An evening on freedom of expression, digital rights, hacktivism, journalists and surveillance organised by Free Press Unlimited and Greenhost.
On Tuesday December 1st at 20.30 hours, the documentary 'Silenced' by director James Spione will be screened at LAB111 in Amsterdam.
Silenced, is a documentary about three whistle blowers the US government tried to silence. Spione will introduce the film that evening and will be available for Q&A and panel discussion afterwards along with whistle blower Thomas Drake (who will join via Skype), Otto Volgenant (lawyer who handles a lot of digital rights and whistle blower cases) and Sacha van Geffen (CO Greenhost), who will shed a light on the technically complex whistle blower tools.
Many important non-fiction and fiction films have been made about the work we do on freedom of expression and digital rights. Unfortunately, these films do not always get the attention they deserve. These themes and topics are becoming a reality for more and more people every day. Yet many are not aware of the impact the lack of press freedom and surveillance have on our society.
We believe people deserve to know. Our governments prefer to hide facts rather than be transparent and we think it's important to shed light on this and have an open debate.
The program will also include documentaries about the increasingly dangerous profession of journalists and human rights activists and looks at the ongoing surveillance and eavesdropping by our governments. We will also pay attention to documentaries about hacktivism, because the resistance to surveillance and the fight for (digital) human rights and measures to protect whistleblowers and journalists, is largely taking place in the invisible cyber realm. The program will be published soon.
About Free Press Unlimited and Greenhost:
Free Press Unlimited is all about press freedom. For most people around the world, gaining access to concrete, impartial information is far from easy. Free Press Unlimited helps local journalists in war zones and conflict areas to provide their audience with trustworthy news and information. The information that people need to survive and give shape to their own future.
Greenhost is a hosting provider that owns and manages its own network and hardware and is well known and trusted in the circumvention technology and technology for human rights circles. Greenhost has developed and supported multiple projects focusing on protecting digital human rights and privacy.
About Silenced:
In 2014 Silenced, a documentary by Academy Award nominated director James Spione featuring John Kiriakou was released. The film explored the US government's response to whistleblowers who disclosed covert violations of constitutional privacy and terrorism laws. The film revealed in detail the personal toll on those three who had questioned or reported crimes within the NSA, CIA, military, and other organizations.
The experiences of Kiriakou, military veteran Thomas Andrews Drake and attorney Jesselyn Radack were told, and showed that the integrity and courage to report criminal facts was not considered valuable to many officials in the US government, instead it was a dangerous and treasonous act. Silenced has won several film festival awards, even before its release to major cable networks in March 2015.
RSVP and questions:
Entrance to the evening is free, but a voluntary contribution is appreciated. Seats are limited. Tickets can be reserved via LAB111's website. LAB111 is not wheelchair friendly, but their staff is happy to help out. Deborah Meibergen – Greenhost: deborah@greenhost.nl Nousa Du Saar – Free Press Unlimited: dusaar@freepressunlimited.org / https://freepressunlimited.org/en
Location of screening:
LAB111 FILM&ETEN Arie Biemondstraat 111 1054 PD Amsterdam