16 Dec 2025 | Americas, Europe and Central Asia, Hungary, News, United States
Much has been said about the US National Security Strategy, which leans hard into far-right talking points, arguing that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” because of migration and that the USA must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”. The strategy also references censorship.
Europe’s free speech record is a bugbear of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s. I’ve written about my thoughts from the perspective of the UK, arguing that they’re right. There are issues. Just not the ones they usually point to. And of course I’ve arguing about the chutzpah: a case in point being Wednesday’s announcement of plans to comb through US visitors’ social-media histories which we consider censorship pure and simple.
Here’s another story from the continent that won’t be flagged across the pond: a Hungarian rights campaigner, Géza Buzás-Hábel, has been placed under investigation and is facing potential criminal charges for organising a peaceful Pride march.
Back in March the Hungarian government, governed by Viktor Orbán – a “great leader” according to Trump – voted to ban Pride events. They still went ahead. In June tens of thousands of people marched in Budapest, which we reported on; in October some 8,000 attended Pécs Pride, organised by the Diverse Youth Network, which Buzás-Hábel runs. Days later Buzás-Hábel was summoned by police for questioning. His case was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office with a recommendation to press charges. Buzás-Hábel could face a suspended prison sentence of up to three years. He was recently dismissed from his state teaching job and from a music centre where he’d worked as a mentor.
This is an egregious free speech violation. But let’s be honest, it’s exactly what Trump and his cohort want. A Europe where minority voices – Buzás-Hábel is Roma as well as queer – aren’t free to organise peaceful protests and don’t have an equal voice.
One of the most important things that this moment demands is to not fall through the looking glass and land in a place where left means right and right means upside down. That’s sadly what is happening to free speech if you spend too long in the Trumpian vortex. At its heart free speech is about pluralism – the great marketplace of voices and ideas – which is the opposite of the ambition of the US’ National Security Strategy and Europe’s far-right parties. They are all adopting the idea of free speech in order to shut down every other voice except their own. By all means we should call out censorship as and when it occurs. But it is vital to do it across the board. After all, free speech isn’t worth a dollar if it only applies to one group and not another.
16 Dec 2025 | News, Surveys
Index on Censorship is carrying out a survey of Gen Z attitudes to free speech and social media to tie in with the launch of the Winter 2025 issue of its quarterly magazine. The goal of the survey is to understand the how young people born between 1997 and 2012 use social media, whether they censor themselves when using it and their views on free speech.
The survey should only take a couple of minutes. The results are anonymous and will only be reported in an aggregated manner. The closing date for taking part is Friday 9 January 2026.
15 Dec 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, News, United Kingdom
As reporters and organisations representing the interests of media workers and the broader rights of free expression and privacy, we have come together to highlight the extreme danger that the UK’s plan to break end-to-end encryption poses to investigative journalism and even to the lives of journalists.
Cases such as Breen v PSNI (2009) have shown that reporters – particularly those who report on terrorism and criminal gangs – may face a serious threat to their lives if they cannot guarantee source protection, and as such can claim legal rights under Article 2 and Article 10 of the ECHR.
The current proposal by the UK government would mean that UK-based reporters using end-to-end encrypted services such as Signal, WhatsApp and other vital tools, would be forced to deal with government-mandated vulnerabilities in messaging systems that much of the rest of the world considers secure.
In an age of global media, but also international organised crime and rising transnational repression by autocratic states, the UK, which for centuries has provided a home for free speech and free media and a haven for dissidents seeking refuge from the secret police of their own lands, risks becoming the place where freedom dies.
As MPs gather to debate this potentially disastrous law, we urge the government to rethink its dangerous encryption-breaking law which endangers journalism and journalists at home and around the world.
Signed,
Index on Censorship
National Union of Journalists (UK)
International Press Institute
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
Global Forum for Media Development
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)
Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (Italy)
Carole Cadwalladr (personal capacity)
Association of European Journalists (AEJ)
Big Brother Watch (UK)
Open Rights Group (UK)
Electronic Frontier Foundation
15 Dec 2025 | Hong Kong, News, Statements
We at Index on Censorship condemn today’s guilty verdict coming out of Hong Kong in the “trial” of democracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai. Nothing about this trial has been free or fair. Indeed the National Security Law itself, which Lai has been charged under, is an affront to free speech, masquerading as justice when instead its sole purpose is to criminalise and crush opposition voices.
Lai has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020. He has already been sentenced for separate charges of unauthorised assembly and fraud, but the National Security Law charge he has now been convicted of was the most serious accusation. As a result of today’s verdict Lai, who is 78 years old and a British citizen, could face life in prison.
Lai has a long history of being an advocate for free speech and democracy. He describes himself as having a “rebellious nature”, which he has demonstrated throughout his life. Born in mainland China in 1947 during the Chinese Civil War, when he was just 12 years old Lai smuggled himself into Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat. He launched a very successful career in the city through his role at a garment factory, and later his clothing line, before being inspired to go into the media business in the 1990s by his outrage at the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Lai founded the media company that went on to become Next Digital in 1990. It grew to include Apple Daily, a popular opposition newspaper dedicated to free speech, in 1995. After the Hong Kong handover in 1997, Apple Daily became known for challenging Beijing’s party line, as did Lai, who emerged as a key figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, which emerged in response to the increasing attacks on freedoms in the region.
Since the ascension of Xi Jinping to power from 2012, the CCP ‘s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong only intensified. Then on 30 June 2020, the National Security Law was passed. Speaking before its passage, Lai called the law “a death knell for Hong Kong”. Lai was arrested on 10 August of that year, as were others from Next Digital.
Following his arrest, Apple Daily was also targeted. The newspaper was forced to shut down a year later when its assets were frozen.
Index has campaigned on behalf of Lai since his arrest. We have covered updates on his situation, published letters of Lai’s written from prison and launched A Postcard for Jimmy, a campaign encouraging people to write a brief message of support to Lai in order to boost his morale and let him know he has not been forgotten.
Throughout his ordeal, Jimmy Lai – whose health has visibly deteriorated – has never backed down from his pro-democracy position. Preferring to be a martyr for the cause rather than sacrifice his principles, Lai is being punished for exercising his right to free speech. It is vital that his case does not go unnoticed. The guilty verdict returned in relation to these charges is an appalling breach of Lai’s personal rights and freedoms, and we will continue to condemn the decision while Lai continues to be incarcerated. Advocating for human rights is not a crime. Keeping Jimmy Lai locked up is.
