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    Kidnapped
    Kidnapped
    Kidnapped
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Kidnapped

    By Dina Meza

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Freedom of expression in Honduras has been kidnapped. Those who are afraid of the truth attempt to imprison it in the depths of the earth. Kidnapped seeks to expose the problems for freedom of expression in journalism and literature in Honduras, the forms of censorship that have been introduced to conceal the truth, but also the creativity of Hondurans who refuse to be defeated in the face of this oppressive system.
    Kidnapped describes how the Honduran state, responsible for protecting this right, essential for democracy, has both in the past and present placed obstacles in the paths of those who decide to defy censorship, with harmful and even fatal consequences.

    The Honduran journalist and human rights defender Dina Meza (1963) is active on the field of freedom of writing in different ways. She is currently President of PEN Honduras, part of PEN International, and director of the pasosdeanimalgrande.com digital newspaper which covers freedom of expression issues and the general human rights
    situation in Honduras. Dina Meza received Amnesty International UK’s Journalism
    Under Threat Award in 2007 and the PEN International/Oxfam Novib Freedom of Expression award in 2014. Also in 2014, she was one of Reporters without Borders’ 100 Information Heroes and a nominee for the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards.

    A publication of the Eva Tas Foundation.

    The Eva Tas Foundation encourages publication and promotion of texts that are, no matter where and no matter how, subject to censorship.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFosfor
    Release dateAug 14, 2015
    ISBN9781310536182
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      Book preview

      Kidnapped - Dina Meza

      / CHAPTER I

      CENSORSHIP OF CULTURE AND JOURNALISM THROUGH HISTORY

      The history of the prohibition and censorship of books dates back to the first texts, engraved on clay tablets in Mesopotamia around 5,300 years ago.

      Since then, the powers that be, whether religious, political or institutional, have justified the use of censorship as a mechanism to safeguard principles which they themselves have invented. Censorship seeks to obliterate freedom of thought by banning the circulation of books in the self-same free market which capitalist society has established to sustain itself.

      In Egyptian culture, biblioclasts or book destroyers were ordered by Akhenaten to eliminate texts that referred to the old deities when he imposed the religion of the Sun God.

      In Greece, the destruction of books dates back to the 5th century BC, when Protagoras of Abdera was accused of impiety and blasphemy for stating that it was impossible to prove that the gods existed.

      As history relates, even Plato was a bibliophile pyromaniac who ordered all the poems of Socrates to be burnt.

      The library of Alexandria suffered several fires, and in just one of them, in 48 BC, 700,000 manuscripts were destroyed.

      The first record we have of censorship in China is when Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in the year 213 BC, ordered most books to be burned, with the exception of texts on certain subjects such as astrology and agriculture. His prohibition on Confucian thought led to the execution of many scholars of the time.

      In Berlin’s Opernplatz, the Nazis ordered the burning of 20,000 books from the library of Humboldt University, including works by Marcel Proust, HG Wells, Jack London and Thomas Mann.

      In Communist East Berlin, in 1953, five million books were destroyed.

      On 30 August 1980 in Argentina, a million and a half volumes belonging to the Centro Editor de América Latina (Latin American Publishing Centre) were burned. It is known as ‘The Day of Shame’ for Argentina’s books.

      In more recent times, Bosnia Herzegovina’s National Library was shelled in 1992 by the Serbian General Ratko Mladic. This library held two million volumes including 155,000 rare texts.

      In Chile, the dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet committed genocide against its own people, burning and censoring books with any left-wing content by leading Chilean poets, essayists, playwrights and intellectuals.

      In Honduras, censorship has been present at various times in both culture and journalism.

      _The arts and journalism are the focus of censorship

      That day everyone was rushing around at the television station. Personally, I was ready, and thought I was going to be doing something noteworthy – I would be reporting that the environmental rights of a community about 15 minutes from the capital were being violated, as a cemetery was being built nearby despite the residents’ opposition. Several of them had explained that the construction work would give rise to flooding and other problems.

