Model EthicS Policy for Cultural Institutions
What are the responsibilities of a British cultural institution, organisation or charity at a time when the gravest of crimes are being committed in plain sight in Gaza?
Israel’s culture wars
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Royal Television Society U-Turns on Special Award for Palestinian Journalists
In response to a statement by the Royal Television Society (copied below), UK Screen Industry has said: “We welcome the Royal Television Society’s U-turn in reinstating the Special Award for the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza. However, the charity’s statement does little to address or allay our concerns.
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Leading Broadcasters Demand Reinstatement of Special Award Recognising Gaza Journalists
Broadcasters Jonathan Dimbleby, Lindsey Hilsum, Sangita Myska, Matt Frei, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Alex Crawford, Fergal Keane and Orla Guerin are among more than 400 TV and journalism professionals who have sent a letter to the leadership of the Royal Television Society (RTS) demanding transparency around its decision-making after the charity abruptly cancelled its Special Award for journalists in Gaza last week.
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BBC bosses ‘throwing Palestinian children under a bus’
“We welcome Tim Davie saying an independent review of the BBC’s Middle East coverage is appropriate and urge that this accounts for its abject failure to stand by the Palestinian voices it features. We all know Israeli guests would never be treated this way.”
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TV industry urges MPs to press BBC execs over Gaza documentary removal
UK TV and film programme-makers have urged a panel of MPs to press BBC executives on Tuesday over the controversial removal of a documentary about children in Gaza.
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Our response to the BBC’s shameful statement on ‘Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone’
Following Thursday’s BBC board meeting and statement on ‘Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone’, Artists for Palestine UK said: “We are appalled that the BBC has chosen to give credence to a politicised campaign that sought to discredit a documentary about children’s experiences of unspeakable Israeli military violence, because one child’s father was deputy agriculture minister in Gaza. This disgraceful decision comes despite nearly 900 media figures having warned the BBC of the dangers of such an approach.
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1,000+ programme-makers condemn censorship and racism after BBC pulls Gaza documentary
Gary Lineker, Brian Cox, Sangita Myska, Nish Kumar, Khalid Abdalla, Anita Rani, and Miriam Margolyes have joined over 1,000 film, TV, and media workers in condemning censorship and racism after the BBC pulled a documentary about children’s lives in Gaza.
The media professionals, including sixteen BBC staff, sent a letter to the broadcaster’s director-general Tim Davie, chair of the board Samir Shah, chief content officer Charlotte Moore, and head of news and current affairs Deborah Turness on Wednesday. The letter condemned a “racist” and “dehumanising” campaign targeting the film Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, which the BBC removed from its iPlayer streaming service after pressure from supporters of Israel.
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Leading artists condemn campaign against ‘Let it be a Tale’ theatre production
Leading artists, including writer Michael Rosen, actors Billy Howle and Khalid Abdalla, playwrights Caryl Churchill and Tanika Gupta and composer Orlando Gough, have spoken out against attempts to damage the reputation and stifle the work of Brighton’s ThirdSpace theatre company.
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Hundreds of Artists Condemn the Royal Academy of Arts’ Anti-Palestinian Censorship
Royal Academicians Jock McFadyen, Rana Begum, Vanessa Jackson, Tim Shaw, David Nash, Helen Sear, David Mach and Goshka Macuga are among hundreds of arts professionals condemning the Royal Academy of Arts’ anti-Palestinian censorship after it removed two artworks from its Young Artists’ Summer Show. In an open letter published today by Artists for Palestine UK, the…
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UK cinemas must refuse Israel-sponsored film festival
Picturehouse and Curzon cinemas have already refused to host the festival. The festival has also been refused at the Cines Girona, Barcelona. We believe there is no moral or ethical justification for a British cultural venue to do ‘business as usual’ with any organisation that is sponsored by the Israeli regime while it intensifies its genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
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Olivia Colman among 1000+ artists accusing art institutions of censorship on Palestine
More than 1,300 artists, including Academy Award winning Olivia Colman, Olivier Award winners Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson, BAFTA winners Aimee Lou Wood and Siobhán McSweeney, Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Susanne Wokoma (Enola Holmes), Youseff Kerkour (Napoleon), Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton) and Lolly Adefope (Ghosts, Loki), have launched a letter addressed to the arts and culture sector, that accuses cultural institutions across Western countries of:
“repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives”.
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On Speaking and Silence: the New McCarthyism
Israel and its allies are trying to build a wall of silence around their devastation of Gaza. Around the world, those who seek to break through it are having to contend with an extraordinary and shameful campaign of pressure and threats. No-one who speaks out, from the UN Secretary-General to a London tube-driver, is exempt. Yet the breakthrough has happened.
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The Barbican, Censorship, and Anti-Palestinian Racism
Artists for Palestine UK is shocked at reports that the Barbican told a Palestinian artist to avoid talking about freedom for Palestinians. Having welcomed a co-founder of Palestinian station Radio Alhara to give a talk on “the radical nature of radio”, the Barbican reportedly instructed him to “safeguard the audience” by keeping his comments about…
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Leading artists oppose Barbican’s partnership with apartheid Israeli embassy
More than fifty artists, including poet and writer Benjamin Zephaniah, actor Miriam Margolyes, DJ The Blessed Madonna and Turner Prize co-winning artist Tai Shani have called on London arts venue the Barbican Centre to end its partnership with the embassy of Israel.
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Leading lights of British theatre accuse European Drama Prize of modern-day McCarthyism
More than 180 actors, writers and producers have accused the jury of the 2022 European Drama Prize in Germany of “modern-day McCarthyism”, after it withdrew a Lifetime Achievement Award from renowned British playwright Caryl Churchill over her support for Palestinian rights.
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Campaign to silence rapper and campaigner Lowkey reaches new low
The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, a trade union-organised ‘celebration of solidarity’, disinvited the pro-Palestinian artist following behind-the-scenes pressure.
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Israeli filmmakers call on Locarno Festival to drop ‘complicit’ Israeli film
Israeli filmmakers and artists including Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi and Turner Prize co-winner Tai Shani have urged Locarno International Film Festival to cancel its Thursday screening of an Israeli film due to concerns over its funding.
Last week, Artists for Palestine UK revealed that the foundation contractually obligates filmmakers to undertake “that there is not and will not be in the film any presentation, statement or message that calls for … denial of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state [or] marking Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning”.
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Israel’s largest public film fund attaches political strings to its funding
We have obtained a full copy of the standard contract of the Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts’s Israel Cinema Project that filmmakers must sign before receiving funding. Rabinovich’s Cinema Project is Israel’s largest film fund. The Rabinovich Foundation obligates filmmakers to whitewash apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
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Service of thanksgiving for journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to be held at Fleet Street church
A service of thanksgiving for journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is to be held at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, London’s ‘journalists’ church’, on June 28th.
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Leading artists demand accountability for Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalist
More than a hundred artists, including Hollywood stars, acclaimed authors and prominent musicians, call for “meaningful measures to ensure accountability for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and all other Palestinian civilians”
