1 Mar 1977 | Magazine, Magazine Editions, Volume 6.02 March 1977
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10 Jul 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, News and features, Newsletters, Turkey
Above is the cartoon that led to the arrest of several journalists in Turkey this week. It appeared in LeMan, the long-running Turkish satirical magazine that’s been poking fun at power for over 30 years. On the left of the image is a bearded man wearing a taqiyah – a Muslim skullcap – who introduces himself as Muhammed. On the right, a man in a top hat, resembling the traditional attire of Haredi Jews, says he’s Musa. Both have wings and are shown hovering above burning buildings and flying rockets.
According to LeMan, the character of Muhammed “is fictionalised as a Muslim killed in Israel’s bombardments”. A statement on X said: “This cartoon is not a caricature of the Prophet Muhammed, PBUH [Peace Be Upon Him]… There are more than 200 million people named Muhammed in the Islamic world.”
Despite this clarification, backlash at what has been perceived as a swipe at Islam has been swift and severe. On Monday, police raided LeMan’s Istanbul office, which was surrounded by an angry crowd, and arrested staff. On Wednesday an Istanbul court charged four team members with “publicly demeaning religious values” and ordered them detained pending trial. One of the four, cartoonist Doğan Pehlivan, was also accused of “insulting the president”. Two more LeMan employees are under investigation and appear to be outside the country. Authorities have also apparently banned the latest issue, ordered it pulled from newsstands and blocked access to LeMan’s website and social media accounts in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally condemned the cartoon, calling it “a vile provocation.”
All of this over a cartoon. A cartoon that wasn’t even about the Prophet Muhammad. Even if it were, this response would still be indefensible. Religions can and should be open to critique or satire. Criticising belief systems is not the same as attacking believers.
As veteran Turkish journalist Can Dündar told me this week, “Like many autocrats, Erdoğan is intolerant of humour.” He fears the chilling effect this latest crackdown could have. “This may silence already-frightened humour magazines altogether.”
LeMan has long been a thorn in Erdoğan’s side, and there’s a chance this is being used as a pretext to shut them down. It’s also no coincidence this is happening in a country where Erdoğan has increasingly embraced religious conservatism – a shift our brilliant contributing editor Kaya Genç has documented over the years (see here for example). But joining the dots doesn’t do anything for those who are now in jail for exercising their rights to artistic and media freedoms. We owe it to them to raise our voice and do what we can to get them out.
9 Jul 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, Ireland, News and features, Statements
On 2 July, the Dáil passed the Defamation (Amendment) Bill by 83 votes to 61. The undersigned organisations are deeply disappointed that, although the Bill contains anti-SLAPP provisions, it fails to include the robust safeguards required to meaningfully protect public interest speech. Nearly a decade after the review of the Defamation Act 2009 began, this is a frustrating outcome and a missed opportunity to protect the freedom of expression that is the lifeblood of our democracy.
The Ireland Anti-SLAPP Network – a coalition of civil society organisations, media lawyers, and academics – has engaged with the government throughout this process in an effort to improve the Bill. We had proposed three targeted amendments that would have significantly strengthened the legislation. None of these have been incorporated.
While the Bill brings in provisions that give effect to aspects of the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive – its application to domestic defamation cases is welcome – it falls short of transposing the Directive’s full set of minimum standards and protections, which Ireland is legally required to implement in full by May 2026. The anti-SLAPP provisions in the Bill apply only to defamation proceedings, even though SLAPPs frequently exploit other causes of action including privacy, copyright, and data protection to intimidate and silence public interest speech. The government has provided no clear explanation of how it intends to extend protections beyond defamation in line with its EU obligations.
The legislation also omits key components of the Directive that could have been readily included. These include provision for third-party interventions in support of SLAPP defendants (Article 9), security for damages (Article 10) and a reversal of the burden of proof (Article 12). The legislation also fails to incorporate the protections against SLAPPs initiated in non-EU countries (Articles 16 and 17). By failing to incorporate these core safeguards, the Irish government exposes itself to potential infringement proceedings from the European Commission.
