World Chatserie over Neo Censuur

De Balie organiseert een World chatserie over neo censuur

Balie organises a unique evening on neo-censorship (see below). In addition to a live Worldchat, there will be a DJ and an excellent cocktail bar.

What is neo-censorship?
By neo-censorship the Balie means modern ways of censorship not imposed by governments but by citizens, organizations and companies that use all kinds of tools to prevent others from using their right to freedom of speech. Such tools are lawsuits, money, etc. Think of papers that refuse to print well written opinions, museums that refuse to exhibit art, schools that refuse to teach scientific theories, libraries that refuse to buy books, or movie companies that cut scenes from their movies. We hold that this kind of censorship is more dominant in Western countries than (classical) state censorship.
Do you agree? And if you do, what can we do about it?

The Balie invites you to send your opinion and real life examples of neo- censorship (before September 16th) so that we can use them as discussion statements for our session (worldchat@balie.nl).

The session offers a wonderful opportunity to have your opinions discussed by writers, artists, scientists and other interested persons from around the world. We welcome your participation but can only offer a limited number of people access to the session. Therefore, send us an e-mail before September 16th.

The Worldchat on neo-censorship is organised as part of the international conference on Neo-Censorship that takes place in De Balie at September 19th-20th. The outcomes of the session will be used for a publication.

Guests: 
Paul Sturges (Professor of Library Studies, Loughborough University, UK), Rohan Jayasekera (British journalist, editor, web designer and occasionally controversial activist for free expression and media rights), publicist and former Geenstijl-member Bert Brussen (Geenstijl is Holland biggest and most famous critical shocklog). Ingmar Vriesema (journalist and publicist), DJ, Cocktailbar and Skype guests from all over the world.

The chatboxes:
The worldchat on neo censorship is divided in four separate chatboxes.

 

 

Box 1: Neo-censorship: how are we doing in 2008?
Are we moving forward to an ever more free world? Or are we even worse of than, say, ten years ago? What are the causes for these tendencies? Participants have the opportunity to discuss their opinions with Rohan Jayasekera, a long-time activist for free speech and member of the index on censorship.

Box 2: Neo-censorship and news media
The second box deals debates neo-censorship and newspapers. Do newspapers

print al sorts opinions, or do they deliberately prevent debates from being held? Participants can discuss their opinions with Ingmar Vriesema, editor of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad and Bert Brussen of the internetforum geenstijl.

Box 3: Neo-censorship in a multicultural society 
How do minority and majority groups

prevent the meaning of the other from being heard? What means do minorities use? How do they differ from the means of the majority? Which groups suffer most from censorship? 

Box 4: Neo-censorship and archives 
Despite its specialist title, this box discusses an important theme that affects all of us. How do archives and libraries

prevent opinions from being heard by present and future generations? How do we prevent the few from creating the world history of the many by using their archives for their own purposes? Does ‘digital censorship’ exist? How does it differ from analogue forms?
This chatroom provides a rare opportunity to discuss your topics with Paul Sturges, chairman of the Library Association’s International Group (IGLA) and an expert on ethical and moral issues related to archiving and librarian institutes

Voor meer informatie:

www.debalie.nl