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Topic of choice

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Gender and racial representation in the media

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Gender and racial representation in the media

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Topic of choice

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Hey all! Here is a link to an article outlining the study of the 56 top grossing films in 2018 in 20 countries.

https://www.screendaily.com/news/films-still-have-harmful-stereotypes-for-female-leaders-new-research-confirms/5143368.article

The study focused on how women were represented and found that even if a female character was in a leadership position, they were shown as sex objects, undermining their role in the film. The study outlines a lot of factors such as 15% of films had female charcters slow motion camera movements on their body versus 4% with men, and other interesting facts. It´s a quick read with the article link at the end!
Since this article and study are from2019/2018 it would be interesting to reflect on if that has changed at all. The report has three recommended actions for change: Have we seen any of these changes in the recent years?

To be it, they must see it. Make stories about female leadership visible and normal. Stories need to encourage young women’s aspirations and ambitions, not undermine them;

Stop the sexualisation and the objectification of women and girls on screen and ensure content doesn’t discriminate or reinforce negative stereotypes and behaviour;

Fund female filmmakers, programme makers and content producers. Invest more time and money in women and girls as storytellers while addressing harassment and discrimination in the workplace to encourage girls and women into key positions in the media industry.

-Magdalena Sañudo

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nida-manzoor-culture-shifters_n_64305ec7e4b05cef00c8eebb

Another interesting article! Nida Manzoor says I’m like, ‘This is just a Muslim woman expressing joy!’” and wanted to write about muslims womens experiences other than just oppression and suffering.

-Magdalena Sañudo

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To read about the other Culture Shifters, return to the list here.

It's hard not to feel pure joy and delight when talking with writer-director Nida Manzoor and listening to her describe everything from her childhood film and TV influences to all the big ideas she's cooking up for the future.

Joy and delight are certainly at the center of her two biggest projects so far: "We Are Lady Parts," her buoyant Peacock comedy series about a group of young Muslim women who form a punk band - and now, her debut feature film "Polite Society," which premieres in theaters on April 28.

In the film, protagonist Ria (Priya Kansara) is a British Pakistani teen aspiring to be a stunt performer in movies. Her parents are about to marry off her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) to, as Ria describes him, "a rich Mr. Darcy wanker." To try to stop the wedding, Ria and her friends stage a heist. As that description suggests, "Polite Society" is a fun, bold and inventive blend of genres: everything from action to modern-day Jane Austen to coming-of-age, and much, much more.

Manzoor's assured feature directorial debut feels like the kind of movie only she could make. It's also the culmination of her years of writing and directing in TV, across many different genres, from small, intimate comedies to the legendary BBC sci-fi series "Doctor Who." In fact, Manzoor, 33, wrote the first draft of "Polite Society" more than a decade ago, when she was first trying to break into filmmaking in her early 20s. But as she soon discovered, at that time, "nobody wanted to make a crazy genre film with a bunch of South Asians in it," especially from a newcomer.

"I suppose I didn't see how my film would ever exist, in a way, because I thought: to do a fun action comedy, it'd have to star, like, Ryan Reynolds," she said. "It couldn't have a South Asian teenage girl. I was like, 'Maybe these two things can't come together.'"

Even now, she's in a bit of disbelief that it finally got made. "For a long time it was like, 'Oh, I just don't know if the industry is going to do it.' And then, like, 'Shit, the tides have turned,'" she said. "Even when I watch 'Polite,' I'm like, 'How the...?' There was a point where everyone in town had said no to 'Polite Society,' and it really knocked my confidence."

The film was greenlighted thanks to the success of "We Are Lady Parts," which premiered in 2021. She wrote the show after feeling demoralized by some of the offers she was getting, like being asked to co-write a project with a white male writer "and just be the brown person who can give that point of view and the rubber-stamping of his stuff." Similarly, she was demoralized by the one-dimensional portrayals of Muslim women on screen, such as stories with "a misery porn vibe," which bore no resemblance to her life.

"I'd just been asked to do lots of really annoying shows, being asked to write dramas about Muslim women being oppressed, long-suffering," she said. "The annoyance of having been asked to write all this stuff that wasn't my experience of being a Muslim woman made me create 'Lady Parts.'"