The government could and should have drawn on established international best practices, including the Council of Europe’s Recommendation on countering the use of SLAPPs. This Recommendation includes vital safeguards, such as an automatic stay of proceedings while an early dismissal motion is being heard, which are designed to protect against abusive litigation. It provides clear, practical guidance for safeguarding free expression and democratic accountability. Yet the government appears to have almost entirely disregarded it.
As the Bill goes to the Seanad today, the undersigned organisations call on senators to make the necessary amendments in order to ensure that Ireland seizes the opportunity to protect freedom of expression. If the current Bill is passed into law, journalists, human and environmental rights defenders, academics, and whistleblowers will remain vulnerable to abusive litigation aimed at silencing them.
Jessica Ní Mhainín, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Index on Censorship, said:
“It is ironic that this piece of legislation was passed in the Dáil on European Day of Action against SLAPPs because it completely fails to offer meaningful protection to SLAPP defendants. Its complex and flawed provisions risk becoming tools only accessible to those with significant legal resources — not the individuals most often targeted with SLAPPs. We need the senators to take action now to stop this inadequate Bill from being passed into law.”
Dr Francesca Farrington, Convener of the Anti-SLAPP Research Hub and Lecturer in Law at University of Aberdeen, said:
“The Dáil has failed to fully transpose the minimum standards and protections required by the Directive. At a time of great threat to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, the government has missed a vital opportunity to champion freedom of expression and protect public watchdogs. If the directive is a floor, not a ceiling, this is somewhere in the basement, but there is still time to level up.”
Dr Eoin O’Dell, Associate Professor of Law in Trinity College Dublin, said:
“For a reform process that started with so much promise, the Bill has been a series of missed opportunities and profound disappointments. Nowhere is this clearer than in respect of its anti-SLAPP provisions, which are so grudging that they will be impotent in practice.”
SIGNED:
Index on Censorship
Anti-SLAPP Research Hub, University of Aberdeen
ARTICLE 19 Europe
Association of European Journalists
Blueprint for Free Speech
Civic Initiatives (Serbia)
ClientEarth
Coalition For Women In Journalism
Committee to Protect Journalists
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Foundation Atelier for Community Transformation – ACT, BiH
Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
Global Witness
IFEX
Institute for Mass Media – IMME (Cyprus)
International News Safety Institute (INSI)
International Press Institute (IPI)
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ)
National Union of Journalists
PEN International
Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Rainforest Rescue
Reporters Shield
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
Spotlight on Corruption (UK)
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation
The Gemini Project
Transparency International Ireland
Wikimedia Europe
4 Jul 2025 | Africa, Algeria, Americas, Asia and Pacific, China, Europe and Central Asia, France, India, News and features, United Kingdom, United States
In the age of online information, it can feel harder than ever to stay informed. As we get bombarded with news from all angles, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at the complete shutdown of USAID, and the imprisonment of a French football journalist in Algeria.
The end of an era: USAID closes its doors
After six decades, USAID – the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency – has been completely shut down. Following an increasing number of funding cuts, restrictions and staff layoffs that left it with only 20% of its agency programmes still running by March, the Trump administration has ordered USAID to be absorbed into the US state department, under the control of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Founded in 1961 under President John F Kennedy with the goal of fighting extreme poverty, disease and fostering democratic societies around the world, USAID also supported initiatives protecting free expression – like in Uganda, where crucial shelters and aid for LGBTQ+ citizens has been withdrawn, leaving them at the mercy of ever-increasing government crackdowns on their community. Such initiatives were criticised by Rubio, who described USAID as inefficient and stated that Americans will no longer “pay taxes to fund failed governments in faraway lands“. The state department will look to ensure that any foreign spending “prioritises national interests” to align with Trump’s “America First” approach.
The move has been condemned by former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush; Obama stated at a video conference with USAID workers that “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world”.
A Lancet study estimates that by 2030, roughly 14 million lives will have been lost as a result of USAID’s dismantling.
