The problem was a cover story about the border dispute between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarized regions. The report included a map showing the territory claimed by either side without taking a position on their territorial claims. The Indian authorities nonetheless insisted on a white sticker being placed over the map in each copy sold in India, depriving the country’s readers of a factual analysis of the border dispute.

Ever since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Kashmir’s border have been both a cause and symptom of the tension between India and its Pakistani and Chinese neighbours. Ever since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Kashmir’s border have been both a cause and symptom of the tension between India and its Pakistani and Chinese neighbours.

The Indian government often uses a 1961 law amending the criminal code’s national security provisions in order to censor maps showing Kashmir’s disputed border. It has usually settled for putting a “not recognized by India” sticker on the maps, but in recent years it has toughened its information control policies, going so far as to block the import and distribution of copies of the Financial Times and The Economist in December 2010 because they contained maps of Asia that were “not consistent” with the government’s position.

"We Fight Censorship" is reprinting the censored map with the kind permission of The Economist.

Anticipating the censorship of the regional map in its 21 May 2011 issue, The Economist added a box entitled “Missing map?” at the end of report. The box said:

Sadly India censors maps that show the current effective border, insisting instead that only its full territorial claims be shown. It is more intolerant on this issue than either China or Pakistan. Indian readers will probably be deprived of the map on the second page of this special report. Unlike their government, we think our Indian readers can face political reality. Those who want to see an accurate depiction of the various territorial claims can do so using our interactive map at Economist.com/asianborders

Territorial disputes continue to be a highly sensitive subject for India’s government. When the Chinese foreign ministry issued new passports in November 2012 with a map of China on pages 8 and 46 showing territory claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines and India as Chinese, all of these countries protested but India was the only one to respond by producing new visas for Chinese citizens with a map of India that showed its version of the Sino-Indian border dispute.

How a censored event was used as grounds for censorship

The video presented here was one of the first amateur videos of the events in Zhanaozen that circulated on social networks before being picked up by independent and opposition media. It clearly shows something that the authorities initially tried to cover up at all costs – the fact that the police fired live rounds at protesters and then beat the wounded as they lay on the ground. The National Security Committee (KNB) put a great deal of pressure on the media in an attempt to identify the authors of this and similar videos.

Evidence of this kind forced the authorities to recognize the use of disproportionate force and to punish the police officers responsible. But this has not stopped President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s autocratic government from blaming the violence on opposition parties and media and accusing them of deliberately trying to destabilize the country. The events in Zhanaozen ended up being used as grounds for an increased crackdown. National opposition media were closed in December 2012.

Means of communication selectively disconnected

Kazakhstan’s 20th independence anniversary celebrations were disrupted in Zhanaozen by oil workers who had been hounded and fired for going on strike. They occupied the city’s central square but were expelled in order to make way for the festivities. When police used live rounds to fire on a crowd of protesters, riots broke out and spread throughout the city. Most government buildings were set on fire.

The official toll was 15 dead and around 100 wounded. A demonstrator was killed the next day at the railway station in the nearby town of Shetpe as a detachment of special forces were passing through on their way to Zhanaozen. The Kazakh judicial system’s incomplete and biased investigations failed to explain exactly how the events unfolded.

Zhanaozen and the surrounding region were cut off from the world. For several days, the Internet and telecommunications were disconnected in a radius of about 65 km around the city – on the official grounds that cables had been damaged. Throughout the region, including its capital, Aktau, where tense demonstrations were held, it was impossible to send or receive SMS messages or access the Internet using a smartphone.

Twitter was blocked throughout the country on 16 December and was not restored until the following day. Several leading news websites such Guljan.org, the Russian citizen news agency Ridus.ru and the opposition newspaper Respublika’s news portal were also inaccessible.

From blocking to control of journalist

A 20-day state of emergency and curfew were declared in Zhanaozen. Checkpoints were established all around both Zhanaozen and Aktau. Journalists needed to obtain accreditation from the regional government in order to visit the region. The first journalists to go there were given a military escort. They described a deserted city patrolled by heavily-armed men. It was very hard in these circumstances to talk to residents, who were reluctant to talk for a long time.

The authorities loosened the restrictions on journalists a bit after several days but continued to monitor their movements closely. Russian journalists were held at a police station in Zhanaozen for several hours on 18 December while the contents of their computers, USB flash drives and audio recorders were carefully examined.  Considerable constraints were placed on the movements of Stan TV, Radio Azattyk, Associated Press and Al-Jazeera reporters by special forces the same day in Shetpe.

One year on – pluralism close to death

The government portrayed the events in Zhanaozen as a destabilization attempt orchestrated by the opposition, and quickly used this interpretation as grounds for gagging its critics. The leaders of several opposition parties were arrested and the head of the Alga party, Vladimir Kozlov, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and confiscation of all of his assets. Throughout 2012, reporters of independent and opposition media found themselves being arrested, summoned for questioning by the security services, physically attacked or the targets of intimidation attempts.