As with "Polite Society," when she started pitching "We Are Lady Parts," she met a lot of resistance. "'We Are Lady Parts' got turned down basically everywhere, except for one place, and that was Channel 4 and then Peacock," she said. "It was a lot of people being like, 'I don't think we can do this. Is this offensive? Are people going to get upset?' A lot of stuff where it was like, 'No, we don't want to take the heat from something like this. This could have a lot of heat.' And it was just really stressful. I'm like, 'This is just a Muslim woman expressing joy!'"

That sense of joy and the delightful combination of genres in Manzoor's work make total sense, given her childhood of watching a range of work, including sitcoms, Hong Kong kung fu movies and four-hour Bollywood epics. She says she's always been drawn to big spectacle movies, where watching them feels like an event.

Growing up, Manzoor consumed a voracious diet of movies and TV that shaped her sensibilities. She tuned in to "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Simpsons" and British classics like "Fawlty Towers" and "Blackadder." Born in London, she spent 10 years in Singapore due to her dad's job in business, and then moved back to London in her teens.

"In Singapore, I was watching these amazing Singaporean sitcoms that I became obsessed with. And my dad was a big action movie fan, so we'd always be watching action. I remember watching 'Die Hard' and lots of Jackie Chan movies: the '90s ones, like 'Rush Hour' and that kind of thing," she said. "It was just a kind of real hodgepodge, a mishmash of stuff. I think it all just shaped the kind of stuff I love."

She studied politics at University College London, and her parents hoped she'd become a lawyer. But her real passion was writing and directing short films in her spare time: "I just thought: 'I just don't want to be a lawyer. I just don't. I can't.'" After graduation, she was determined to figure out how to become a director. Her first job was as a runner for a post-production company in London. While she remembers the job as "pretty rough," including doing menial tasks and "dealing with badly behaved execs," she loved being around creative people, which fueled her to keep going.

She charted a path of applying for grants and contests in the U.K., where much of the arts are supported by public funding and publicly funded institutions like the BBC and the British Film Institute. The script for her first short film, "Arcade," won a BBC screenwriting competition in 2013. Centering on two girls playing in an arcade, the film was shot in a day. Her dad drove the van with all of her equipment, and her mom made food for the crew.

"It's still one of my favorite things I've done. I was just trying to be like, 'This is my tone: very distilled, heightened genre comedy,'" she said. "And in many ways, people do look at that short film as like, 'Oh, we've got you from that.' And those short films were things that I think really helped me get to make the stuff in my voice, and sort of find it as well."

Manzoor dreamed of getting "Polite Society" made, but had a lot of frustrating conversations with executives who thought it was too this or not enough that.

"I realized a lot of people I was developing 'Polite' with weren't into it and were trying to push it into being a bit more serious. I'm like, 'Why won't you let it be silly?'" she said. She even remembers people telling her: "'My influences are too male.' I'm like, 'Who has been making cinema?!'"

She put the script aside, finding more of an opening in TV. After the success of her short films, she got jobs writing for several BBC kids shows, where she loved the collaborative nature of the writers rooms. Her short films also opened up opportunities to direct TV pilots. Many of those jobs weren't in her own voice. But she found that working on other people's stories was a great learning experience: figuring out how to manage different styles of comedy or how to land on the right tone for a given story.

In 2017, Manzoor directed the pilot of "Enterprice," a BBC comedy series created by and starring Kayode Ewumi, inspired by elements of his life as a young Black British man from South London.

"It was his show, and I was bringing the visual language for the world. So I learned so much from seeing what he needed," she said. "I learned a lot in the art of collaboration, so when it came to making my own thing, of seeing where I can bring collaborators and trust them. And he was really trusting, which I also found really amazing - like, 'This is his story, and he's trusting me to direct it.'"

When "Enterprice" got picked up to series in 2018, Manzoor directed the first season. In 2019, she landed a huge gig: directing two episodes of "Doctor Who," which aired in early 2020. She again approached it as an opportunity to build new skills, particularly given the scale of the long-running time travel series. "I really saw it as, like, 'I'm going to learn some shit. I'm going to learn about the machine.'"

Being on the set of such a monumental show helped her combat her impostor syndrome by simply "being good at the job."

"There's huge crews, crews of hundreds, big visual effects - I hadn't done big visual effects - aliens, a really ambitious schedule," she said. "I learned a lot more about having the kind of annoying dance that sometimes you have to do in proving yourself, if you are a young, female, person of color. I feel like sometimes you've just got to prove yourself in a way that a man, a white man, a middle-aged man doesn't."