Arrested for sport: French football journalist imprisoned for seven years in Algeria
Prominent French football journalist Christophe Gleizes has been sentenced to seven years in prison by an Algerian court.
Gleizes, who was in Algeria to report on football clubs Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (JSK) and Mouloudia Club d’Alger, was held in the country for 13 months following his arrest on 28 May 2024. He has been charged with “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests”, charges that Reporters Without Borders have described as “shockingly unfounded” and “nonsensical”.
Gleizes allegedly corresponded three times with an individual who was a prominent figure at JSK, but is now the leader of Movement for Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK); a separatist group dedicated to independence of the Kabylia region of Algeria and the Kabyle people, a minority group in the country. They were proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Algeria in 2021.
RSF have stated that two of the three interactions with this person were before MAK’s proscription, and that all discussions were purely related to football. So Foot, a French Football magazine to whom Gleizes would regularly contribute, stated that he was “imprisoned for doing his job”.
No freedom to write: Women arrested in China for writing gay erotica
Female authors in China are being targeted and arrested for writing danmei – homosexual erotic novels, largely written for a straight female audience. It has garnered a strong following amongst young Chinese women in recent years, but at least 30 danmei authors have been arrested in China since February 2025, accused of breaking China’s law against “producing and distributing obscene material”.
The law specifically targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions”, meaning that similar novels depicting heterosexual relations are often subjected to far less scrutiny. Authors who earn a profit from such material could face up to 10 years in prison, while any online work that garners more than 5,000 views is seen as “criminal distribution”.
Public backlash has been significant despite censorship around the topic. Chinese social media websites Weibo and WeChat have both seen discussions and articles critical of China’s anti-obscenity laws swiftly taken down. Xi Jinping has overseen increasing crackdowns on LGBTQ+ expression in recent years, calling for the “purification” of the internet, and in 2021 China’s National Radio and Television Administration issued a directive banning the appearance of “effeminate men” on screen.
State-sanctioned truth: Proposed jail terms for fake news in India
Legislation has been drafted in India that would see up to seven years’ jail time for those deemed to be spreading “fake news”. Proposed by the state of Karnataka, a prominent tech-hub state in southwest India, the Misinformation And Fake News (Prohibition) Bill outlines that posting fake news, “anti-feminist” content or “promoting superstition” would be subject to fines and imprisonment, but has not yet specifically defined what these offences entail.
Misinformation and fake news have been rampant online in India for years, with AI generated reports, deepfakes and lies causing major problems in a country with over 1 billion internet users. But this new proposal has raised concerns among free speech advocates over how it would be implemented, risking selective enforcement and honest mistakes being met with judicial punishment.
Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation who first made the draft legislation public, argued that misinformation is subjective in some cases, and that “every person who uses the internet is susceptible to falling within the dragnet of this law“. An opinion piece in The Deccan Herald, an Indian-English publication based in Karnataka, slammed the legislation as “anti-democratic” and a “remedy worse than the menace”.
UK book ban: Trans books removed from children’s sections across UK council
A Reform UK councillor at Kent County Council has announced that he has ordered the removal of all transgender-related literature from the childrens’ section of libraries in the county based on a single complaint from a “concerned member of the public”. The ban will affect 99 libraries and five mobile library vans.
Reform UK’s communities portfolio holder Paul Webb, who has responsibility for libraries, compared transgender literature to “alcohol, cigarettes and gambling” in terms of potential damage to children and stated that they should be protected from “potentially harmful ideologies and beliefs such as those held by the trans lobbyists.” Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran described it as a “victory for common sense in Kent”.
LGBTQ+ activists have expressed deep concern over the decision. Erin Strawbridge, manager of an LGBTQ+ bookshop in Folkestone, Kent, told the BBC that the ban “pushes kids into the closet, into worse mental health situations”. Liberal Democrat opposition leader Anthony Hook said that “it feels like an act of bullying towards a small, vulnerable group of people”, and that “We risk becoming a narrow-minded society if we limit what individuals choose to read.”