The escalation reached a tipping point on the first anniversary of the Zhanaozen unrest. Prosecutors in the capital Almaty brought “extremism” charges against the main opposition national news media. Within a few weeks, the Respublika and Vzglyad newspapers, the satellite TV station K+ and the Stan TV news agency had all been forced to suspend activities. The news website Guljan.org was suspended. What with rushed trials, convictions in absentia and violation of defence rights, the judicial system no longer even tries to maintain a semblance of respectability.

1. Stan TV : mirror website http://stan.rsf.org/, download the full website
2. K+ : mirror website http://kplus-tv.rsf.org/, download the full website
3. Respublika : mirror website http://respublika-kz.rsf.org/, download the full website
4. Vzglyad : mirror website http://vzglyad.rsf.org/,  download the full website

WeFightCensorship is posting the articles that prompted Martínez’s arrest and  the recordings of the phone calls in which he and another detainee, Alexander Roberto Fernández Rico, described conditions in the prison.

The case began in June 2012, when eastern Cuba was hit by a cholera epidemic.  Even after two people had died of cholera and more than 50 had been hospitalized in the eastern city of Manzanillo, the authorities continued to say nothing on the subject although the public clearly needed to be informed.

Mosquito-borne dengue fever appeared in the eastern city of Camagüey in August. Four hundred people were initially hit but the number rose to 3,000 in the Camagüey alone in the space of a few weeks. The epidemic also spread to the rest of the country, infecting up to 90 people a day in Havana. Nonetheless, the authorities said nothing about the number of dead or infected.

Martínez was the first Cuban journalist to write about the cholera and dengue epidemics. His articles reported that health centres were overwhelmed, the authorities were saying nothing, diagnoses were being falsified in the records, and that officials from the Department for State Security (DSE) were everywhere, obstructing access to information.

He was arrested when he went to Havana’s José Martí international airport on 16 September to enquire about damage to a shipment of medicine that had been abandoned after being sent to Cuba by the World Health Organization. During his transfer to Santiago de las Vegas police station in the nearby municipality of Boyeros, the police hit Martínez repeatedly and he responded during the beating by cursing the Cuban regime. The police used this as grounds for detaining him on a charge of “disrespect” for Fidel and Raúl Castro.

Treated as a common criminal

On 10 November, Martínez was transferred to the Combinado del Este prison on the DSE’s orders. Once there, all of his personal effects were taken from him, he was denied the use of a phone, and he was forced to wear the uniform of a convicted common criminal. He began a hunger strike the same day to protest against the mistreatment and to demonstrate his refusal to be treated as a convict while in pre-trial detention.

Martínez managed to phone Hablemos Press three days later and in the ensuing conversation, the recording of which is posted immediately below, he gave the reasons for his hunger strike and described the conditions in the prison. After the call, the Hablemos Press phone line was temporarily disconnected, something that has been happening repeatedly since 23 September. The line goes down five or six times a day, each time for two or three hours. Hablemos Press director Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez’s mobile phone no longer works at all.

Martínez managed to call Hablemos Press again on 17 November, providing details of his physical condition after one week on hunger strike. He said he had a high fever and pains in his joints but was otherwise all right.

Support from fellow-inmates

There was no further news of Martínez until 21 November, when a political prisoner, Alexander Roberto Fernández Rico, managed to reach Hablemos Press. He said Martínez had been transferred the previous day to a punishment cell in “Area 47.” It also known as “Death Row” because, until 2005, inmates under sentence of death were held there pending execution. He said Martínez was naked in a cell on his own and was consuming just a litre of fetid water a day.

Hablemos Press managed to record this call, which is posted below. After the call, its line was disconnected for eight hours.

Fernández, who has been blind and paraplegic since a hunger strike in April 2012, was himself transferred to a punishment cell in Area 47 the next day. Another political prisoner, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz called Hablemos Press the same day and said: “They are cracking down hard on the Combinado del Este’s political prisoners, because we reported what happened to Martínez. Worse still, they are threatening to put other inmates in punishment cells if they don’t identify the political prisoners who are making the phone calls.”

Hablemos Press is waging an all-out campaign for Martínez’s release, circulating the recordings of the phone calls by email and urging NGOs to draw attention to the case.

Martínez has not been in a punishment cell since 6 December. He is continuing his hunger strike.

Calixto Ramón call on November 13th 2012

Les habla Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, recluido en la prisión Combinado del Este, piso tercero sur, compañía 3309. Me encuentro aquí desde el sábado, día 10, y me abstengo de alimentarme debido a que se me quitó toda la ropa de civil que traía y a que se me había prohibido la comunicación telefónica.
 
Quiero decir que las condiciones de vida en esta prisión son pésimas, debe ser declarada inhabitable. Lo denuncio ante las organizaciones internacionales que velan por el respeto de los Derechos Humanos. Pido que visiten esta prisión, que hagan hincapié en visitar esta prisión debido a las pésimas condiciones, y que el gobierno cubano se llene de dignidad y declare esta prisión inhabitable. Debo denunciar el estado de hacinamiento que se está viviendo en esta prisión, pues en un espacio de 13 a 14 metros de largo por 6 de ancho conviven unos 36 reos.
 