"Doing that show gave me confidence, like: 'I can do this. I'm good at the job.' It's not that I need to swagger around and shout. I can still be me. I'm quite a quiet, introverted person, so I don't need to pretend. And doing that made me realize: I can be me and direct."

During that time, Channel 4, which had broadcast the pilot of "We Are Lady Parts" in 2018, greenlighted the show for a full series. It premiered in 2021 to major acclaim, including winning a Peabody Award and a BAFTA TV Award for best comedy writing.

The show was produced by Working Title, the company led by veteran British producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Bevan asked Manzoor if she had any movie ideas, and finally, she dusted off her "Polite Society" script. To her pleasant surprise, Bevan encouraged her to lean into the boldness of her vision, unlike those frustrating rejections years earlier.

She has come a long way since she was 21, when she wrote the original script on free screenwriting software on her computer. This time around, she ended up rewriting much of it, incorporating what she had learned in the intervening years.

The script she wrote at 21 "was biting off too much and wanting to do too much," Manzoor said. "I feel lucky that I got to be more experienced, especially with tone. Tone is hard, but it's the most fun thing. You get to twist it and turn it and move it and play with it, and 'Lady Parts' helped me find that."

Manzoor has plenty on her plate right now, including writing the second season of "We Are Lady Parts." Beyond that, she wants to continue making the kinds of movies she loved growing up: big spectacle movies, but with "women of color at the heart of them." She also wants to make a musical someday, "something like Anxiety: The Musical."

"For a long time, I felt like, when you're outside the door, it feels impossible to open the door," she said. "And now, I feel like I'm in, which is incredibly exciting."

At the same time, there's always that anxiety of whether that progress is here to stay and the fear that it could all go away at any moment.

"What if this is a dream? What if someone pulls my pants down, and it was all a big joke? Because it still feels so new that we are even allowed to take up space in this way, and to have a voice in this way, and to not just be pandering to stereotypes. It's all very new," she said. "I feel like I'm in. But I'm still like: H ow do I stay here? And if I relax for 20 minutes, will it all be gone? Like, 'Sorry. You left, so you're now out.'"

She hopes to become the kind of filmmaker who produces decade after decade of hits, a career longevity that historically has only been afforded to white male directors: the Steven Spielbergs and Martin Scorseses of the world.

"Will I get to be like Scorsese in my 70s and be popping out massively long movies, and everyone loves it? I want to be that. I want to be an old filmmaker. I don't want to just be gone," she said. "So I still harbor slight anxiety, whilst also feeling extremely lucky to be here."

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Nida Manzoor Is Changing The Way Muslim Women Are Portrayed On Screen

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The writer-director is having a long, overdue moment - and she hopes it is here to stay.

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Making Progress: Our Latest Film & Series Diversity Study And Netflix Fund For Creative Equity Updates

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Netflix's Progress in Terms of Films and Series Diversity

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Netflix's Progress in Terms of Films and Series Diversity

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Here is a link to an article which shows Netflix's progress when it comes to representing diverse racial groups in their movies and series.
- Macy Janine Pamaranglas

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Hi, it's Lorenza, your facilitator. Here is a short video of students studying abroad. It may help spark some ideas. Hope you find more things to share ;)

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Hi, it's Lorenza, your facilitator. Here is a short video of students studying abroad. It may help spark some ideas. Hope you find more things to share ;)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5EEz_R_RiE

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Hello it's Lorenza your facilitator. Maybe this video would be helpful to spark your discussion?

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Hello it's Lorenza your facilitator. Maybe this video would be helpful to spark your discussion?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYNdumL9_M - Peter Tatchell

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Or this article in a British newspaper, The Guardian on cancel culture and freedom of speech?

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Or this article in a British newspaper, The Guardian on cancel culture and freedom of speech?

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/08/is-free-speech-under-threat-cancel-culture-writers-respond

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Nesrine Malik, Jonathan Freedland, Zoe Williams and Samuel Moyn

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Is free speech under threat from ‘cancel culture’? Four writers respond

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An open letter has ignited a heated discussion on the limits of political debate

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Adding something for group 2 just in case ;) Lorenza. Just so you know, David Lammy is a British Labour MP who is taking part in this project.

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Adding something for group 2 just in case ;) Lorenza. Just so you know, David Lammy is a British Labour MP who is taking part in this project.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InpP_7DImZo

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Why does David Lammy feel under threat in a hoodie?

