International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” is starting

On April 7 the admission of works for the 3rd International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” is starting.

Violations of human rights are more frequent now, in the state of military conflict, and freedom of expression is one of them.  Justifying its law initiative aimed at curtailing the freedom of speech by information aggression, the government continues its attempts to impose censorship. It brings a threat to democratic development of Ukraine.  This is why the 3rd International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” will be held under the slogan of Euromaidan “Human rights first”.

In June 2010, the meeting of journalists of the “Stop Censorship” movement originated an idea to initiate the discussion about the danger of censorship for the wide audience. In that time, in the atmosphere of augmenting political pressure, journalists had to seek for new channels of communication to convey the message that censorship is not only the problem of journalists but of the whole society. This idea was put in practice in 2011, when 1st International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” was held.

More than 46 000 people from more than 83 countries visited the official web site of the Contest for the period it lasted.

In 2014 activists of NGO Center UA organized the 2nd International Contest “Stop Censorship! Citizens for free countries” and decided to make this event annual. In 2014 more than 400 works were submitted for participation in the Contest. They included 33 essays, 129 poems, 71 slogans and 180 images.  For the first time participants from Malaysia, Ecuador, Canada, and Israel took part in the Contest.

The contest is very democratic — everyone, regardless his age, citizenship or education, can take part in it and submit his works in support of freedom of expression, fight against censorship and for access to information.

Works are accepted in the following categories: images, essays, poems, slogans and other. You can submit your works in four languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Crimean Tatar language.

The winners will be selected by the expert and civil jury (internet users).

The admission starts on April 7, 2015.

Contest website: http://www.stop-censorship.net

Contest on Facebook: www.facebook.com/stopcensorship.net