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International Federation of Musicians

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Freedom of expression

Petition | Free Toomaj and Saman now!

16.12.2022 Freedom of expression, International solidarity

Free Toomaj and SamanOn the 30th of October 2022, the rap­per Toomaj Salehi was arrest­ed in Iran. His Kurdish col­league Saman Yasin has been in prison since the 2nd of Oct. and was sen­tenced to death in a bogus tri­al. They are both accused of “enmi­ty against God” (mohare­beh) and “gross cor­rup­tion” (ifsad fil-​arz). They are sub­ject­ed to tor­ture and maltreatment.

We call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to drop all charges against them and with­draw the death penal­ty in the case against Yasin.

Please sup­port Toomaj and Saman: sign the peti­tion now!

FIM Executive Committee | Statement about Ukraine

19.07.2022 Freedom of expression, Fundamental rights

FIM logo

We strong­ly con­demn the Russian inva­sion of Ukraine and express our full sup­port for, and sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Ukrainian people.

At the same time, we are fol­low­ing with par­tic­u­lar con­cern the exten­sion of this con­flict to Art and Culture, with the attempt of some to turn them from syn­onyms of human­ism, edu­ca­tion, and peace into tools of war.

The breaking-​off of rela­tions with Russian artists and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions is like­ly to turn against Art itself, with no impact on the Russian regime’s inva­sion plans.

Works of Art come to life and acquire sub­stance only when being inter­pret­ed and dis­sem­i­nat­ed, and no coun­try has the right to ban them. […]
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Egyptian Musicians’ Union disregards fundamental rights

15.02.2022 Updated on 21.02.2022 Freedom of expression, Fundamental rights

Hani ShakerDownload the state­ment in PDF

For sev­er­al years now, the Egyptian Musicians’ Union and its President Hani Shaker have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly attacked the mahra­ganat, a music genre born in the country’s poor­est neigh­bour­hoods that enjoys grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty among young people.

The union’s enforce­ment pow­er allows it to ban from the Egyptian scene all artists devi­at­ing from its cul­tur­al and moral stan­dards, with offend­ers expos­ing them­selves to heavy fines and prison sentences.

In 2016, six female singers were sus­pend­ed from their right to per­form because of “body reveal­ing clothes” and “sex­u­al­ly sug­ges­tive” danc­ing on stage.

In 2019, Egyptian singer Hassan Shakosh suf­fered the wrath of Hani Shaker, the lyrics of one of his songs being deemed immoral (“I will drown my sor­rows in alco­hol and smoke hashish”). […]
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EU | Status and working conditions in the creative sector

14.12.2020 Updated on 23.03.2022 Covid-19, Decent work, Europe, Freedom of expression, Labour rights, Precarious work, Social dialogue, Status of the artist, Working relationship

EU Commission logo

The DG EAC of the European Commission is pub­lish­ing a study on work­ers in the European cre­ative sector

According to the Commission, this study, com­mis­sioned from the European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA), comes with­in the scope of objec­tives for the New European Agenda for Culture adopt­ed in 2018. Among the aims is help­ing the Member States ensure fair remu­ner­a­tion for work­ers in the cre­ative sec­tor through social dia­logue and the imple­men­ta­tion of an ecosys­tem favourable to such work­ers. Efforts in this direc­tion are cur­rent­ly being made by cer­tain states with­in the scope of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) with regard to sta­tus and work­ing con­di­tions for artists and cul­tur­al and cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als. […]
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FIM Vice President Roméo Dika in danger

03.10.2020 Updated on 03.11.2020 Africa, Freedom of expression, Fundamental rights, International solidarity, Status of the artist

Roméo Dika

Since he left the Presidential polit­i­cal par­ty, Cameroonian musi­cian Roméo Dika – also pres­i­dent of musi­cians union SYCAMU and FIM Vice President – has been the sub­ject of seri­ous intim­i­da­tion in his coun­try. Today, he fears for his safe­ty and that of his family.

As well as free­dom of expres­sion, free­dom of opin­ion is an essen­tial val­ue in Democracy. Like the entire trade union move­ment, FIM is deeply attached to the pro­tec­tion of this fun­da­men­tal free­dom and wish­es to express here its most pro­found concern.

FIM strong­ly con­demns the intim­i­da­tion exer­cised against Roméo Dika. It calls on the Cameroonian author­i­ties to ensure that he and his rel­a­tives are pro­tect­ed from any vio­lence or threat to their free­dom, who­ev­er is respon­si­ble. […]
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Egypt | Freedom of expression undermined once again

28.02.2020 Updated on 07.07.2020 Freedom of expression, Fundamental rights, International solidarity, Labour rights

Mahraganat concert

President of the Egyptian Musicians’ Union Hany Shaker has once more made the head­lines by depriv­ing sev­er­al of his mem­bers of the right to per­form their art, judged to be incom­pat­i­ble with pub­lic morals.

In 2016, the same Shaker had already exclud­ed six women musi­cians accused of wear­ing inde­cent cloth­ing and per­form­ing las­civ­i­ous pos­es dur­ing their stage per­for­mances. This time, it is a style of music which has come under fire, a style that is increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar in the coun­try: the mahra­ganat, an elec­tric folk music which, to begin with, orig­i­nat­ed in the poor­est districts.

Mr Shaker’s organ­i­sa­tion, which pre­tends to be a “union”, has threat­ened legal pro­ceed­ings against estab­lish­ments which vio­late its deci­sion to ban mahra­ganat from Egypt’s music land­scape. […]
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Statement of support to imprisoned Iranian artists

06.01.2017 Updated on 29.03.2019 Freedom of expression

Iranian artists

The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) is deeply con­cerned about the impris­on­ment of Iranian artists Mehdi Rajabian (musi­cian) and Hossein Rajabian (film­mak­er), who were joint­ly sen­tenced to six years in prison and fined IRR 2 bil­lion (about USD 66,650) each for “insult­ing the sacred” and “pro­pa­gan­da against the state” through the pro­duc­tion and pro­mo­tion of under­ground music. Iranian musi­cian Yousef Emadi was sen­tenced in the same case but remains at liberty.

The Rajabian broth­ers were impris­oned on 5 June 2016. They began their sec­ond hunger strike on 28 October 2016. They are now fac­ing increas­ing­ly severe med­ical con­di­tions as a result of their hunger strike. […]
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ILO | Workers’ Group Statement on Human and Trade Union Rights in Egypt

24.03.2016 Updated on 18.01.2021 Freedom of expression, Fundamental rights, ILO, International solidarity, Labour rights

ILO HQ (Geneva)

On 4 February 2016 the life­less body of Giulio Regeni, a 28-​year-​old Italian PhD stu­dent from Cambridge University, was found in Cairo. Giulio’s death was announced ten days after his dis­ap­pear­ance in mys­te­ri­ous cir­cum­stances. His body was cov­ered in cuts, bruis­es and scars, proof that he was a vic­tim of torture.

Giulio Regeni was research­ing social devel­op­ment in Egypt, focus­ing in par­tic­u­lar on dif­fer­ent forms of free­dom of expres­sion and asso­ci­a­tion, work­ers’ rights and the con­di­tions under which inde­pen­dent organ­i­sa­tions in the coun­try operated.

All the evi­dence sug­gests that the research and inter­views he was car­ry­ing out as well as the human rights activists he met were not to the Egyptian author­i­ties’ lik­ing. […]
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