The panel of experts at “Times are Changing”: What Does This Mean for the People of Cuba? on Friday, May 13, provided a nuanced view of the different layers of a society in transition.

The chair of the discussion Juliana Ruhfus, who recently dedicated an episode of her programme at Al-Jazeera English to Cuban economics, invited the speakers to critically evaluate the reporting on the Cuban reality.

“We need to reign in this ‘changing Cuba’ narrative. Yes, you’ve got the private sector, yes, you’ve got a new relationship with the US, Obama and all sorts of European heads of states and foreign ministers going with trade delegations, you’ve got the new foreign investment law. But at the same time for most people this is going very slowly,” Michael Voss, correspondent for CCTV.

Helen Yaffe, a specialist in the history of political economy, pointed out that reporters should be clearer about the underlying motivation of the United States. “The US objective hasn’t changed. And Obama himself is very clear about it. They still would like to see the end of the socialist system in Cuba.” She also noted that this agenda has quietly risen from pressure by other Latin American countries to involve Cuba in negotiations and the historical shortcomings of the US administration.

Emilio San Pedro, who reports on Cuba and Latin America for the BBC, added that the US motivation is also driven by the vision of lucrative investment. “I think they saw the opportunity because of the economic changes.”

Will Grant, BBC correspondent based in Havana since September 2014, also described the welcoming approach of Cubans to the rapprochement. “I think people are very, very tired of the same dynamic, same rhetoric and in that sense this change, whatever it may be, is welcome.”

Mr. San Pedro also admitted that nostalgia plays a huge role in the minds of Cubans, however, the young generation is emerging as a surprisingly rational and pragmatic group.

The panel also discussed an unprecendented protest in front of Ecuadorian embassy last year following an announcement that the state will require visa from the Cubans planning to visit. Mr Voss considers this the biggest popular unrest by Cubans who don’t normally engage in politics.

Pointing to the statistics, Ms Yaffe showed “the average salary in the state sector has gone up by 43% between 2011 and 2015.” Nevertheless, the raise has been uneven. Whereas those in the medical sector have seen their salaries rise two to three times, people in the education sector are still waiting. She also noted the imbalance in covering the country from Havana: “29 % of the Cubans work in the non-state sector and all the focus of the reporting is on those.”

Mr Grant tried to assess the extent of freedom of expression as a foreign correspondent in Cuba and recalled a rather positive story of Cuban medics helping in western Africa during the Ebola outbreak for which he hasn’t been granted access. “They’re protecting themselves, they’re protecting their revolution from a kind of spin (…) So it’s easier just to let the agency to say it.”

He also emphasised that journalists should make more effort to find broader angles and avoid focusing only on the institutional narrative between Washington and Havana. “It’s a very very special time to be here, it’s a very good story. (…)We need to find good new inventive creative ways making sure that the Cuban reality is at the front of what we’re doing.”

On Monday 16 November, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of the documentary Yallah! Underground, a vibrant look at a diverse groups of Arab artists and musicians using culture to challenge the status quo. The film is set in the years prior to and during the Arab spring, and focuses on artists from Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. The film was followed by a Q&A with director Farid Eslam, via Skype.

The film puts its soundtrack at the forefront, and uses music to weave its way through different Arab cities, swiftly moving its focus between the individual artists’ discussions over the struggle between individuality and tradition. Freedom of expression and thought are common themes that are mentioned regularly, particularly in relation to the events of Tahrir Square in Egypt.

Eslam had spent a lot of time in the Middle East, mostly filming on commercial projects, and explained that his motivation for this project came from the desire to provide a different presentation of Arabs. He commented that Western perspective often sees Arabs being “closely connected to violence, frustration, aggression, which is only a fraction of the reality.”

“Most people want the same thing all over the world: to live in peace, freedom and to raise their families. It’s important to remind people and ourselves from time to time that we’re talking about just normal people, and it’s sad that we live in a time where we actually have to be reminded of this simple fact and simple truth.”

One audience member was curious about the absence of Syria from the film, considering its presence of underground artists. Eslam explained that he was keen to include Syria, and had tried to feature artists in Damascus and Jeddah. However, due to the escalation of the situation, “it became impossible.” Eslam did manage to film some Syrian artists in the Golan Heights, but this was not included in the film.

Eslam explained that he was able to film such a diverse group of people partly due to limited and sporadic funding, but also due to a large network of artists to draw from. Most of the artists filmed did not make it into the film; the total footage for the project was extensive, and probably enough to “make five more films.”

Will be discovering Egyptian hip hop today after watching Farid Eslam's 'Yallah! Underground' @frontlineclub last night. What a great film!

— Josephine Casserly (@JoCasserly) November 17, 2015

He found it very easy to meet artists: “Basically, you meet one artist and he points you to ten new ones.”

