Eurozine

War, women’s rights, deportations and democracy: what’s at risk as Trump returns? Eurozine’s topical reads on what to expect of the power shift in the US.

How can independent media in Europe survive in an increasingly difficult public sphere? The Eurozine network gathered in Warsaw from 11–13 October to discuss how media consumption shifts and political changes are affecting cultural journalists and audiences today.

How can a captured state be democratized? Who invented postmodern corruption? What does political humour have to do with political analysis? A Polish, a Romanian, a Slovenian and a Hungarian editor walk into a cooperative bar in Kraków to talk professional responsibility and personal survival tactics.

Independent sources of information have been almost entirely destroyed in Russia. It is critical to reveal to Russian citizens the full truth about the suffering of the Ukrainian nation. An appeal to Russian speakers worldwide from prominent members of the Russian literary intelligentsia.

A diary from the front, a Syrian scenario for Putin, and opportunities to help: here’s a review of what editors and authors of the Eurozine network have to say about Ukraine.

Putin’s war is being fought in the interests of a political elite, not the Russian nation. But the information bubble is preventing the Russian public from speaking out. That is where those outside Russia come in. An appeal from Russian civil society.

Three opposition journalists from Turkey, Russia and Hungary talk to Eurozine’s editor-in-chief about repressive regimes, personal risk, migration, the role of the media and the future of their profession in the digital age.

The urgency of the climate crisis demands individual ethics as much as a willingness to cooperate with power. But reconnecting humans with the natural world also forces us to revisit the promises of ever-growing efficiency and a culture of exploitation.

One year in and the pandemic has hit women particularly hard: decades’ of advancement in the workplace and academia are under threat; domestic violence has skyrocketed. And yet, in institutional politics, women seem to be growing in numbers and influence. This year’s International Women’s Day ‘challenge’ is one of recovery.

From climate change to political corruption and authoritarianism, leaders of protest movements share a common dilemma: how to achieve impact when existing parties and institutions cannot be trusted?

Just landed in Moscow after recovering from the Novichok poisoning of last August, Putin’s major political opponent Aleksej Navalny was immediately arrested. This selection of Eurozine reads helps understand why the Kremlin fears him and is cracking down on niches of free expression and rising civic activism.

On 17 December 2010, Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest against the arrogance of the political authorities. Bouazizi’s suicide marked the beginning of the uprisings across the Arab world. A decade later, the consequences of the Arab Spring are still unfolding.

The poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, long-standing economic stagnation and the violent suppression of protests against electoral fraud have sparked in Belarus an unprecedented popular uprising, the final outcome of which is still uncertain. Who has kept the protest culture alive among a population often accused of political apathy? What has been the role of women in the opposition to Lukashenka? And what game is Russia playing?

The events of 1989 unleashed a world of discovery. Economic determinism was replaced by imitation of the West. Was that process authentically spontaneous or were eastern Europeans staging a script they did not write? Either way, imitation created a crisis of identity, the consequences of which are still unfolding.

How do political interventions work in the troubled world of central eastern European journalism, arts and academia? Can professionals avoid self-censorship, or how do they decide what circumstances not to put up with? Watch our Budapest debates.

Are you concerned about press freedom and integrity in central eastern Europe? The first part of the 31st European Meeting of Cultural Journals, livestreamed from Budapest on Saturday 14 November, gives you the chance to hear journalists from the region speak about their current predicament and responses.