INDEX ON CENSORSHIP | VOL.53 | NO.3
U p F ront
EDITOR’S LETTER
When ideology enters the equation
Multiple forces are at work to silence scientists, writes SALLY GIMSON
SCIENCE, ACCORDING TO the Encyclopedia Britannica, is any system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena, and which entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation.
It should be so simple. Yet it’s not because pursuing knowledge throws up inconvenient truths which trouble some rulers and populations. Ever since Galileo faced the Roman inquisition in the 17th century for arguing that the Earth went around the sun, scientists have risked being ruthlessly silenced.
In this issue, we show how ideology often stands in the way of scientific progress. Dissident author Murong
Xuecun explores how Chinese scientists are isolated from the wider scientific community and live in constant fear of arrest and worse. Ideology trumps scientific truth in a society that values obedience to the state over curiosity. Yet Murong concludes: “If Xi continues to rule in this way, it won’t be long before China becomes a poor and backward country again.”
India finds itself in similar danger, as our South Asia contributing editor Salil Tripathi reports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved he is at least as keen on mythology as he is on scientific advancement. For instance, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi insists first-year engineering students study re-incarnation and outof-body experiences.
But it is not just autocrats who cause a problem for science. In Europe, Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, no longer allows the participation of researchers based in Russia or Belarus because of the Ukraine conflict. Preventing cooperation over nuclear research rarely ends well.
In the USA academics at Columbia University were so worried about Donald Trump’s attitude to science, particularly to climate change research and abortion, that they set up the Silencing Science Tracker. Since the tracker was launched in 2018 some 531 cases of censorship, information suppression and misrepresentation of scientific facts have been noted. Even under Joe Biden, the government has been slow to undo the damage.
In another exclusive investigation for Index, assistant editor Katie DanceyDowns has looked at the use of animals in lab experiments. She has discovered that scientists who question the effectiveness of animal testing are told to shut up if they value their careers. This censorship is shocking, particularly as new and better techniques for testing new drugs, which don’t involve animals, have now been developed.
Excitingly, we are proud to publish in English for the first time a story by banned Russian author Grigory Chkhartishvili aka Boris Akunin who won the Freedom to Publish Award (supported by Index) at the British Book Awards. We also interview Irish folk singer Christy Moore, whose song about the burning down of the Stardust nightclub in 1981 was banned.
Look out for chief executive Jemimah Steinfeld’s reflections on whether change comes better from within, after David Neuberger KC controversially decided to remain a judge on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. Also check out our article on political prisoners in Belarus, part of Index’s project (and exhibition), Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners.
Sally Gimson is acting editor at Index
53(03):1/1|DOI:10.1177/03064220241285653
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B a d i u c a o
Cutting comments
Our cover artist turns propaganda on its head
BADIUCAO, THE COVER artist for this issue of Index on Censorship, calls himself a “Chinese Aussie artist hunted by the Chinese Government”. Born in Shanghai, Badiucao had no formal art training in China but comes from a long line of creatives — his grandfather and great uncle were filmmakers in China who paid for their work with their lives in the 1950s. Badiucao’s art is typified by the clever reworking of Communist propaganda imagery, subverting it to criticise the Chinese Communist Party. His cover revisits Andy Warhol’s famous picture of Albert Einstein.
Elsewhere in this issue, Badiucao illustrates Murong Xuecun’s article on Chinese science. Winter in Beijing shows a lonely dictator sitting on a broken dragon throne in heavy snow.
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