While a lot of his research was carried out on social media, he was also able to spend a lot of time talking directly to artists and people connected with the alternative scene.

Information about Yallah! Underground can be found on the film’s website and Facebook page. Yallah! Underground will have its first screening in an Arab country next month in Dubai.

From the early days of the Arab Spring that sparked hopes for change to the years of instability and political tension that followed, this enthralling documentary follows the stories of young prominent underground artists from across the Middle East during the period of 2009 to 2013.

In a region fraught with political tension, these progressive musicians and artists have struggled for years to express themselves freely and to promote more liberal attitudes within their societies.

From young female artists in Egypt overturning the norms by living alone, to the persecution of a famous Lebanese musician for singing against the political leader, director Farid Eslam paints a picture of a new generation challenging both old and new realities with passion and admirable perseverance.

Directed by: Farid Eslam
Runtime: 84′
Year: 2015
Country: Czech Republic, Germany, UK, Egypt, Canada, US
Languages: English, Arabic

What are journalists worth in an age where anyone can tell their own story online? Has their diminishing value led to the growing violence against journalists across the world? This is the argument that executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Joel Simon, put forward at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 17 March. Following the release of his latest book, A New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, Simon joined an engaged audience to discuss the reasons behind this ongoing diminishing of press freedom on a global scale. The discussion spanned from the current global spike in the murder, kidnapping and intimidation of journalists, to the futility of media blackouts, to the ways in which the internet has permanently changed the face of the news industry.

l-r: Richard Sambrook and Joel Simon

Speaking to Richard Sambrook, Director of Journalism at Cardiff University and chairman of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), Simon pointed to a paradox: access to overwhelming amounts of information blinding people to the urgency of the crisis in press freedom.

“We’re so deluged by information that I think we fail to see the ways in which censorship and repression are actually creating gaps in the essential knowledge that we need,” said Simon.

Using case studies of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, Simon‘s book demonstrates how repressive governments use systems of state control to undermine the work of the press.

Sambrook agreed, and added that, “Increasingly, journalism is becoming politicised and the danger is growing of falling on the wrong side of oppressive regimes.”

In situations such as that in IS-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, journalists are now seen as targets, rather than tools to spread messages, commented Simon. Changes in technology that have allowed anyone to share their own message online have also robbed journalists of their monopoly on disseminating information, he said. Simon noted a clear correlation between increased numbers of people active online and greater threats posed to press freedom.

“The value of journalists as individuals is diminished and that makes them more vulnerable. I believe that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing this spike in violence and this spike in repression.”

In the past, kidnapped journalists were able to argue their usefulness to captors by arguing that they were an invaluable tool for communicating their stories.

“If a journalist said that to IS they’d be laughed out of the room,” said Simon.

The discussion then moved to the frequent media blackouts that are actioned when journalists are kidnapped, under the pretence of allowing direct negotiations to take place. Simon, however, argued that these blackouts only allow captors, such as ISIS, to assume full control of the narrative.

We need to overturn the default press blackout on difficult news events. Coverage should be the default @Joelcpj @frontlineclub

— Tom Jeffery (@tdwjeffery) March 17, 2015

The wide-ranging discussion also looked at the problem of Western governments prioritising national security over freedom of expression in the wake of recent terror attacks on journalists at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

“I think the freedom of expression coalition lasted a couple of days and it’s been replaced by a national security coalition,” said Simon, and pointed to increased powers of state surveillance introduced in the UK within days of the attack.

To tackle the current crisis of press freedom, Simon proposed a broad alliance between journalists and all groups with an interest in ensuring the free flow of information.

“We need to form a grand coalition between all the forces which have a stake in ensuring that information flows freely,” he said.

Only with the help of the global business and technology communities, NGOs and like-minded governments could journalists make headway in preserving the fundamental right to free speech, he said.

More information on The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Freedom of Expression is available here.

Watch and listen back below:

In a debate at the Frontline Club on 16 January 2015, in the aftermath of the attacks on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on 7 January, a panel of expert commentators strongly backed the continued promotion of free speech and warned against responding to the attacks with a curtailment of rights and liberties.

Members of the panel urged governments to resist the temptation to try to legislate, or fight, their way out of what was characterised as a crisis of identity for the European continent. Europe must be mindful of the risks of societal polarisation, argued the panel, as well as being aware of the likelihood of further terrorist attacks in the year ahead.

Terror in France at The Frontline Club – Photo by Richard Nield

Despite the attacks on Charlie Hebdo apparently being motivated by the blasphemous nature of some of their cartoons, the preservation of the freedom to blaspheme is vital, argued Maajid Nawaz, formerly a leading member of a global Islamist group and co-founder and chairman of Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank.

