Party: Prisoners of Dissent – Locked Up For Exposing Crimes

Party: Prisoners of Dissent – Locked Up For Exposing Crimes

@PRISONERS-OF-DISSENT
The 11th event of the Disruption Network Lab
by the Disruption Network Lab e.V.

Schedule: May 12, 2017 (19.00-23.00)
Tickets: 8-10€. In English language.
Details: http://www.disruptionlab.org/prisoners-of-dissent/
Curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli

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Friday May 12 · 2017

19:00 - Doors open

19:30-20:40 – KEYNOTE
John Kiriakou (CIA anti-torture whistleblower, USA). Moderated by Magnus Ag (senior programm officer, Freemuse, DK/DE).

21:00-23:00 – PANEL
Annie Machon (MI5 former intelligence officer, UK/BE), Magnus Ag (senior program officer, Freemuse, DK/DE), Silvanos Bhanditi Mudzvova (artist, activist, Zimbabwe). Moderated by Annegret Falter (chair of the Whistleblower-Netzwerk e.V, DE).

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A growing number of whistleblowers, activists and truth-tellers have been charged with leaking or mishandling classified information under the Terrorism Act, Espionage Act, or theft of government property. The list of whistleblowers and truth-tellers that have been imprisoned for blowing the whistle is much longer today than in the past. PRISONERS OF DISSENT wants to analyse this phenomenon and to present political, artistic and technological countermeasures to better understand this legal grey zone.

John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Edward Snowden, but also Samy Kamkar, Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack, and Aaron Swartz, paid a high price for their principles. Is the rule of law an illusion as Icelandic activist and politician Birgitta Jónsdóttir points out? Are there possibilities of intervention to imagine a collective universal law apply to all? Can we look at different models for humanise and modernise how we run our societies?

Presenting countermeasures to understand the current legal grey zone of repression and detention, whistleblowers, artists, dissidents, critical thinkers, human rights advocates and researchers meet to open a discussion on what social agreement might mean for developing a participatory society. We aim to analyse and to critically discuss detention measures as a consequence of revealing classified information, and the meaning of Terrorism Act, Espionage Act, or theft of government property in the current legal, political and activist terms. Furthermore, the objective is to discuss with the public tactics and strategies to engage in a democratic process of social justice.

On May 17 Chelsea Manning will be released from prison after seven years: we aim to connect our conference also to this important event, inviting speakers to share ideas about repression and democracy in the information society.

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Event funded by:
Reva and David Logan Foundation, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. Also funded by the Open Society Initiative for Europe, part of Open Society Foundations.
In cooperation with: Whistleblower-Netzwerk e.V., Free Chelsea Manning Initiative Berlin.
In collaboration with: Wau Holland Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Resistance Study initiative /University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
Media partners: Exberliner, Furtherfield.

More information:
http://www.disruptionlab.org/prisoners-of-dissent/