samleecole shares a report from 404 Media. A trove of leaked emails shows how administrators censored themselves because the ceremony for one of science fiction's most prestigious awards was held in China. Earlier this month, the Hugo Awards came under fire over accusations of censorship after several writers were excluded from the awards, including Neil Gaiman, RF Quan, Sheeran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer. These authors' works received enough votes to be shortlisted, but were deemed “ineligible” for reasons not disclosed by Hugo administrators. The Hugo Awards are one of the biggest and most important science fiction awards. […]
The email showed the process of compiling a spreadsheet of the top 10 works in each category and checking them for “sensitive political nature” to see if they were a “China issue.” Obtained by fan writer Chris M. Barkley and the author. Jason Sanford, and published on fandom news site File770 and Sanford's Patreon, full PDF of email uploaded. These were provided by Diane Lacy, administrator of the Hugo Awards. In an email to 404 Media, Lacey acknowledged that she was the sender of the email. “In addition to regular technical reviews, we need to highlight anything of a politically sensitive nature in our work, as this is happening in China and the *laws* under which we operate are different… ,” 2023 Director Dave McCarty said. Email instructions to award judges and administrators. “You don't have to read everything, but if your work focuses on China, Taiwan, Tibet, or other topics that might be an issue in China… We need to highlight that and put it to a vote on whether the law requires us to make an administrative decision on that.”
In the email response to this instruction, administrators will be asked to provide information about the author's social media presence, public travel history (including prior to being nominated for the 2023 award), and any works or works other than those nominated for the award. It is shown that it has been thoroughly investigated. Among dozens of other posts and texts, they note that Weimer has made negative comments about the Chinese government in Patreon posts and misspelled Chao's name and work. (He calls the novel “Iron Widow'' the “Iron Giant.'') Regarding author Naseem Jamnia, the admin allegedly wrote, “The authors openly identify themselves as queer, non-binary, and transgender (and good for them too). You write frequently about gender, especially non-binary people, and the cited works also rely on these themes.'' I'm including them because I don't know how things will turn out in China. (I don't think it's very good)
“As far as our investigation was concerned, there was no reason to exclude the works by Quan, Gaiman, Weimer, or Sheeran Jay Zhao, but from the perspective of the Hugo Awards' administration, they were deemed undesirable because of their surrogate effect. “Except that it was considered “the Chinese government,'''' Sanford and Barclay write. In connection with the email trove, Sanford and Barclay also released a letter of apology from Lacey. In it, Lacey explains some of his own role in the award judging process and also blames McCarty for his own role in the debacle. McCarty resigned earlier this month, along with board chairman Kevin Standley.