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This is a link of a BBC brief article about gender representation in the media

- Nicole

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Representations of women in the media have developed and changed with time to reflect the and s changes in society. However, female continue to appear in some media texts.

Representations of women are often defined by how men see women (termed the ' '), or by how society expects women to look and behave.

Many representations of women concentrate on sexuality and emotions. Others focus on their relationships with their children or romantic partners.
Magazine front covers often include stereopypical representations of women
Although there are representations of women in the media that conform to society's expectations there are also representations that aim to subvert and challenge these constructions.

These positive representations offer a more realistic and refreshing view, showing women as active rather than passive, as heroes not victims.

Case study: The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence's character Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is an example of this kind of positive representation.

Katniss subverts the stereotypical representations of women we see in mainstream media.

She is a survivor and a scavenger.

She is highly skilled in archery and hunting, self-reliant and self-sufficient. She proves herself to be a responsible young person - looking after her family. Fearless and rational, she does not allow her emotions to get in the way of her survival.

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Women - Representation of gender - GCSE Media Studies Revision - BBC Bitesize

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The representation of gender is a powerful code in media texts.

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A brief presentation on culture shock

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Culture Shock for International Students

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Culture Shock for International Students

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This article focuses on how international students face and react to cultural shocks. Since in group 1 there are several foreign students, I think it can be an interesting read for everyone

- Chiara Nasonte

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I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock of being an international student

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I thought student life in the UK would be much the same as in the Netherlands. But small things began to catch me off balance...

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Topic of choice

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Do we have the right to manipulate children's identification process?  

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Do we have the right to manipulate children's identification process?  

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https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/billionaire-family-pushing-synthetic-sex-identities-ssi-pritzkers

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On this video, Trisha Unnikrishnan discusses a problematic aspect of freedom of speech: does it give us the right to offend?

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On this video, Trisha Unnikrishnan discusses a problematic aspect of freedom of speech: does it give us the right to offend?

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https://youtu.be/f4JiSQxdl6M

- Giovanna Mauro

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Does Freedom Of Speech Give Us The Right To Offend? | Trisha Unnikrishnan | TEDxNPSISSingapore

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/15/captain-of-migrant-rescue-ship-says-italy-criminalising-solidarity

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Captain of migrant rescue ship says Italy ‘criminalising solidarity’

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Pia Klemp, one of the Iuventa 10, says it is ‘ridiculous’ that she could face jail

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https://creativeinsights.gettyimages.com/en/trends/realness/multidimensionality-in-asian-representation
Representation matters.

Pichay

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The current state of Asian representation in popular culture, especially in the world of cinema and TV series, can tell us a lot about visual stereotypes and how to break them. Our Visual GPS research found that globally, consumers tend to see twice as much diversity in movies, TV shows, and social media, as they do in marketing and advertising, meaning that the industry has a lot of catching up to do. How we see our surroundings can easily be influenced by the stories on screens and advertising we consume, reshaping how we perceive reality. These streams of visuals can deform how we see others and ourselves, in return limiting or blocking our dreams and aspirations.

Asian stories are beginning to be seen on a global scale, but unfortunately, Asian characters are often still relegated to the sidelines and smaller roles. Otherwise, they've been subject to limiting clichés and depicted as submissive, dragon ladies, or math wizards and nerds.

A study found that over a quarter of Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) characters in the year's top 100 movies at the box office in 2019, were dead by the end of the movie.[1] Most recently in 2022, The Batman, one of the single Asian characters visible in the movie was assaulted in a subway scene before being saved by Batman which can be triggering for many amidst the surge of Asian hate crimes. Stories that push forward an oversimplified vision of Asians, that ridicules or pushes them aside can shape how we perceive and behave around Asians in real life, enforcing damaging stereotypes along the way.

Even with good intentions, the main potential issue in trying to represent Asian culture is to mishmash many cultures into one, or not having actors or visual traditions match the setting or story being told. For example, celebrated movies in the US like Crazy Rich Asians did not receive the same praise in the Asian market, the criticism focused on the biased portrayal of Singaporean culture and oversimplification of its people. Similarly, Raya and the Last Dragon and Moana presented an oversimplified version of their cultures, mixing multiple geographic and cultural influences into something the locals couldn't relate to. The way Asians lead their everyday lives is far from the interpretation we make of them on screen, both in their quality and quantity.

