CATEGORY: Magazine

Judged

Judged

by | 19 Jun 19

The summer 2019 Index on Censorship magazine looks at the narrowing gap between a nation’s leader and its judges and lawyers. What happens when the independence of the justice system is gone and lawyers are no longer willing to stand up with journalists and activists to fight for freedom of expression? In this issue Stephen Woodman reports from Mexico about its new government’s promise to start rebuilding the pillars of democracy; Sally Gimson speaks to best-selling novelist Robert Harris to discuss why democracy and freedom of expression must continue to prevail; Conor Foley investigates the macho politics of President Jair Bolsonaro and how he’s using the judicial system for political ends; Jan Fox examines the impact of President Trump on US institutions; and Viktória Serdült digs into why the media and justice system in Hungary are facing increasing pressure from the government. In the rest of the magazine a short story from award-winning author Claudia Pineiro; Xinran reflects on China’s controversial social credit rating system; actor Neil Pearson speaks out against theatre censorship; and an interview with the imprisoned best-selling Turkish author Ahmet Altan.

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Is this all the local news?

Is this all the local news?

by | 27 Mar 19

The spring 2019 Index on Censorship magazine looks at what happens when local newspapers disappear and decline. Who is there to hold politicians and lawmakers to account locally? In this issue successful journalists and writers Richard Littlejohn, Libby Purves, Andrew Morton and Julie Posetti describe how they began their careers in local news in the UK and Australia. The decline of local newspapers is a global phenomenon. Karoline Kan reports from China about how they are being squeezed out by Communist Party scrutiny; and Rituparna Chatterjee reports on the difficulties of satisfying the Indian appetite for local news. Jan Fox examines the USA’s news deserts. Mark Frary digs into the latest artificial intelligence being used by local newspaper editors. In the rest of the magazine Alessio Perrone looks at how Italy is stopping journalists reporting on refugees crossing the Mediterranean. We publish an original short story by historian and China expert Jeffrey Wasserstrom, plus an extract from the Slovak writer Michal Hvorecký’s latest novel Troll. Editorial

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A quarterly journal set up in 1972, Index on Censorship magazine has published oppressed writers and refused to be silenced across hundreds of issues.

A quarterly journal set up in 1972, Index on Censorship magazine has published oppressed writers and refused to be silenced across hundreds of issues.

The brainchild of the poet Stephen Spender, and translator Michael Scammell, the magazine’s very first issue included a never-before-published poem, written while serving a sentence in a labour camp, by the Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who went on to win a Nobel prize later that year.

The magazine continued to be a thorn in the side of Soviet censors, but its scope was far wider. From the beginning, Index declared its mission to stand up for free expression as a fundamental human right for people everywhere – it was particularly vocal in its coverage of the oppressive military regimes of southern Europe and Latin America but was also clear that freedom of expression was not only a problem in faraway dictatorships. The winter 1979 issue, for example, reported on a controversy in the United States in which the Public Broadcasting Service had heavily edited a documentary about racism in Britain and then gone to court attempting to prevent screenings of the original version. Learn more.