endorsed a German 'Dexit,' or exit from the European Union, and the deployment of the army at land borders to deter mass migration. He said that Dexit remained a long-term goal for the party, but stressed it was opposed to a British-style 'hard break' as it would cause significant turmoil to the German economy. 'We would send all available [border police] forces to the border, and if that does not suffice there is the possibility to temporarily resort to state police forces, and if that also does not suffice, we would temporarily deploy the armed forces,' Mr Hess added, addressing migration. Experts note that the rate of asylum seekers coming to Germany has decreased by 30 per cent, but the issue remains extremely sensitive due to the string of terror attacks committed by asylum seekers in the run-up to the elections. As for the censorship row, there are some signs that the BfV may be hesitating to go forward with its new 'extremist' label for the AfD. After its initial announcement, the BfV said it was pausing the process of formally designating the AfD as extremist, awaiting a court ruling by the administrative court in Cologne. German officials say this was a purely routine procedure, and that the extremist ruling will still be issued. But Ms Weidel has already claimed a victory over the German establishment. 'This is a first important step toward our exoneration and toward countering the accusation of Right-wing extremism,' she said, in a joint statement with Tino Chrupalla, the party's co-leader. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
