What are we free to read and how do we know it is the whole story? Asia House’s panel looks at freedom of speech and censorship in China, India, Sri Lanka and across Asia, examining how governments attempt to control what we think.
Salil Tripathi is a writer, editor and journalist. He is a board member of English PEN and co-chairs their Writers-at-Risk Committee. In 2011, he won a Bastiat Award for Journalism about free societies. He has been a senior visiting fellow for business and human rights at the Kennedy School, Harvard University, and is also an adviser to several global initiatives involving business and human rights. Offence: The Hindu Case, about the rise of Hindu nationalism and its implications on free expression, is his first book.
Frances Harrison was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, at SOAS and Imperial College in London. For many years she worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC posted in South Asia, South East Asia and Iran. From 2000-4 she was the resident BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and was a visiting research fellow at Oxford University. Still Counting the Dead is the story of the survivors of Sri Lanka’s hidden war and the government censorship that prevented reporting of the conflict.
John Kampfner is Adviser to Google on freedom of expression and culture. He is former Chief Executive of Index on Censorship and was editor of the New Statesman. He is an author, broadcaster and commentator specialising in UK politics, international affairs, media and human rights issues.
Julia Farrington is head of arts at Index on Censorship. In 2012, she led a major conference, Taking the Offensive, focused on defending artistic freedom of expression and the constraints faced.
They will be speaking with Mishal Husain, broadcast journalist and presenter of BBC World News, Impact and Newsnight.
Produced in partnership with AGI Magazine
Date: 16 May 2013
Time: 18.45
TicketsL £10, Concessions £8, Friends £7
Salil Tripathi – Offence: The Hindu Case
Frances Harrison – Still Counting the Dead
Julia Farrington – Index on Censorship
John Kampfner – Freedom for Sale
with moderator Mishal Husain