At Getty Images, the most recent popular imagery for Australasia, Japan, and Southeast Asia shows common clichés: young, slim, lighter skin complexions and clean‑cut Asian people, usually at work. Overall, Chinese, Japanese and Thai people are the most represented, followed by multi‑ethnic groups and white people. The visuals remain similar in their underlying messages, styling, and emotion: often overly happy, and nothing reflects who they really are. They are monotonous and the connection to each culture is thin.

Our VisualGPS research shows that 4 in 5 consumers across the Asia Pacific agreed that it isn't enough to have people of various ethnicities, backgrounds, and appearances in advertising and media; companies need to do a better job at capturing people's true lifestyles and cultures. And 3 in 5 Asia Pacific consumers feel they have been discriminated against based on body size, lifestyle choices, race, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and sexuality. These findings make it critical we recognize how diverse and multidimensional Asian cultures and their people are.

Having three‑dimensional characters in stories allows for compelling stories originating from diverse backgrounds, promoting a better understanding of others and accept them. There is a growing number of stories that are now having Asian actors representing people that happen to be Asian, but them being Asian isn't the subject of the role or movie. The most notable examples are John Cho in Searching, representing a father trying to find his missing daughter or Sandra Oh in many of her recent roles like in Killing Eve acting as a former MI5 officer. These characters could have been of any ethnicity, but they happened to be people of Asian origins.

We also want to see more local stories with layered and nuanced portrayals, stories of mixed‑race and multi‑ethnic, indigenous characters, characters with disabilities, different socioeconomic backgrounds, and intersectional narratives.

The recent international success of Asian‑made stories helps tell these local stories, such as the acclaimed Parasite and Squid Game, with their stories of social inequality/socio‑economic backgrounds. Girl from Nowhere explores Thailand's complex cultural norms and class system. The show Creamerie explores three Asian women as main characters in a post‑apocalyptic women‑only New Zealand. The most refreshing representation recently was in the TV series Sort of, about a Pakistani‑Canadian gender‑fluid millennial who straddles various identities as a bartender at a queer bar and the nanny of a mixed‑race family. The "Asian Bea" character in Insecure also shows a different side of Asian men, which helped move away from the undesirable Asian male stereotypes. Starstruck also puts forward a different interpretation of stereotypes where the traditional male and female rom‑com tropes are reversed as well as having protagonists from part‑Samoan and East Asian origins. It is also exciting to see how characters from Pachinko evolve as episodes unfold-it's a story never been told about the Korean diaspora in Japan.

But it's not only about Asian representation-all representation matters. Think about how CODA, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, Encanto, Drive My Car, Bridgerton and Everything Everywhere All at Once or any other recent widely‑talked‑about films and TV series represent their characters and understand the stories behind them. These advancements in understanding ethnic‑specific casting, colorism, intersectionality, and body type are now leading the conversation toward intricate and nuanced stories, and who can be the architect of those stories.Brands need to understand this as well in order to select authentic visuals and to keep up with the way that culture is moving forward on a global scale.

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Visual stereotypes in Asian representation in popular culture and how to break them.

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Do we have the right to manipulate children's socialisation process?

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Do we have the right to manipulate children's socialisation process?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVsIIvQXFFc

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Do we have a right to implement our preferences as a law? 

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Do we have a right to implement our preferences as a law? 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzXAjZ2GZow

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Being born in one country is equal to revoking my right to have a living in another country's soil, why? 

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Being born in one country is equal to revoking my right to have a living in another country's soil, why? 

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Do we have a right to protect our country's culture by avoiding Muslim immigrants? 

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Do we have a right to protect our country's culture by avoiding Muslim immigrants? 

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/09/map-frances-growing-muslim-population/

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A deadly attack on the offices of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo and subsequent manhunt and hostage crisis has, yet again, focused attention on France's Muslim minority. The French far right, known for its anti-immigrant stance, is saying that its warnings about Islamist extremism have been proven right.

Yet for all the attention to them, discovering the exact number of Muslims in France is a surprisingly complicated task - the French government doesn't allow censuses that ask people about their religious beliefs, meaning that estimates have to come from independent sources.

One widely cited study by Pew from 2010 showed estimated that France had 4.7 million Muslims. At 7.5 percent of the population, this meant France had the largest Muslim population in Western Europe (for reference, in the same year Pew estimated that the Muslim population in the United States made up 0.8 percent of the total). Other estimates vary from around 5 percent to 12.

