Below are reports, books and albums created by Freemuse or in collaboration with various partners and artists.
Freemuse reports

INSIGHT publication: Targeting the Arts 2016
The 2016 compilation of the INSIGHT article series covers five countries and provides insight on threats to artistic freedom in Poland, Turkey and Greece, the increasing polarised debate over freedom of expression in India and the Vietnamese government’s control on popular music.
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Art Under Threat 2016

Art Under Threat 2015

INSIGHT publication: Targeting the Arts 2015
The 2015 compilation of the INSIGHT article series covers 11 countries and topics as diverse as Syrian art in the diaspora, Punk music and Shari’a, art under threat in Sweden and Russia, the challenges of promoting co-existence through art in Paris and the use of the N-word in arts.
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Censors of Creativity

1st Freemuse World Conference – the speeches

Freemuse report on censorship of music in Afghanistan

Freemuse report on censorship in Romania: “A Little Bit Special”

Freemuse report on music censorship in Zimbabwe

Freemuse report on censorship in Nigeria: “Which way Nigeria?”

Freemuse report on censorship in post 9/11 USA

Freedom of musical expression in the Middle East

Freedom of musical expression in Belarus

3rd Freemuse World Conference – report

Freemuse campaign: Visa issues damage the music industry

Human Rights for Musicians

Freemuse report on censorship of heavy metal music

Freemuse report: Music, Culture and Conflict in Mali

Download and distribute the conference report

In-depth article collection: ‘All that is banned is desired’

Report: Religious extremism disastrous to music in Pakistan

Book celebrates Music Freedom Day

Pakistan: The war on living arts in Swat
Tiken Jah Fakoly about the new Freemuse CD album: 'CD highlights artists who fight for justice'
The CD ‘Listen to the banned’ has been well received by broadcasters all over Europe. “Some broadcasters have mentioned that not only does the CD feature some important political songs but even has a ‘spiritual dimension’”, told Freemuse programme manager Ole Reitov, who has co-produced the album together with the artist Deeyah.
Since the CD was published on 3 March 2010, broadcasters in countries such as Swizz, Germany and the Czech Republic have featured special programmes about it, while other national radio stations, for instance in the Scandinavian countries, have featured live interviews with the imprisoned singer Lapiro de Mbanga from Cameroon and the exiled singer Tiken Jah Fakoly from Ivory Coast.
Interviewed by Jungeltelegrafen, the popular world music programme of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in Norway, Tiken Jah Fakoly strongly supported his imprisoned colleague Lapiro de Mbanga:
“Lapiro did what artists must do in our societies, where people cannot speak freely. He fights for democracy and they should release him,” Tiken Jah Fakoly said. He added that he found ‘Listen to the banned’ an excellent idea:
“Normally people get trophies for selling most records, but this CD highlights artists, who fight for justice and that’s a good idea,” said the Freemuse Award Winner 2008.
His controversial call on corrupt political leaders to ‘Leave power’ is one of the songs featured on the CD and in terms of the message of the lyrics, it shares many similarities with the song ‘Constipated Constitution’ which led to the imprisonment of Lapiro de Mbanga in Cameroon.
CD enters World Music Chart
Soon after its release the Listen to the banned album entered the World Music Charts Europe at number 15.
Once a month more than forty radio world music specialists from 23 European countries select their individual top ten favorites out of current world music releases from their playlists. The nominations are processed in a data-base and the Top 20 are published.
The charts are played throughout Europe in various radio stations. The official colourprint is displayed in many shops and displayed on many websites.
Musicians imprisoned, tortured, exiled
Lapiro de Mbanga is not the only artist featured on the CD, who has experienced imprisonment. So has Ferhat Tunc and the late Uighur singer, Kurash Sultan, who was imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities and after his escape found a new home in Sweden and a very fruitful musical collaboration with Ale Möller.
Several of the artists featured on the CD have collaborated with Freemuse for many years and their stories are told on freemuse.org. They include Marcel Khalife, who spent time in a court room in Beirut charged with blasphemy, Chiwoniso, who was harassed by police in Zimbabwe and Mahsa Vahdat, the Iranian singer, who has performed at Music Freedom Day and at Freemuse related festivals several times.
‘Listen to the banned’ includes a booklet portraying some of the world’s most renowned artists facing censorship. Their stories are often painful, but they are also the stories of remarkable artists, who will not give in. Artists who believe they can make a difference.
The CD is published by Norway’s most successful music label, Grappa Records, and distributed internationally.
Interviews
Listen or watch exclusive video and audio interviews about music and censorship with some of the artists here
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Facts about the CD album
Reviews and interviews
listentothebanned.com