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CAMPAIGNS AND SUPPORT TO MUSICIANS Cameroon: Lapiro de Mbanga In prison since 2008 Myanmar/Burma: Zarganar In prison since 2008 Turkey: Ferhat Tunç On trial in 2010 An important objective of Freemuse is to support musicians in need and observe at their trials. Cameroon: Lapiro fires back at Minister of Communication Lapiro de Mbanga, imprisoned since 2008 retaliates at Minister of Communication who on 30 July 2010 announced that Cameroon did not host any political prisoners 30 August 2010 Myanmar/Burma: Freemuse in joint campaign for imprisoned comedian The Free Zarganar Campaign, which advocates for the release of Burmese comedian Zarganar, urges MEP's to nominate him for the European Parliament's Sakharov Price 25 August 2010 EU policy library refers to Freemuse Visa White Paper The Freemuse report ‘Visas / The Discordant Note’ has been included as an official research document in the EU Commission's 'Library of Policy Documents' 11 August 2010 Turkey: Date of next hearing set in Ferhat Tunç's case The date for the next hearing in the case against musician and Freemuse Award winner Ferhat Tunç has been set to 30 September 2010 04 August 2010 Cameroon: International Pen and Freemuse in joint appeal for Lapiro African Human Rights bodies and monitoring systems are urged to act on behalf of Cameroonian singer Lapiro de Mbanga 30 June 2010 Freemuse appeals to Turkish Prime Minister: Dismiss Ferhat Tunç's case Artists, human rights activists and scholars join Freemuse in an appeal to the Turkish government for the dismissal of the latest court case against Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç 24 June 2010 Cameroon/Denmark: Danish minister drawn into Lapiro de Mbanga's case Danish politicians demand investigation of financial support to company accused of inhuman working conditions and co-responsibility for the imprisonment of singer Lapiro 22 June 2010 Cameroon: Lapiro de Mbanga’s legal team files petition to United Nations On 16 June 2010, the international legal team for singer Lapiro de Mbanga filed an urgent action petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 18 June 2010 Cameroon: United Nations secretary-general urged to speak up for Lapiro Freedom Now, a US-based lawyers’ advocacy organisation urges secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to request that President Biya releases Lapiro de Mbanga 09 June 2010 Cameroon: Maersk Group accused for involvement in case against Lapiro A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, the worldwide conglomerate operating in around 130 countries, is accused for being partly responsible for the imprisonment of singer Lapiro 26 May 2010 Cameroon: International PEN releases new protest campaign for Lapiro The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN has launched a new protest campaign for the continuing imprisonment of singer-songwriter Lapiro de Mbanga 28 April 2010 Cameroon: Lapiro de Mbanga honoured at Cameroon Music Awards Organisers of the Cameroon music and cultural awards, Canal D'Or, have honoured jailed singer Lapiro de Mbanga with a Life Time Achievement Award 28 April 2010 Freemuse Award 2010: Winners honoured in London The joint winners of the Freemuse Award 2010, Mahsa Vahdat and Ferhat Tunç, gave a short and impressive performance at the award ceremony in London 29 March 2010 Freemuse Award winners 2010: Mahsa Vahdat and Ferhat Tunç Award ceremony held in London on 25 March 2010 in collaboration with Index on Censorship 22 March 2010 Cameroon / USA: American lawyers prepare UN petition for Lapiro Cameroon keeping Lapiro imprisoned is a violation of international law, argues a team of four lawyers from a US law firm 25 January 2010 Cameroon: Free-for-download album in support of Lapiro de Mbanga Mondomix has launched a free-for-download album in support of the imprisoned cameroonian singer Lapiro de Mbanga 06 January 2010 Cameroon: Lapiro de Mbanga wins global award Imprisoned musician Lapiro de Mbanga is the 2009 winner of the 'Freedom to Create' Imprisoned Artist Prize 25 November 2009 Cameroon: Lapiro shortlisted for global award High profiled panel points at imprisoned musician Lapiro for the final shortlist of The Orient Global Freedom to Create Prize 26 October 2009 Help free Lapiro de Mbanga! Sign the petition Freemuse in action 13 October 2009 Cameroon: International lawyers support imprisoned singer Lapiro Freedom Now, a US based lawyers’ advocacy organisation, is now officially monitoring singer Lapiro de Mbanga's case 07 October 2009 Cameroon: Lapiro is the one who has to pay for all In this complicated case, there are problems of leadership, tribalism and politics. Lapiro de Mbanga’s case is a political persecution in disguise, writes journalist Jen Bell 09 July 2009 Cameroon: Interview with human rights advocate about Lapiro's case “This was an unfair trial. Now there must be lobbying actions,” said Dr Hilaire Kamga is president of NHRC, New Human Rights Cameroon, about Lapiro's court case 03 July 2009 Cameroon: Interview with Lapiro de Mbanga "This is the trial of the voiceless," said singer Lapiro de Mbanga when he was interviewed just a few hours before a court hearing on 24 June 2009 in Douala, Cameroon 03 July 2009 Cameroon: Lapiro's case taken to Supreme Court of Appeal “We are full of hope”, said Lapiro de Mbanga’s lawyer, Me Augustin Mbami, in an interview about which procedures are to be undertaken next, after losing the Appeal Court 02 July 2009 Cameroon: Singer Lapiro de Mbanga loses appeal court Cameroon power system strikes back at the popular singer Lapiro de Mbanga. It seems obvious that he has not got a fair trial, says Freemuse programme officer 25 June 2009 Cameroon: New verdict, same prison sentence to Lapiro Lapiro de Mbanga’s sentence of three years imprisonment and the fine of FCFA 280 millions was confirmed at a court hearing on 