New track “CENSORSHIP SOUNDS LIKE”

I produced this track in support of the RIGHT TO KNOW CAMPAIGN [www.r2k.org.za]

It is a combination of quotes from the R2K statement of their mission, vision and principles together with various “news clips” gathered with information taken from various sources detailing current global government sanctioned attacks on freedom of speech and the subsequent censorship that it entails.

Below is a transcription of the lyrics, quotes and “news clips” in the track.  I have divided them up into their various themes.

THE RIGHT TO KNOW

0:00 – 0:22

We seek a world where we all have the right to know: to be free to access and to share information. This right is fundamental to any democracy that is able to deliver the social, economic and environmental justice we need. On this foundation, a society and an international community can be built in which we all live free from want, in equality and in dignity.

0:24 – 0:45 SHAHIN NAJAFI

In international news: An Iranian born rapper, Shahin Najafi, has had two fatwas justifying his execution issued earlier this month on account of his song “Naghi”. The song is said to be blasphemous against an Islamic saint and thus makes the rapper an apostate. While senior clerics empowered to issue fatwas act independently of the government, Iranian law grants impunity to anyone who carries out a death fatwa

0:51 – 0:58

An Iranian website has offered one hundred thousand dollars for his head and more then one hundred people have joined an online campaign for his execution.

1:15 – 1:46

Spit for Shaheen / into the face of the fiend / people will be heard if they can’t be seen / with the freedom speech / flow / against the stream / against the grain / rage against the machine / against the dying light / wanna put your god above a human right? / we got a right to know / we got a right to fight Won’t let us speak without permission / either the priest or the politician / fear what they hear when they start to listen / that’s why they need people to be conditioned / we make the mission open eyes / open ears / open minds / we’re all gonna swing from a silent noose if a rapper can’t speak the truth

2:03 – 2:16 JULIAN ASSANGE, BRADLEY MANNING AND WIKILEAKS

Julian Assange, chief editor of wikileaks.org, has currently been detained for 555 days without charge, while Private Bradley Manning of the United States Army has been in jail for 752 days without trial.

2:32 – 2:53

We subscribe to The Right To Know, which is founded in the right to dignity, and is realized through rights freely to access and share information. We shall defend and advance the right to know, encouraged that it, and it’s constituent rights, were won through peoples struggles and are affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This is what censorship sounds like…

3:17 – 3:32 BLACK TUESDAY AND SOUTH AFRICA’S RIGHT TO KNOW

Protestors are calling it Black Tuesday, the darkest day for South African democracy since the end of Apartheid. Members of parliament will [on tuesday] almost certainly pass what is officially called the Protection of Information Bill, otherwise known as The Secrecy Bill.

4:02 – 4:33

I can’t help myself / truth / I need to find it / every door they lock they make me wonder what’s behind it / we let them watch us / we let them spy / now we gonna let them classify? / we’ve been pacified by the average lie / that we need protection from up on high / the highest guys have got the most to hide / that file you got? / I wanna know what’s inside / see them try and keep control / but the stories gonna leak like a Browse Mole / who hold the power gonna hold the secrets / first we leak it / then we speak it / thick and sticky when they leak the cables / wik-wiki-Wiki and we turn the tables / turn on the Mic and let the man flow / I throw a show for the Right To Know

4:47 – 5:04

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

[While I have tried to be as accurate as possible, the time that it has taken to produce the track has left various facts slightly outdated.  Check out the various links for the current status of the three themes I have addressed here.]