This is depressing stuff.

a. Amnesty International has just issued a statement confirming that it is acceptable to torture people given that a ticking time bomb scenario exists threatening a large civilian population.

b. Greenpeace announced that the use of nuclear power is no longer objectionable given that clean nuclear technologies now exist and Sarah Palin is talking about green nuclear power stations.

c. Index of Censorship came out with a statement declaring that it is all right to censor editorial content of a magazine if there is a fear of terrorist attacks and threat on staff safety.

While I made up a and b, I have to confirm – in disgust and shock – that c is factual.

Caspar Melville, New Humanist Blog:

The campaigning magazine and organisation Index on Censorship, the most reliable and pugnacious monitor of abuses against freedom of expression, has become involved in an internal censorship row of its own. It came about when they published an interview in their December issue with Jytte Klausen, author of The cartoons that shook the world, about the fact that Yale, who published the book, declined to include the very cartoons the book was about. A clear and pretty stupid act of censorship which we, and Index, denounced.

Now a similar row has erupted inside Index over the decision taken by their board (with one dissension) not to republish any of the cartoons to accompany the interview with Klausen. Unusually Index have made this debate public – first by publishing a statement by chair Jonathan Dimbleby explaining why they did not include the cartoons (it comes down to staff safety) and second publishing a response from the dissenting member of the board (who was not at the meeting in question), Kenan Malik, deploring the decision.

The statement fatwa by Jonathan Dimbleby is a shocking read:

When John Kampfner alerted me to the prospective publication of an interview with Jytte Klausen and to our editor’s wish to illustrate it with the “offending” cartoons, it was plainly a matter for the board to determine. Any other course would have been irresponsible and a neglect of our fiduciary responsibility.
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Against that background, I consulted every colleague (including those who had not been able to attend the relevant board meeting). With the exception of two board members (one of whom was content to abide by the overwhelming majority view) my colleagues argued strongly against publication. To summarise our common view: re-publication of the cartoons would put at risk the security of our staff and others which, on balance, could not be justified on “freedom of expression” grounds alone.

It boils down to this: A group of enlightened white men and women, who were playing the champions of freedom of expression and campaigning against censorship until recently, decided that censorship is justified if the only justification against it is solely based on the feeble argument: freedom of expression.

censorship: The use of state or group power to control freedom of expression, such as passing laws to prevent media from being published or propagated. – Wikitionary.

Sherry Jones – the author of Jewel of Medina – sums up the real fear and threat we all must be aware of given that Index of Censorship (and the board carrying out its fiduciary responsibility) has now set a chilling precedence:

I find it difficult to post an analytical response. I can only speak from the heart. My heart is breaking over this senseless, fear-based, knee-jerk act of self-censorship from a publication whose purpose is, supposedly, to protest such acts.
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Where are the heroes? Now that Index on Censorship has failed us, where in the UK and America can we turn for defense of this most precious of freedoms?
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Who isn’t afraid of death? Yet dying is unavoidable. It’s how we live that matters. I choose to live with courage and conviction. Because, without free speech we have no freedom at all, which is a fate worse than death.

Next time, when the global organisation campaigning against torture endorses the logic behind torture in times of fear, we really would not have any other option than to bite our fingers into pieces. Unless, without further ado, the board members at Index of Censorship relieve themselves of their fiduciary responsibility and apply for the job of Winston Smith.