El primer día que llegué aquí tuve que dormir en el piso por la sobrepoblación penal que hay. Un oficial me explicó que yo no era el único que dormía en el piso, que en casi todas las compañías había 1 o 2 reos durmiendo en el piso.
 
En estas compañías los presos han tenido que ingeniárselas porque la construcción es de losa doble T de fabricación rusa y tiene filtraciones. Los reos han tenido que colocar nailon, tipo canal, que desemboque en el baño para que el agua que gotee no caiga encima de su cama.
 
Son también pésimas las condiciones sanitarias, pues en este espacio de 13 o 14 metros de largo por 6 de ancho hay que contar que está el baño, que no tienen tazas sanitarias. Son dos  turcos, uno para orinar y otro para defecar, y un lavamanos doble.
 
Se vive en estrechez. Es una aglomeración de presos en un espacio reducido, muy pequeño, además del mal estado, la mala higiene y el mal aspecto con que se vive en estas pequeñas compañías.
 
En este momento ya tengo cama, dormí dos días en el piso; esta mañana me la cedieron. El primer día, como cosa de privilegio, quisieron bajarme a un piso que tenía una cama, pero simplemente para dormir, y por la mañana tenía que subir a la compañía a donde pertenecía, a estar tirado en el piso. Me negué rotunamente, no quiero privilegios para mi persona. Ahora me niego a comer, estoy reclamando que se me suba a aquí la ropa de civil, pues en ropa de preso no salgo a ningún lado.
 
Hasta que no me entreguen la ropa, no como. Me habían prohibido el teléfono, oí cuando el oficial de la Seguridad del Estado le  dijo a los de la prisión que yo tenía que estar distante del teléfono en todo momento. Pero hoy me colé entre los reos y logré venir acá.

Alexander Roberto Fernández Rico call on Novembre 22nd 2012.

Yo, Alexander Roberto Fernández Rico, recluido en Combinado del Este, en el edificio número 3, denuncio las arbitrariedades que se están cometiendo con el prisionero político Calixto Ramón. Por el motivo de la libre emisión de pensamiento, se encuentra Calixto Ramón en cautiverio, en estos momentos se encuentra en la celda de castigo. Calixto Ramón está reclamándole a la autoridad penitenciaria no llevar la ropa de recluso, como lo expresa el libro primero de procesamiento penal, que él es inocente hasta que no se pruebe lo contrario. En estos momentos, Calixto Ramón se encuentra en huelga de hambre, se encuentra en estos momentos dormitando en el suelo, porque todas las personas que se plantan en huelga de hambre, debido a las arbitrariedades que se cometen, que cometen las autoridades penitenciarias mandadas por la Dirección General de Cárceles y Prisiones (DGCP), donde quién dirige a las Cárceles y Prisiones de Cuba, se llama el General de Brigada Marcos Hernández Alcaraz, la Dirección General de Cárceles y Prisiones en Cuba se encuentra en la dirección de Quincica, ellos tienen conocimiento de estas torturas que están haciendo pasar a Calixto Ramón. En este momento Calixto Ramón se encuentra en huelga de hambre, repito, repito, se encuentra en huelga de hambre porque quieren que él use la ropa de recluso, cuando él se encuentra en estos momentos bajo prisión provisional, y está siendo torturado : le quitan la tabla, el colchón, las dos sábanas para taparse, toda su ropa, toda su ropa. Y, sólo le suministran un pomo de agua, en qué, este recipiente, es agua estancada, el recipiente mide 1,5 litros. Hasta el momento esto es todo lo que sabemos del hermano Calixto Ramón, este periodista independiente de la agencia de prensa Hablemos Press. 

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Why was it withdrawn? Because of an AFP report on partial elections in Tangiers that was headlined A crucial test for PJD leaves Moroccans indifferent The elections were organized after the Constitutional Council invalidated the previous elections in three Tangiers-Asilah seats and one Gueliz-Annakhil seat. The offending dispatch mentioned the PJD and the other parties participating in the elections, including the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) and its founder Fouad Ali El Himma, who was described as a friend of the king.

The government withdrew Brouksy’s accreditation on the same day as his dispatch. Brouksy learned of the decision from a dispatch published by the Moroccan press agency MAP. Headlined Government withdraws AFP journalist’s accreditation because of unprofessional dispatch, it quoted a government communiqué:

The AFP dispatch carried allegations implicating the monarchy in an election that took place in an atmosphere of transparency, thereby undermining the monarchy’s position of neutrality and its role as arbiter keeping a distance from all electoral competitions between political parties.

The story does not end there. The next day AFP news director Philippe Massonet voiced his support for Brouksy. An AFP dispatch headlined Moroccan authorities withdraw AFP reporter’s accreditation quoted Massonet as saying:

The offending report’s sole aim was to inform and put a situation in context, with no intention of causing prejudice to anyone at all. The AFP bureau in Rabat continued to enjoy the full confidence of the news agency’s management, Massonet added.

But Brouksy still has no accreditation.