De britiske myndigheder har afvist hans visumansøgning, så han kunne medvirke i en stor koncert i anledning af 800 året for frihedsbrevet “Magna Carta”, skriver censurbekæmperen, den internationale NGO Freemuse, i sit seneste nyhedsbrev.
I København holder Essam koncert fredag d. 4. september kl. 19 i VerdensKulturCentret på Nørre Allé 7 på Nørrebro (entré 70 kr.). Det sker som led i “Copenhagen World Music Festival” 2.-6. september – se hele programmet på http://cphworld.dk
Freemuse Award winner Ramy Essam was supposed to take part in the Festival 800 in Lincoln in the UK on Saturday 5 September 2015 as part of the full day event ‘Listen to the banned’, writes Freemuse.
The British refusal states: “I am not satisfied that your circumstances in Sweden (or elsewhere) are such that you have shown that your intentions are as stated that you intend to leave the UK at the end of your proposed visit.” (Essam bor p.t. i Malmø, red.)
“Bureaukratisk arrogance og en skandale”
Freemuse Executive Director, (danskeren) Ole Reitov commented on the refusal:
“This is a scandal. Ramy Essam has been invited to the USA, Norway, Germany and several other countries during the past year. He has met the Swedish Minister of Culture, the President of the Norwegian Parliament and is currently hosted by Malmö City Council”.
“The refusal argument is complete nonsense and shows bureaucratic arrogance.”
Festival 800 Director David Lambert said: “We are shocked and disappointed that the bureaucracies that have stifled freedom of expression over the centuries seem to have once again succeeded in preventing that expression to be heard”.
“We trust common sense will prevail and Ramy Essam will be able to exercise his right to freedom of speech at Festival 800, a human rights festival.”
Magna Carta: Folkets stemme
Magna Carta is 800 years old, and over the centuries has offered opportunity and a voice to a vast range of marginalised people.
Said David Lambert: “Festival 800 is an artistic and cultural response to Magna Carta, and as the home of only four 1215 editions of the document, Lincoln was delighted when Ramy Essam accepted our offer to come to the city to share his stories.”
Freemuse calls for an urgent reappraisal of the visa application.
Har også afvist Ai Wei Wei
The UK Immigration Authorities have over the years been criticised for their lack of understanding of the role of artists.
Recent visa refusal cases include Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, who was denied a six month visa a few weeks ago, a decision that was subsequently reversed once the Home Secretary become involved in the case.
The United Kingdom is a state party to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
In Article 14 the convention calls for state parties in developed countries to facilitate “access to their territory for the cultural activities, goods and services of developing countries… and providing support for creative work and facilitating the mobility, to the extent possible, of artists from the developing world”, notes Freemuse.
Om Ramy Essam
Essam was born in 1987 in Mansoura, Egypt.
His song Irhal, in which then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was urged to resign, gained great popularity among the demonstrators. It became internationally known through YouTube, and is referred to as the anthem of the revolution.
In 2011, it was selected by Time Out as the third-most world-changing song of all time. He currently sings hard rock songs, one of the few singers in Egypt to sing rock.
Ramy also expressed his mourning of the revolution’s martyrs on Facebook.
On 9 March 2011, when the Egyptian Army forcibly cleared the square, he was arrested and tortured.
In October 2014, Essam was offered safe city residence for two years by the Malmö Municipality of Scania (Skåne).
He is the first musician who has been offered this by Malmö but two writers have been offered it before. In addition to the residence permit, he gets accommodation.
He describes his situation as an artist in Egypt as “terrible” and is happy he can come to Sweden to study.
Essam says it will be the first time he has the chance to study music, that he will keep make music and be an ambassador of the Egyptian revolution.
Essam was featured on the 2014 compilation Songs from a Stolen Spring that paired Western musicians with artists from the Arab Spring.
On the album, Essam’s “Bread, Freedom” was meshed with Mighty Sam McClain’s performance of “If I Can Dream”.
His 2015 release “Foul Cavier” was also featured on Firebrand Records’ album “A New World in Our Songs.”[
(Kilde: Wikipedia)