French census data can't tell us where France's Muslims live, but some past studies have put the percentage of Muslims in Paris as high as 15 percent. What census data can show is that around 9 percent of the population around Paris is made up of non-EU immigrants, though that number is likely influenced by other factors as well (Paris is a major international city, of course).

Whatever the actual size, France's Islamic minority has become a subject of concern and sometimes fear-mongering. One online poll conducted by Ipsos Mosi last year found that the average person in France thought that Muslims made up 31 percent of the population in the country, rather than 7.5 percent. As political scientist Steve Saideman puts it on his blog: "It is important to understand the real numbers, as fears of swamping generate or exacerbate xenophobia, and in pretty much every case, the populations of Muslims are so small that they are politically powerless."

And when it comes to levels of extremism within France's Islamic community, attitudes are again hard to ascertain. One recent poll suggested that 1 in 6 French citizens supported the Islamic State militant organization. When examined closely, its findings seemed incoherent and possibly flawed. (Incidentally, the earliest indications suggest that the Charlie Hebdo attack was carried out by al-Qaeda followers, who now see themselves as rivals to the Islamic State).

A more reassuring poll from 2006 found that 73 percent of French Muslims were "somewhat" or "extremely" concerned about the threat of Islamist extremism. In 2011, Gallup found that 56 percent of French Muslims felt Western societies "respected" Muslim societies. Given the variety of different backgrounds French Muslims come from, attempting to singularly define their positions may ultimately a difficult, even impossible task.

Perhaps most worrying in the current climate has been the relatively large number of French nationals who are believed to have gone to fight in Syria in 2014. Estimates put these at several hundred. You can see how that compares below (click for enlarged image).

France's Muslim minority may be disproportionately represented in some areas of French society (in 2008 it was estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of prison inmates were Muslims). It's worth remembering, however, that two of most famous victims of extremist terrorism in recent years were themselves French Muslims: Imad Ibn-Ziaten, a soldier shot dead in Toulouse in 2012, and police officer Ahmed Merabet.

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One 2010 estimate put France's Muslim population at 7.5 percent of the total.

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Do I have a right to raise my children with my old-fashioned and in some aspects, non-progressive materials?  

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Do I have a right to raise my children with my old-fashioned and in some aspects, non-progressive materials?  

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Do we have a right to sink refugees ship to protect our welfare and security?

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Do we have a right to sink refugees ship to protect our welfare and security?

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/14/scores-drown-refugee-boat-sinks-off-greece

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At least 78 people have died and hundreds more are feared missing in the deadliest refugee shipwreck off Greece this year.

The victims, nearly all of them men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, drowned when the large trawler they were travelling in capsized off the southern Peloponnese.

It was unclear how many passengers were missing from the vessel, which had set out from eastern Libya and was heading for Italy.

By nightfall, Greece's caretaker government had declared three days of national mourning to mark the tragedy.

"There has been a dramatic rise in the death count, which is climbing by the hour," said one Greek official. "Speculation is rife that as many as 600 people were onboard but that has not been confirmed. The ship is under the water. It has sunk."

About 104 passengers had been rescued as of Wednesday afternoon, he said.

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, the deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where survivors were taken, said his information indicated there were more than 500 people onboard. A European rescue support charity said it believed about 750 people were onboard, and the UN's migration agency cited an estimate of as many as 400.

Coastguard vessels, a navy frigate, military transport planes, an air force helicopter and an array of private craft were participating in the search for survivors. Rescue efforts were initially hampered by strong winds.

Greek media outlets quoted survivors as saying the ship went down almost instantaneously, close to the deepest area of the Mediterranean Sea. "The engine stopped and it sank in minutes," said one.

On Wednesday evening the first aerial pictures emerged of the overcrowded vessel before it capsized. The blue trawler appeared to have hundreds of people on board.

"The outer part of the boat was full of people and we assume that was the case below deck too," Nikos Alexiou, a spokesperson for the Hellenic coastguard, told reporters. "The boat was overcrowded. A precise number cannot with certainty be given but what is sure is that it is very big."

Greek authorities and officials from the EU border agency Frontex were alerted to the stricken ship late on Tuesday. Repeated calls to the vessel offering help were declined, the coastguard said in a statement. "In the afternoon, a merchant vessel approached the ship and provided it with food and supplies, while the [passengers] refused any further assistance," the coastguard said.

