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Music Freedom Day
Media focus point on music censorship world-wide
Saturday 3 March is 'Music Freedom Day 2007'. On this day, and during the week leading up to it, magazines, radio stations and tv broadcasters world-wide will focus on music censorship
It is not a campaign for free downloading of music – it is about advocating that everyone should be free to express oneself through music. Annually, the first Saturday in March, is announced by the international organisation Freemuse to be the 'Music Freedom Day' of the year. "It is a day which can serve as a focus point for the media – an occasion to take a closer look at the subject of banned music, and the lives of blacklisted musicians," explains executive director of Freemuse, Marie Korpe.
This year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has dedicated one week of programming, involving 17 programmes, and on the day, 3 March, will broadcast a music documentary called Censor-This!. Another Canadian radio station is involved in the project as well, as are national and local radio stations in Norway, Denmark, England, Pakistan and Iraq.
On the internet, the international music magazine MondoMix is preparing a site devoted to music & censorship leading up to 3 March, and on print, magazines such as Songlines from United Kingdom and Djembe from Denmark are publishing articles and editorials which address music censorship in their February-March issues.
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Listen to the signature song for the Music Freedom Day 2007 |
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Committed participants
R A D I O
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC: One week of dedicated programming, called Censor-This!, involving 17 programmes and including a one hour music documentary, from 18-24 February 2007, and then repeating the music documentary on 3 March for Music Freedom Day. Read more on: cbc.ca/censorthis
• Radio Canada’s Espace Musique: (quoting host Dan Behrman) "keeps talking about it before and after 3 March".
• British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC in UK: Radio 3 runs a radio report by Songlines editor Simon Broughton on 3 March. The BBC Radio 3 programme World Routes includes an interview with Freemuse director Marie Korpe and reports on Turkey, Belarus and Zimbabwe. The programme can be heard online, where the Freemuse item starts at 35 minutes in. Music Freedom day also comes up in the following item with oud player Adel Salameh: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldroutes
Simon Broughton is guest in the programme 'Today' for the morning of Saturday 3 March. (The programme 'Today' is the most important radio programme there is in the United Kingdom. It's where the politicians are interviewed and where the news agenda is set.)
Simon Broughton says: "The discussion in 'Today' will include some general music censorship issues and then current areas of concern. I will probably talk about Belarus and Zimbabwe."
• Daily Times Pakistan, FM 101, a country-wide public sector radio channel: Journalist and broadcaster Ahmed Raza looks into how they can contribute to and support the initiative.
• Uruk Media International Organization and Iraqi National News Agency: Wessam K. Hussain has informed Freemuse that they "are ready to participate in this global day for the fredom of music".
• Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation: prepares a day of specific programming for 3 March. Sřlvi Foseide from the NRK P2 programme Kulturnytt prepares a special report.
• Danish Broadcasting Corporation's radio channel DR P2: Journalist Anne Bro and the programme 'Bolero' focuses on freedom to express oneself through music in a one-hour programme on 3 March.
• Swedish Broadcasting Corporation's radio channel SR P2: Journalist Mats Einarsson focuses on music and censorship in a one-hour programme at 5 PM to 6 PM on 3 March entitled 'Röster om musik och censur i Mellanöstern' ('Voices about music and censorship in the Middle East') containing interviews with Salman Ahmed, Masha Vahdat, Joelle Khoury, Khaled al-Sheikh, Jonas Otterbäck, Ole Reitov and Marie Korpe. Executive Director of Freemuse Marie Korpe is also interviewed by Swedish Broadcasting Corporation's P1 Morgon on 2 March 2007:
"Musikcensur i fokus - Imorgon arrangeras 'Music Freedom Day 2007', som är en dag MOT musikcensur. Under den här veckan har det uppmärksammats i medier runtom i världen, och här i Sveriges Radio sänder vĺr grannkanal P2 ett helt program om musikcensur imorgon. Samtal med Marie Korpe, organsiationen Freemuse."
• Radio France International (RFI) in English: the weekly World Tracks programme has a special theme on music and censorship on Friday 2 March. This programme is re-broadcast three times during that day.
• France Culture: the weekly programme Equinoxe features a music censorship theme in the week up to 3 March
• Radio Netherlands (RNW): highlights Music Freedom Day in its Dutch, English, Spanish and Indonesian language services.
Member of the Freemuse Executive Committee Ariana Hernandez-Reguant is interviewed by Radio Netherlands' Spanish language service on 1 March 2007. "We pay a lot of attention to Music and Censorship on Saturday 3 March", tells journalist and editor Bram Posthumus, with at least one special on Freemuse and as the topic in the English language programme called Weekend Connection.
• Radio Multikulti, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin's section of the national public service ARD: The programme Meridian 13 – a music magazine broadcast from 10:05 til 13:00 on 3 March with presenter/producer Johannes Theurer and editor Dietmar Meinhold – broadcasts a five minutes live on air telephone interview with a representative of Freemuse's executive committee.
T V
• Tishk TV, Kurdish-Persian tv channel in France: On 2 March, Sirus Malakooty (Iranian human right activist who lives in exile in Paris, founder of the Artists Without Frontiers organisation, AFW) has a programme about cencorship in Iran and in general.
O N L I N E
 • Mondomix (France): devotes front cover and a special site to the theme Music & Censorship leading up to 3 March. www.mondomix.com. Mondomix has more than 300.000 unique visitors monthly, viewing 3.6 million pages on the site. • Songlines (UK): produces a podcast with a Freemuse feature which can be accessed online on this podcast-address. The podcast includes highlights from the March-April 2007 issue of Songlines (#42), and Songlines editor Simon Broughton's 7:30-minutes report from Freemuse's World Conference on Music and Censorship in Istanbul starts 10 minutes inside the programme. It contains interview with human right activist and musician Sanar Yurdatapan, and Cihan Keskek from the Turkish band Grup Yorum.
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.
 
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