Titled The Fragile Triangle of Artistic Freedom: A Study of the Documentation and Monitoring of Artistic Freedom in the Global Landscape by Sara Whyatt and Ole Reitov, this documentaims to facilitate understanding of this issue to decision-makers, donors, civil society organisations and the public.
Although there is a growing awareness in the international fora of the importance of protecting artistic freedom and holding those accountable who censor and threaten artists and forms of artistic expression, violations and examples of censorship go largely under-reported. Very few civil society organisations actively monitor and document these kinds of violations, in part because many organisations are understaffed and affected by insecure funding.
Unlike media protection organisations, which receive verified documentation of attacks on media professionals from unions and individuals worldwide, organisations documenting artistic freedom violations rarely receive substantiative information from entities representing artists. Instances of self-censorship by artists, curators, librarians, galleries, film producers and other cultural practitioners also often go completely unrecorded.
The study concludes that a lack of interministerial consultations negatively impacts certain initiatives and funding programmes defending artistic freedom. It also determines that although several civil society organisations, the United Nations and donors have created a system of cooperation, more systematic, efficient and sustainable relations would be key to improving the rights of artistic practitioners. In this sense, it is also important for these systems to counter their dependency on short-term policies, particularly in these times of increasing internal and international challenges.
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