“Blasphemy is one of the most fundamental prerequisites for any form of revolution,” said Nawaz, citing Galileo, Darwin, Martin Luther and Mohammed as examples. “In all four cases, blasphemy was in the eye of the beholder, and that’s all that blasphemy is. Without it, mankind would not have intellectually progressed.”

Maajid Nawaz – Photo by Richard Nield

Natalie Nougayrède, foreign affairs commentator for The Guardian and former executive editor of Le Monde, agreed:

“We must not censor ourselves in a mindset where blasphemy is banned… We don’t want to live in that kind of world, certainly not in Europe.”

Nawaz stressed how important it is to distinguish between criticism of an ideology and prejudice against individuals.

“No idea should be above scrutiny,” he said. “But that’s very different from saying a people should be below dignity.”

Those who stand up for these ideals, particularly in countries where such freedoms are oppressed, should be given our wholehearted support, said Nawaz.

“It is not good enough to say we have the right to scrutinise everything but others don’t,” he said, highlighting the case of Raif Badawi, co-founder of online discussion forum Saudi Arabian Liberals, who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals (about US$267,000) by a criminal court in Jeddah. “We have to stand on the line and start supporting Arab progressivism.”

Peter Neumann, founder and director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, warned that the response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks might not be wholly positive.

“I am concerned about the degree of polarisation that [the attacks] may cause in European society,” he said. “That will perhaps empower the far right, not only in France but in other European countries. All this has happened at a very vulnerable moment in our societies”.

Peter Neumann – Photo by Richard Nield

Neumann also warned that governments might not respond in the mature, constructive way that proponents of liberty and free speech might hope.

“I fear that politicians will retreat to one of two comfort zones,” he said. “Either more law or more war. More law means more profiling, more stop and search. This doesn’t help. It makes things worse. Or more war. But you can’t fight your way out of this problem.”

“The other comfort zone is the George Galloway model: burying our head in the sand and saying there is no problem with Islamic extremism and that it’s all to do with foreign policy.”

Nougayrède, warned against the continued use of a vocabulary that revolves around war and echoes George Bush, who on 20 September 2001 coined the phrase ‘War on Terror’, an idea that was later used to justify US-led international interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Two days ago, the French president said that France is at war with terrorist Islamic fundamentalism,” said Nougayrède. “I feel uneasy with the use of the word war… France cannot be at war with any part of its own population.”

Natalie Nougayrède – Photo by Richard Nield

The Charlie Hebdo attack and its aftermath reveals identity issues within French and European society, said the panel.

Nougayrède pointed out that when teachers in one French classroom tried to hold a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the attack, a third of them refused.

“There’s a very big confusion,” she said. “There needs to be a lot of explaining.”

Nawaz agreed that although Britain and France have adopted very different policies towards Muslim minorities, both have problems, and that even in Britain there is a “huge problem with integration”.

“We are suffering an acute identity crisis across Europe,” said Nawaz. “I want to see a new social contract with a European-wide identity.”

Answering a question from the floor, the panel sought to address the controversial question of why religious extremism is disproportionately associated with the Islamic faith.

Nawaz suggested that there are “problematic scriptures that most Muslims haven’t come to terms with that Christians had to a long time ago.”

Nesrine Malik, a Sudanese-born writer and commentator focusing on Middle Eastern politics and minority matters in the UK, said that Islamic fundamentalism arises for “different reasons in different environments,” but that it always comes down to political differences.

At root, argued Malik, militant Islam has arisen partly because of the radicalisation of the Islamic faith by religious and political leaders.

“If I were to draw a line I would draw it back to the religious environment in the Middle East,” said Malik. “The very extreme rhetoric that is imbibed on a very casual basis is alarming.

“It is part of media messaging, education, religious messaging. It is hardwired…to see Islam as a safe place, as a source of legitimacy.

“Even though the attackers were French there is now a global network that communicates these thoughts very quickly.

“Middle East governments say that Islamic fundamentalism is under control because they have their own version of it. It’s like giving someone an inoculation. But of course you can’t control it.”

The failure of Middle Eastern governments to effectively represent their people is also a key factor, suggested Malik, as it encourages the substitution of religious militancy for political representation.

“There is a lack of representation of Muslims,” said Malik. “They grow up with no rights. They don’t feel represented. Everyone has a sort of cynical, almost mafia relationship with their government, which at the end of the day is not really about them.

“It’s a longstanding political tool to inflict terrorism on behalf of a religion when you don’t feel you have a representative government… When the state acts on your behalf, it’s not seen as terrorism.”

The panel was pessimistic about the prospects for an effective solution to the challenge of Islamic terrorism in the future.

“This will probably not be the last event like this in 2015,” said Neumann. “Parts of the jihadist movement have realised they can force the hand of the world’s most powerful people by having a knife and a camera.

