Headquarters | Groningen, Netherlands |
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Website | concernedhistorians.org |
The Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) is a human rights network that aims to provide a bridge between international human rights organisations campaigning for censored or persecuted historians (and other concerned with the past) and the global community of historians. Its work consists of two core activities: the collection of information on persecuted and censored historians; and the dissemination of urgent actions for persecuted and censored historians (and others who write about the past). [1] [2] [3] The NCH publishes an Annual Report covering countries around the globe. [4] [5]
It was created in 1995 by Antoon De Baets, prof. em. of History, Ethics and Human Rights by Special Appointment of the European Association of History Educators (EuroClio) at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands (2014–) and President of the International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography (2022–). [6] [7] It was partly inspired by a roundtable titled "Power, Liberty and the Work of the Historian" at the 1995 International Congress of Historical Sciences in Montreal, Canada. [8] [9] [10] In the Summer of 2020, Ruben Zeeman, a graduate student of Comparative History at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria, joined NCH as co-editor. [11]
In 2001, it became one of the founding members of the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR). It has fraternal ties with Academia Solidaria of the Historia a Debate at the University of Santiago de Compostela (since 2003) [12] and with the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education in New York (since 2008). [13] [14] It is further affiliated with several international human rights organisations, including Scholars at Risk (since 2007), the Science and Human Rights Coalition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2008), the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (since 2011), the International Students of History Association (since April 2013) and PEN America (since 2024). [15] [16] [17] Its website is regularly archived by the Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research at Columbia University. [18]
It is inspired by article 1 of the Constitution of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (1926, as amended in 1992 and 2005): “It [the Committee] shall defend freedom of thought and expression in the field of historical research and teaching, and is opposed to the misuse of history and shall use every means at its disposal to ensure the ethical professional conduct of its members.” [19]
It works according to four principles:
Its work consists of a variety of topics:
Among the professions represented in their work are historians, archivists, archaeologists, anthropologists, students, high school teachers, librarians, truth commission members, journalists, librarians, authors and film makers. [29]
It publishes an Annual Report documenting instances of censorship that fall within its mandate that happened globally in the preceding year. The Report is published every August and contains on average 150 pages covering 100+ countries. The Annual Reports have been published since 1995 and are all available on the organization's website. [30] In their 2024 report, the regional distribution was: Europe/Central Asia (36); Middle East/North Africa (16); Americas (14); Sub-Saharan Africa (24); Asia/Pacific (21). Its documentation is based on information provided by trusted news and human rights organizations, including BBC News, Al Jazeera and Human Rights Watch.
In addition to regular documentation, it also spreads campaigns on history-related topics with its community of around 3700 subscribed historians. Past campaigns included letter writing campaigns set up by Amnesty International and petitions shared by Memorial (society). In 2024, it shared campaigns for the Sierra Leonean historian and journalist Chernoh Alpha Bah, the imprisoned President of the Truth and Dignity Commission (Tunisia) Sihem Bensedrine, and the detained Talysh historian Igbal Abilov.
Whereas archiving worldwide censorship and campaigning for history-related topics are the Network's core operations, it also collects information on a variety of other history-related subjects:
Turkmenistan's human rights record has been heavily criticized by various countries and scholars worldwide. Standards in education and health declined markedly during the rule of President Saparmurat Niyazov.
PEN International is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous International PEN centres in more than 100 countries.
In Ireland, the state retains laws that allow for censorship, including specific laws covering films, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, as well as terrorism and pornography, among others. In the early years of the state, censorship was more widely enforced, particularly in areas that were perceived to be in contradiction of Catholic dogma, including abortion, sexuality and homosexuality. The church had banned many books and theories for centuries, listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression. It produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship, which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. The current CEO is Jemimah Steinfeld.
Article 19 is a British international human rights organisation that works to defend and promote freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide. It was founded in 1987. The organisation takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.
Censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is mandated by the country's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world. The government censors content for mainly political reasons, such as curtailing political opposition, and censoring events unfavorable to the CCP, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, pro-democracy movements in China, the persecution of Uyghurs in China, human rights in Tibet, Falun Gong, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, censorship has been "significantly stepped up".
Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey.
Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains but exceptionally may extend to all Internet resources located outside the jurisdiction of the censoring state. Internet censorship may also put restrictions on what information can be made internet accessible. Organizations providing internet access – such as schools and libraries – may choose to preclude access to material that they consider undesirable, offensive, age-inappropriate or even illegal, and regard this as ethical behavior rather than censorship. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship of material they publish, for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, political views, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.
Censorship in Israel is officially carried out by the Israeli Military Censor, a unit in the Israeli government officially tasked with carrying out preventive censorship regarding the publication of information that might affect the security of Israel. The body is headed by the Israeli Chief Censor, a military official appointed by Israel's Minister of Defense, who bestows upon the Chief Censor the authority to suppress information he deems compromising from being made public in the media, such as Israel's nuclear weapons program and Israel's military operations outside its borders. On average, 2240 press articles in Israel are censored by the Israeli Military Censor each year, approximately 240 of which in full, and around 2000 partially.
The condition of human rights in Moldova has come under scrutiny since 2002, and human rights organizations within Moldova and around the world have spoken out against what they feel to be unfair suppression of the independent media, as well as other abuses.
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments and private institutions. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is referred to as self-censorship. General censorship occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel. Specific rules and regulations regarding censorship vary between legal jurisdictions and/or private organizations.
The government of Malawi does not systematically filter or block Internet content. However, the government has blocked access to news sites and social media in isolated incidents in efforts to quell protests.
Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. "Speech" is not limited to public speaking and is generally taken to include other forms of expression. The right is preserved in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. Nonetheless, the degree to which the right is upheld in practice varies greatly from one nation to another. In many nations, particularly those with authoritarian forms of government, overt government censorship is enforced. Censorship has also been claimed to occur in other forms and there are different approaches to issues such as hate speech, obscenity, and defamation laws.
Internet censorship in South Korea is prevalent, and contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-North Korea websites, and to a lesser extent, Japanese websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by OpenNet Initiative. South Korea is also one of the few developed countries where pornography is largely illegal, with the exception of social media websites which are a common source of legal pornography in the country. Any and all material deemed "harmful" or subversive by the state is censored. The country also has a "cyber defamation law", which allow the police to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses.
The United Arab Emirates Five are five activists who were arrested in April 2011 on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, through running an website that expressed anti-government views.
The Polish League Against Defamation is a right-wing nationalist non-governmental organization based in Warsaw, Poland. It was founded in 2013 by Maciej Świrski. Critics of the organization argue that its aggressive tactics have the opposite of the intended effect.
Censorship in Indonesia has varied since the country declared its independence in 1945. For most of its history the government of Indonesia has not fully allowed free speech and has censored Western movies, books, films, and music as well. However, partly due to the weakness of the state and cultural factors, it has never been a country with full censorship where no critical voices were able to be printed or voiced.
In Nigeria, the freedom of expression is protected by section 39 (1) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria constitution. Despite this constitutional protection, the Nigerian media was controlled by the government throughout much of its history, with some even to this day. By 2020, however, over 100 newspapers in Nigeria were independent. Furthermore, there was a brief moment from 1979 to 1983 when the government of the Second Nigerian Republic handed over the task of censorship to the military. Nigerian censors typically target certain kinds of idea, such as ethnic discussion, political opposition, and morality incorrectness.
Censorship in Ecuador refers to all actions which can be considered as suppression in speech in Ecuador. In the Freedom of the Press Report 2016 by Freedom House, the press in Ecuador is classified as "not free". The 2016 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders placed Ecuador in the "noticeable problems" category for press freedom, ranking the country 109 out of 180.
The International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography (ICHTH) is a non-profit organization composed of historians and scholars ofrelated disciplines. Among other activities, it promotes conferences, workshops and publications, and periodically awards book and dissertation prizes.