24 June 2009 in Douala, reported Jen Bell 25 June 2009 Protest petition: African artist's tour cancelled due to blocked visas A petition 'against EU visa discrimination of musicians’ was started after the European tour of Zimbabwean Mokoomba was forced to be cancelled 17 June 2009 United Kingdom: New visa rules threaten dozens of concerts and festivals A report reveals that more than 20 major arts events have been cancelled or badly affected by new UK visa regulations 17 June 2009 United Kingdom: Visa system forces Russian ballet company to cancel shows A Russian ballet company has been forced to cancel its 2009 programme after failing to obtain UK visas for its dancers in time 17 June 2009 Visa report highlighted but serious problems remain While visa issues continue to create controversy, the Freemuse white paper ‘Visa / the discordant note’ plays an essential role in various international fora 17 June 2009 Freemuse Award 2009: video report and interview from Stockholm Video interview with Tao Rodriquez-Seeger who received the Freemuse Award on his grandfather's behalf on 3 March 2009 07 March 2009 Freemuse Award 2009 Singer, songwriter, activist, environmentalist, and peace advocate Pete Seeger receives the Freemuse Award 2009 26 February 2009 Cameroun: Musician Lapiro de Mbanga faces new trial Musician Lapiro de Mbanga faces a new trial on 20 March 2009 because of accusations that a song of his led to the destruction of a banana plantation 11 February 2009 Freemuse campaign: Visa issues damage the music industry European countries need to make visa and work permit procedures and the general access to the European market for artists more flexible, transparent and homogenous 21 January 2009 Sweden: Minister of Migration welcomes visa white paper “The ‘white paper’ points its fingers at very essential problems,” said Tobias Billström, the Swedish Minister of Migration, in a live radio programme 21 January 2009 Cameroun: New campaign for release of Lapiro Vigier, the company that has supplied the singer Lapiro de Mbanga with a guitar, launches a new campaign for the release of the Cameroonese musician 17 December 2008 White paper launched at Womex: 'Visa issues – the discord note' White paper on visa issues launched at an international music trade fair: 'European countries need to make visa procedures more flexible, transparent and homogenous' 31 October 2008 Freemuse Award to Tiken Jah Fakoly The first Freemuse Award is given to Tiken Jah Fakoly from Côte d’Ivoire - an outspoken reggae singer who has tirelessly denounced political corruption. 20 August 2008 Freemuse Award statuette created by world-renowned glass artist World-renowned Swedish glass designer Göran Wärff has created the Freemuse Award which is presented for the first time ever in Dublin on 23 August 2008 18 August 2008 Cameroun: Appeal for songwriter detained for his lyrics International Pen Writers in Prison Committee sent this appeal on 7 august 2008 protesting the arrest and four-month detention of singer-songwriter Lapiro de Mbanga 07 August 2008 Campaign: Urge for immediate release of Burmese musician Freemuse joins campaign supporting Win Maw, arrested on 27 November 2007. His arrest is thought to be part of the wider crackdown on pro-democracy activists. 25 April 2008 Campaign: Urge for immediate release of Cameroonian musicians Freemuse joins campaign supporting the two musicians arrested in Cameroun 25 April 2008 Campaign: Urge for immediate release of Tibetan singer Freemuse joins campaign supporting the Tibetanian singer and song-writer arrested by Chinese authorities 25 April 2008 Freemuse Award announcement at Music Freedom Day 2008 Announcement of the first Freemuse Award winner: Tiken Jah Fakoly from Côte d’Ivoire 03 March 2008 Freemuse campaign: 'Safe cities' should include all artists Freemuse initiates a campaign for inclusion of musicians and other artists in the Danish 'safe cities' system 10 January 2008 Freemuse Award 2008 A Freemuse Award will be presented for the first time in 2008. The first person to recieve the award will be announced on the Music Freedom Day, 3 March 2008 26 November 2007 Freemuse campaign: Visa issues kill music In collaboration with international artists organisations Freemuse launches an investigation of visa and work permit procedures in order to influence policy makers 26 November 2007 Ferhat Tunç campaign 2007 International campaign in support of musician on trial for remarks on Kurdish issue. Freemuse request the Turkish State to drop its case against singer Ferhat Tunç 02 October 2007 Freemuse Press Statement: Drop the cases against Ferhat Tunç Freemuse Press Statement requesting immediate dismissal of all cases against Mr. Ferhat Tunç 01 October 2007 Freemuse News Alert: EU-MP joins Freemuse at Tunc court case in Izmir This Freemuse News Alert was sent via e-mail to 312 journalists and media houses world-wide on Thursday 27 September 2007 at 16:11 GMT 27 September 2007 Statement against the use of music as torture Freemuse supports the Position Statement on Torture adopted by the British Society for Ethnomusicology 11 June 2007 Bahrain: Freemuse declaration read aloud A request to Bahranian politicians in response to fundamentalist attacks on culture festival 18 April 2007 Declaration demanding abolishment of Turkey's Article 301 29 non-governmental organisations have released a joint declaration demanding abolishment of Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code and other articles violating freedom of expression 12 February 2007 Ferhat Tunç campaign 2005 International campaign: Freemuse and musicians world-wide request the Turkish State to drop its case against singer Ferhat Tunç 06 December 2005 The case of Gorki Luis Águila Carrasco The controversial Cuban rock artist Gorki Luis Águila Carrasco who was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2003, was released 16 March 2005. 17 March 2005