Index 73 Initiative team: Hubert Bilewicz Agnieszka Kaim Iza Kowalczyk, PhD Ewa Majewska, PhD Lidia Makowska Jacek Niegoda Roman Pawłowski Ola Polisiewicz Alek Tarkowski, PhD Jakub Szreder

About Indeks 73 Initiative:
Indeks 73 is a new initiative created and developed on the national level in Poland at the beginning of 2008 by the people of cultural professions. Our aim is to protect freedom of artistic expression and scientific researches guaranteed by the constitution. We want to re-analyse existing areas of freedom and repression and define restraints on free access to creation, remixing and dissemination of the cultural goods. We encourage activities which oppose censorship, introduce changes in the law, support free culture movement and re-introduce the concepts of the common good and the public domain.

In 2008 Indeks 73 will act in three following areas:

• freedom of artistic creation
• free culture and free access to cultural goods
• public domain, public institutions transparency

Portal www.indeks73.pl
Portal www.indeks73.pl is a basic tool initiating and documenting the debate and all Indeks 73 activities. The portal is written and edited by a voluntary editorial staff of Indeks 73 Initiative.

Why do we defend freedom of artistic creation?
Freedom of artistic creation and scientific research, as well as free access to cultural goods, is guaranteed in Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and on the international level - in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27). Although the Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications and Public Performances stopped its existance in 1990, freedom of artistic creation and free access to the cultural goods is frequently restricted. However, the forms of such restriction have changed: preventive censorship has been replaced by repressive censorship with the methods of economic, legal and bureaucratic pressure. Cultural institutions restrict creation and presentation of works which expand the limits of the commonly accepted political ideology, standards of behaviour (morality, sexuality), religious tolerance and tolerance in general. The concept of self-censorship has been introduced to many institutions out of fear some works of art may expose the authors or the institutions to the moral or financial repressions.

Why do we want to rebuild the public domain and free access to the cultural goods?
Culture in Poland is – similarly to other domains influenced by money and politics - subject to neoliberal strategies of commercializing the common good. Intellectual property rights are being collected within the global reach of a few publishing, phonographic and film consortia. Restrictive regulations prevent free dissemination of the works, which means it is not the authors of those works but big consortia that make profits. New strategies have been also accepted by the copyright management organizations: being aware of the technological advancement and internet sharing capabilities, the copyright holders started to co-operate to preserve their status quo and introduce legal amendments against „piracy” by means of new technologies..
All these dangers are a new phenominon in Poland and require thorough interdisciplinary research, new regulations concerning the access to cultural goods, and redefinition of the concept of the public domain in culture. After 18 years of transition in Poland we can still see the results of a lack of reliable diagnosis of this phenominon and marginalization of the problem.
Indeks 73 Initiative calls for a wide debate of the people of culture, and offers definite actions.

What's our structure, methods and goals?
Indeks 73 is an open, experimental and informal network initiated by artists, curators, visual arts and theatre critics. The initiators met in January 2008 in the Atelier of Kultura Miejska and in the kitchen of the private House of Creative Work in Dekerta Street in Gdansk Wrzeszcz. Shortly Indeks 73 Initiative was joined by theoreticians, researches, journalists, activists and lawyers. We would like to co-operate with people of various professions, including gender and free culture movements, who act to defend freedom of creation and free access to cultural goods. The structure of our Initiative is non-linear, non-hierarchical and open to new ideas, people, methods. We hope Indeks 73 will develop as a civil project initiating new beings, researches and activities.

What are our plans for 2008?
In 2008 we want to define the problem, initiate a general debate and search for new models and efficient forms of opposition to the restraints on free culture. We would like to focus especially on legal issues and watchdog initiatives concerning Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. We will also take first steps towards the democratization of culture, which means we will define the rules and clear boundaries between the public and private circulation of cultural goods, we will discuss the issues of the common good and the public domain. We will also analyse and propose new models of transparency and clear citeria concerning the allocation of the public finance for cultural activities.

Free Culture Irregularly
We publish Free Culture Irregularly discussing the problem of censorship, restraints on freedom of artistic creation and free access to cultural goods.

Archives and Bibliography of Censorship
We have prepared a thorough calendar of interventions and violations of Article 73 of the Polish Constitution in 1989 – 2007/2008, including over 80 cases of censorship in Polish art.
We have researched and listed the bibliography of censorship on the portal www.indeks73.pl. The bibliography contains theoretical publications, a wide range of articles, essays and press coverage documenting restrictions on freedom of creation and free access to cultural goods.

Free culture activities/ watchdog activities
A battle for free access to cultural goods is a difficult process, which requires active participation of people of many professions, and various forms of action, such as petitions, interventions, strategic litigation program (strategy using the justice sector to achieve legal and social change through test cases), monitoring and analyses/ reports concerning the violations of Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

In March 2008 we initiated a media debate about appriopration of the cultural heritage and the process of monopolizing intellectual property rights. In April 2008 Indeks 73 in cooperation with Performeria Warszawska, the group acting under the auspices of Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw, organized a happening „Free Winnie!” to protest Walt Disney's monopoly on A.A. Milne's book about Winnie the Pooh.

We are monitoring and writing about Gdynia police's activities concerning the case of the three city deathmetal group Behemoth, accused of wounding of religious feelings (the leader tore the Bible during the concert).

In April 2008 we submitted an open letter protesting against Television Plus practises of cutting out love scenes from the films made by remarkable directors, which is the violation of the citizens rights.

We are also monitoring amendments concerning the issue of pornography in the criminal law with the regulations which may restrict freedom of creation and access to cultural goods if they are improperly interpreted.

We are planning a number of activities, workshops and interventions dedicated to preservation of free access to cultural goods and mechanisms of their dissemination.

Public policy, transparency of the public institutions
As far as legal matters are concerned we are planning to initiate a debate and prepare analyses postulating precise interpretation of the regulations in the Penal Code concerning protection of religious freedom, morality, presentation. Subjective interpretation of the regulations mentioned above is used to limit freedom of artistic expression, which was not the legislator's intention. We especially take into consideration the regulations concerning offences against religion and religious feelings (Article 196 of the Penal Code), slandering the Polish Nation (Article 132) and definition of pornography (Article 202).

In summer 2008 we are going to organize surveys in public cultural institutions inquiring about the definition of public policy, free access to cultural goods, transparency of financial procedures and selection of the program in public institutions.

International conference, 6 – 8 October 2008
Our research and artistic activities and interventions in all three areas of action will be summarized during the international conference in Warsaw, on 6 – 8 October 2008. The participants of the conference will be artists, critics and theoreticians, scientists of various domains, lawyers, constitutionalists, journalists and public administration representatives.
Conference papers and debate will be published online in webjournal (November 2008) and in a book (second quater of 2009).

Funding

The Initiative 73 is supported by the Association Kultura Miejska in Gdansk thanks to the funding from:

• the European Union (program administered by Cooperation Fund Foundation)
• Stefan Batory Foundation within the frame of the program 'Watchdog Initiatives', more at www.watchdog.org.pl