Freemuse invited broadcasters to participate in a global media event on the subject of music & censorship. The Music Freedom Day gave a unique international, tri-media look at the subject through all of our many languages, cultures, countries and points of view

Media houses from Canada and USA in the west to Zimbabwe in the south and Pakistan in the east joined the first global 'Music Freedom Day'. Journalists based in countries such as India, Lebanon and Zimbabwe went out on their own and interviewed censored musicians as well as censoring radio executives, and it didn't take long before their interviews were quoted in other medias around the world. Within weeks, a Google search showed that the event was mentioned more than 10,000 times on the internet. Artists from all over the world were interviewed by journalists, and several important magazines made special articles. (See the list below).

The idea for the event was born in November 2006 in Istanbul, when Freemuse held a very successful international conference on music and censorship. Present were musicians, journalists, academics, writers, activists – all focused on the fact that today still musicians in many parts of the world face a variety of censors to their music. Initially a suggestion from Ann MacKeigan from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, one of the outcomes of the conference was to designate a specific date for the world's media to explore the issue of music and censorship... in their own countries, in their own mediums, and in their own way.

Freemuse has designated the first Saturday in March, annually, to be Music Freedom Day, and we invite any and all colleagues to consider directing their programming on this day, or the days leading up to it, on the subject of banned music.

During January and February 2007, this particular web page functioned as a 'meeting point' for the participating media people. It includes a list of all of the various partners who participated in the world-wide Music Freedom Day.

The Freemuse web site is already an excellent resource on the subject for research purposes and we now extended our services to the media and loaded up free high resolution video and audio clips for use in radio and tv programmes. The list can be seen below.

P R I N T

• Songlines Magazine (UK): addresses music censorship in their February-March issue. Editor Simon Broughton writes about the Istanbul conference in his opening editorial, and there is an article on Simon Bikindi. 

• Djembe Magazine (Denmark): publishes an article about 'forbidden music' in relation to an event in Copenhagen (debate and film screening) about music and Islam on 1 March, and also writes about it in the magazine's opening editorial. 

Are you a radio producer?
– and would you like to join?

Should you wish to join, you are most welcome to make use of the interviews that we’ve prepared for broadcasters for this purpose.
Below you will find a list of 10 interviews on music censorship in Afghanistan, Belarus (along with six Belarusian songs), China, Cuba, Ivory Coast, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey, and USA, plus a newly recorded song by Iranian singer Marjan Vahdat and guitarist Jason Carter. The two artists met at the recent Freemuse World Conference in Istanbul and decided to work together.

You may use this material for free as long as you state the source: Freemuse. (On web sites preferably with a clickable link, pointing at www.freemuse.org)


Ideas for themes
If we should suggest some current angles on music censorship they could be:

• Political censorship (e.g. Belarus, Zimbabwe, China)
• Religious censorship (e.g. Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan)
• Corporate censorship ( e.g. USA: Dixie Chicks, and more)
• Women and censorship ( e.g. Iran, Afghanistan, and more)

If you would like to participate, please inform our web editor, , at Freemuse, so we can include your programme, URL and description on this web page.

Freemuse will continously update this page which is dedicated to the project and to its media partners.