“It is no longer about the number of people you are killing, but about the broader effect… This will pose an even greater political, economic, societal challenge to the whole continent.”

Watch back here:

France is in mourning after three days of violence that saw 17 of its citizens killed. Violent events began on Wednesday 7 January with the brutal attack on the offices of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo and ended two days later with sieges on two hostage sites.

As the country begins to come to terms with what has happened, we will be joined by a panel to take a view of events and to discuss the repercussions for society and security in France. We will also be tackling the arguments around the use of freedom of expression.

Chaired by James Coomarasamy, presenter of Newshour on the BBC World Service and former BBC Paris Correspondent. He has just returned from Paris where he was presenting Newshour on the World Service and The World Tonight on Radio 4.

The panel:

Maajid Nawaz is co-founder and chairman of Quilliam. His work is informed by years spent in his youth as a leadership member of a global Islamist group, and his gradual transformation towards liberal democratic values, documented in his autobiography Radical.

Natalie Nougayrède is a columnist, leader writer and foreign affairs commentator for The Guardian. She was previously executive editor and managing editor of Le Monde.

Peter Neumann is professor of security studies at the department of war studies, King’s College London, and serves as director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which he founded in early 2008.

Nesrine Malik is a Sudanese-born writer and commentator, focusing on Middle Eastern politics and minority matters in the UK.

As a teenager, programming prodigy Aaron Swartz took the Internet community by storm. His intellect and understanding matched its most seasoned members. Today, his fingerprints are all over the Internet, from his help in the development of the basic Internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit. But Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice, combined with his aggressive approach to information access ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare, with fatal consequences.

In 2011 and 2012, he was indicted by prosecutors who charged him with a staggering number of felonies. Swartz found himself facing 35 years in prison, and at the age of 26 was found dead in his apartment, from an apparent suicide. The Internet’s Own Boy tells the personal and moving story of what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.

Directed by Brian Knappenberger
Duration: 105′
Year: 2014

The Internet’s Own Boy will be released in cinema’s across the UK by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution

On the evening of 11 June 2013, the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pulled the plug on ERT, Greece’s public broadcaster, after 75 years of continuous operation. Both TV and radio frequencies fell silent, making screens broadcast black and the FM to buzz.

The closure of ERT was an unheard-of political act that shocked Greek citizens, bringing back memories from the dark period of dictatorship. The silencing of public television resulted in a political conflict and provoked protests in a country already divided. It also caused a fierce international outrage from all around the world.

Directed by Yorgos Avgeropoulos
Duration: 65′
Year: 2013

Shadows of Liberty is an in-depth examination of the media crisis in the United States, where 166 newspapers have folded and 230,000 jobs have been lost since 2008.

Shadows of Liberty returns to the fabrications and cover ups that demonstrate just how the news we read is shaped by big business and government agendas. Mixing revealing interviews, reconstructions, animation, archive material, and insider accounts, director Jean-Philippe Tremblay explores the state of the U.S. media today and asks if the dominance of commercial interests makes unbiased reporting impossible to find.

The film’s title is borrowed from a Thomas Paine quote: "When men yield up the privileged of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

Tremblay puts forward well-researched case studies of journalists who refused to let go of stories to the detriment of their careers, including former CBS reporter Roberta Baskin who exposed NIKE sweatshops in Vietnam. Also appearing in the documentary are, among others, Dan Rather, Bob McChesney, Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange, Danny Glover, Chris Hedges, Norman Solomon and Amy Goodman.

Director: Jean-Philippe Tremblay
Duration: 93′
Year: 2012

What impact has the decline of the newspaper industry and the growing influence of a few corporate giants had on objective news reporting?

Shadows of Liberty is an in-depth examination of the media crisis in the United States, where 166 newspapers have folded and 230,000 jobs have been lost since 2008.

Shadows of Liberty returns to the fabrications and cover ups that demonstrate just how the news we read is shaped by big business and government agendas. Mixing revealing interviews, reconstructions, animation, archive material, and insider accounts, director Jean-Philippe Tremblay explores the state of the U.S. media today and asks if the dominance of commercial interests makes unbiased reporting impossible to find.

The film’s title is borrowed from a Thomas Paine quote: “When men yield up the privileged of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

Tremblay puts forward well-researched case studies of journalists who refused to let go of stories to the detriment of their careers, including former CBS reporter Roberta Baskin who exposed NIKE sweatshops in Vietnam. Also appearing in the documentary are, among others, Dan Rather, Bob McChesney, Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange, Danny Glover, Chris Hedges, Norman Solomon and Amy Goodman.

Other panelists to be confirmed.

Director: Jean-Philippe Tremblay
Duration: 93′
Year: 2012