      I went to the Environment Unit of the Public Prosecution Service (Fiscalía), where a prosecutor told me that it would be illegal for this cemetery to go ahead, and I interviewed the owner of the property company which had sold the land who rhapsodized about the project. In the end, my entire investigation remained on the editor’s desk. The truth was kidnapped and the problem buried. Censorship has cut to the heart of a democracy which has yet to assert itself in Honduras. This was only one news story, but there are dozens of them around the country that have been kidnapped because they affect the interests of powerful groups.

      Censorship in Honduras not only has a catastrophic effect on journalism – it has a similar impact on the arts. Many writers, playwrights and painters have suffered some form of censorship during their careers, particularly if they have criticized the government.

      Censorship and death are Honduran journalists’ constant companions. Around 45 journalists have been murdered since the coup, while others have had to practise self-censorship to safeguard their lives. Dozens have been subject to surveillance and harassment and have been fired from a range of media outlets for speaking out against the coup and for showing their support for the Honduran Resistance established in response to this assault on the democratic functioning of the state. Others decided to leave Honduras and are exiled from their homeland.

      With regard to the arts, the Honduras government denies funding to the institutions responsible for its promotion, arguing – outrageously – that there is no money, while the coffers of the armed forces are full to overflowing. Their budget is constantly being increased so that they can beat down the people and protect the interests of the elites, which have been taking turns in power for over 100 years, and those of transnational companies which come to the country to set up mining, hydroelectric and tourism businesses.

      Another form of censorship of the arts is to prevent writers publishing their books, or to persecute those who seek to express their ideas, particularly if they challenge the status quo, in which case there is an even greater incentive to prevent their work reaching the public.

      Throughout history, freedom of expression in all its forms has suffered many threats and attacks by the Honduran state, the very entity with responsibility for protecting this human right, essential to the achievement of true democracy.

      Regardless of whether the censorship applied is subtle, indirect or direct, ultimately it all has an impact on Honduran society which is left without the information, art and cultural expressions which would help to effect deep structural changes in the citizenry or to transform thinking – the aim instead being to keep minds closed.

      In the 1980s, artists and writers suffered persecution for opposing the National Security Doctrine established in Honduras by the United States, a policy which resulted in the forced disappearance of over 184 political dissidents - killed, tortured and persecuted.

      With the coup of June 2009 and the coming to power of one of its organizers, Roberto Micheletti, Mirna Castro was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Sports. She devoted herself to persecuting writers, promoters of culture and officials opposed to the coup.

      Some cultural centres, which held book launches, painting workshops, film screenings and book clubs, were closed by Micheletti’s minister who branded them as detrimental to the nation because they gave prominence to the ideas of Venezuela’s ex-president, Hugo Chávez. Her historic announcement in July 2009 that she would burn books was reminiscent of Nazi Germany under Hitler.

      Mirna Castro announced on television that she had a blacklist of books she considered subversive, including memoirs and travel notes by Froylán Turcios, ‘Estampas de Honduras’ (‘Vignettes of Honduras’) by Doris Stone, ‘Panorama de la poesía hondureña’ (‘A Panorama of Honduran Poetry’) by Óscar Castañeda Batres, and ‘Soñaba el abad de San Pedro soñaba y yo también sé soñar’ (‘The abbot of San Pedro dreamed and dreamed and I too know how to dream’) by José Cecilio del Valle.

      The then minister also announced her decision to assign the Historical Research Documentation Centre of Honduras, which holds material of invaluable historical and national significance, to army reservists for use as a military operations centre. This move was halted by a storm of protests.

      However, she did launch a witch-hunt against people involved in the arts, dismissing staff and closing libraries and cultural councils.

      This is nothing new, as there has been persecution and censorship of political dissidents in Honduras at certain times before. However, the coup laid bare certain truths that had been covered up, such as the fact that the country is ruled

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