A second merchant ship later offered further supplies and assistance, which were turned down, the agency added. A coastguard patrol boat reached the vessel in the evening "and confirmed the presence of a large number of migrants on the deck", the statement said. "But they refused any assistance and said they wanted to continue to Italy."

Smugglers are taking ever greater risks to evade patrols. They are increasingly operating in international seaways with the aim of dropping off their human cargo in Italy rather than heavily guarded Greece.

"We are seeing growing numbers plying open seas that are more dangerous because they are prone to more stormy weather," said Natassa Strachimi, a lawyer with Refugee Support Aegean, an NGO that provides legal aid to asylum seekers. "And the journeys are taking much longer because the destination is Italy."

The Greek migration ministry blamed international smuggling networks for putting lives of migrants and refugees at risk, while the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, called on governments to work together to create safe pathways for people fleeing poverty and war.

Greece has been criticised for forcibly expelling would-be asylum seekers in violation of international law. Its former centre-right government, which is facing re-election in polls later this month, has denied the "pushbacks", calling its migration policy "tough but fair".

A video released last month showed refugees who had reached the island of Lesbos being forcibly placed on a Greek coastguard vessel before being set adrift and picked up by the Turkish coastguard.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the country's prime minister until May, and the main leftwing opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, announced they would suspend their electoral campaigns as the scale of the tragedy became apparent.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was deeply saddened by the tragedy. Last week EU interior ministers agreed radical reforms on migration laws and a new pact with Tunisia to reduce migration, with specific funds intended to stem the loss of life in the Mediterranean.

UN data suggests that about 72,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus, countries bordering the Mediterranean, so far this year. Greece has long been one of the main routes for people fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

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At least 78 people drown as refugee boat sinks off Greece

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Hundreds more feared missing from overcrowded fishing vessel that reportedly sailed from Libya for Italy

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what is freedom of speech on social media?

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what is freedom of speech on social media?

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https://youtu.be/dUFiJvJUu_8
-Kana Suzuki

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What Are Your Free Speech Rights On Social Media? | NBC News NOW

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- Paola

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Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert is pulling her new novel from publication after Ukrainian readers expressed "anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain" about her decision to set a book in Russia.

Gilbert's The Snow Forest is a historical novel set in Siberia, and follows a family of religious Russian fundamentalists who have lived isolated and undetected for 44 years since retreating from the world in the 1930s.

When they are discovered in 1980 by a team of Soviet geologists, a scholar and linguist is sent to the family's home to bridge the chasm between modern existence and their ancient, snow forest life.

Gilbert announced just last week that the book would be released in February 2024.

However, today she released a video statement on her Instagram account, saying she was "removing the book from its publication schedule".

She said over the course of the weekend, after announcing the book, she had "received an enormous, massive outpouring of reactions and responses from my Ukrainian readers expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain about the fact that I would choose to release a book into the world right now, any book, no matter what the subject of it is, that is set in Russia".

"And I want to say that I have heard these messages and read these messages and I respect them," she continued. "And as a result I'm making a course correction and I'm removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published.

"And I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced and who are all continuing to experience grievous and extreme harm."

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the countries have now been at war for almost 500 days. Ukraine's top military command said on Monday that its forces were engaged in heavy battles in frontline hotspots.

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Gilbert said that she had "other book projects that I'm working on and I've made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now".

Literary agents and authors told the Observer that an appetite for escapist fiction in Russia had led to enticing offers for foreign rights. But many authors felt it was not right to take Russian money while the war with Ukraine was ongoing.

In addition, authors including Linwood Barclay, Stephen King and Joe Abercrombie have previously publicly said they will not be renewing book contracts in Russia because of the war.

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Eat, Pray, Love author withdraws new Russia-set novel from publication

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Elizabeth Gilbert says now is 'not the time for this book to be published', following anger from Ukrainian readers over The Snow Forest, set in Siberia

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https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/FITW_2023%20MethodologyPDF.pdf
-Blanca

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Why we should defend free speech with full all. -Hakan

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If you defend free speech, you must defend it all and not silence those you disagree with | Kenan Malik

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Ministers trumpet their law against ‘no-platforming’ in universities, but that doesn’t stop them disinviting critics from their own conferences