Featured
President Museveni’s crackdown on Ugandan TikTokers
Social media spaces are shrinking as freedom of speech is further eroded in Uganda, leaving no safe haven for critical thoughts
By Danson Kahyana
Latest news
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The Kurdish journalists being targeted in Syria
Media workers in the Kurdish-led autonomous region in northern Syria have long suffered attacks by Turkish forces and extremist groups
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The freedom to travel is becoming a privilege, not a right
Countries once considered liberal are increasingly denying dissenters entry at their borders
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The week in free expression
Index rounds up some of the biggest stories in the global free speech landscape from the past seven days
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Mother’s Day 2025: Celebrating the women taking on authoritarian regimes
From Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to Laila Soueif, we pay tribute to mothers around the world who are fighting unimaginable battles for free speech and...
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Spotlight: Freedom Day in Belarus
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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “The people of Belarus are showing the dictator that they want him gone”
Following January's sham election, political activists and journalists willing to challenge Aliaksandr Lukashenka face prison, exile or worse – but...
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Lukashenka’s election plan is to shut down the internet – again
In the run up to the Belarusian presidential election, Index's Belarus researcher reflects on her own experience during protest crackdowns in 2020
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Hanna Komar explores the trauma of oppression through her new play
The Belarusian poet wrote Body in Progress to expose how persecution has a profound impact on the body and mind
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Belarus is a prison for freedom
Freedom of expression in Belarus is costly and the price is years off your life
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MAGAZINE
LATEST ISSUE: VOLUME 53.04 WINTER 2024
Unsung heroes: How musicians are raising their voices against oppression
Music has been described as a “cultural universal” – a practice found in all known human cultures and societies. While anthropologists still scratch their heads over exactly where the concept originated, evidence indicates that humans have used musical instruments for an astonishing 40,000 years.
During an excavation in 1995 in Slovenia, researchers discovered a bear’s femur bone with holes in it and concluded that it could be an ancient flute.
Humans have always found ingenious ways to make music, and it’s not difficult to see why. It is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression, capable of eliciting both intense happiness and sadness in the listener. It is used to celebrate, lament, respect and enrage, and its endless genres, styles and instruments form a core part of countries’ unique cultural heritages.
But despite its universality, music is being silenced globally. Religious extremism, political factions, racism and nationalism are all driving forces, stopping it being performed, produced and listened to. In this issue we explore how music bans have been weaponised to silence communities and erase histories.
Uncensored gallery
Index commissions censored and exiled artists from around the world to illustrate our magazine covers and feature stories. You can view some of their work here