LATEST FROM INDEX ON CENSORSHIP

How did you do in our banned books quiz?

Were you one of the five winners in our year-end competition? Find out the answers to those fiend...

Index on Censorship welcomes the release of Palestinian human rights defender and lawyer Diala Ayesh

Ayesh was released from administrative detention on 14 January 2025 by Israeli authorities

Nominate a champion for Index on Censorship’s 2025 Freedom of Expression Awards

Tell us who you think should win in the fields of arts, campaigning and journalism around the world

Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2034 World Cup is just another attempt at sportswashing

Undemocratic states that seek to exploit soft power to hide their human rights abuses should be c...

How can Gaza rebuild its culture?

With a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas now imminent, Index reflects on the damage done to Pale...

A story of forgotten fiction in Vietnam

The country's rich literary history has been plagued by censorship and book bans

Will Meta’s changes to content moderation work?

Are Mark Zuckerberg's recently announced plans to ditch existing fact-checking policies motivated...

What could Assad’s downfall mean for freedom of expression in Syria?

Syrian journalists have been subjected to free speech violations for decades. Could the future ho...

Bashar al-Assad has fallen: now I must continue writing

A formerly imprisoned, exiled journalist talks about his plans to return to Syria and resume repo...

It’s been quite the year for freedom of expression

We’ve seen severe violations by repressive governments – but we’ve also seen remarkable acts of d...

Pakistan faces increasing internet censorship

Internet shutdowns are nothing new in the country, but authorities appear to be using them as a f...

Book censorship is rife on Amazon.com, according to a report from The Citizen Lab

The research laboratory has identified that books with LGBTQ+ and religious themes are being rest...

Can academic freedom survive Donald Trump’s plans for thought control?

The president’s aim to remove power from universities and punish so-called “woke” ideology has ch...

Will Syria’s future leaders restore human rights for all?

Bashar al-Assad’s government was toppled by Syrian rebels this week, bringing the dictator’s 24-y...

Decolonisation in name only: Sedition and free expression in India

As Mohammed Zubair’s case shows, the “world’s largest democracy” is still holding on to outdated ...

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...

Media regulator fails to properly protect freedom of expression in online safety draft guidance

Index on Censorship criticises Ofcom’s inadequate ‘passing references’ to users’ privacy rights a...

Belarus is a prison for freedom

Freedom of expression in Belarus is costly and the price is years off your life

Human Rights Day 2024: A tribute to human rights defenders

Index on Censorship spotlights four people standing up for human rights around the world

Human rights organisations condemn criminal complaint lodged against award-winning journalist Mohammed Zubair

Index on Censorship and other organisations highlight the continued use of sedition to target ind...

The power of protest

Peaceful demonstration is a fundamental form of self expression, and a crucial mechanism of any d...

Science in Iran: A catalyst for corruption

Index looks at why being a scientist in Iran is so dangerous, and what is left behind when advanc...

Index launches year-end banned books competition

Solve fiendish cryptic clues from the mind of author Marc Nash to identify the book titles and wi...

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi released from prison

Joint statement by the International Counsel Team at Doughty Street Chambers, Index on Censorship...

Venezuela: a blueprint for tackling a rigged election

A citizen-led movement to capture accurate voting tallies revealed that Nicolás Maduro did not wi...

COP29: Azerbaijan’s flagrant human rights abuses undermine its role as climate conference host

The men in black who patrolled the corridors of Baku’s Olympic Stadium indicated the level of sur...

The dangers of boycotting Russian science

As physics laboratory Cern ends co-operation with Russia and Belarus over the Ukraine war, Index ...

Boualem Sansal faces life imprisonment if found guilty of national security charges

The Algerian novelist has long been a controversial figure for his criticism of his home country ...

A big week to remember

The past week has been busy for Index and in Hong Kong. It is up to us all to ensure award winner...

Index on Censorship announces 2024 Freedom of Expression award winners

Campaigners, artists and journalists from Iran, Palestine, Russia and Uganda are named in awards ...

The reappearance of Stalin’s ghost in modern Russia

Denouncements of citizens for anti-Russian sentiment and punitive psychiatry are rising in the fo...

How Putin’s Russia is weaponising psychiatry against its critics

The Russian leader is revisiting the Cold War playbook by using mental manipulation to silence di...

Democracy, but not as we know it

Donald Trump’s re-election is indicative of a broader global trend towards a new age of veiled au...

Who will protect freedom of expression now?

What terrible things will happen while we are all distracted by the clown in the White House?

Anything is possible: 35 years on from the fall of the Iron Curtain

As we mark the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, we should remember that democratic cha...

Mozambique faces protest crackdown following disputed presidential election

The police have killed at least 20 people during a march led by an opposition leader, whilst hund...

In India, the money from state advertising is too tight to mention

Angana Chakrabarti reports from the North Eastern region, where government advertising is used as...

Donald Trump’s re-election is disastrous for free speech

Today is a day of despair – but it is also a day for those of us who genuinely care about free ex...

Index on Censorship announces 2024 Freedom of Expression award shortlist

At a time of growing conflict, threats and censorship, the shortlist for this year’s Index on Cen...

On the brink

Freedom and democracy are on the ballot in the US presidential election

The UK Government must defend its citizens around the world

As the new Prime Minister vows to protect press freedom and tackle impunity, we're reminded of th...

Celebrating the music of Toomaj Salehi

This week marks two years since Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested, and although his death...

Rap is not a crime, yet my cousin remains behind bars in Iran

Two years ago today, Toomaj Salehi was arrested because his music was unjustly seen as a threat.

Press freedom and journalist safety in peril, rising polarisation and a climate of fear – findings of the press freedom mission to Georgia

After a fact-finding mission to Georgia on the state of free expression, a consortium of organisa...

Film censorship risks emboldening those who threaten violence

Cinema screenings are fairly cancelled in the interests of public safety - but does this further ...

Platform on Safety of Journalists demand reform in Ireland following anti-SLAPP conference

Partners of the Platform call on Irish authorities to continue to prioritise media freedom and be...

Living in gangster times

Reporting on organised crime in the eastern state of Bihar is a deadly business

Tainted scientists

Katie Dancey-Downs talks to the scientists who have been censored for questioning the effectivene...

Journalists have a “right to life”

The rich and powerful are increasingly acting with impunity to silence, sometimes permanently, th...

Georgian dream – or nightmare?

Ahead of a national election next week, Index CEO Jemimah Steinfeld visited Georgia's capital Tbi...

Be nice, or you’re not coming in

The Indian government is revoking the status of its overseas citizens and denying visas for those...

The show must go on

Ravish Kumar was one of the biggest independent voices of Indian channel NDTV before he dramatica...

Ukraine: Index and partners mourn death and demand justice for Victoria Roshchyna

Organisations welcome the opening of an investigation into the death of the Ukrainian journalist ...

Detained, blindfolded and threatened with death: a week in the hands of Ukraine’s Russian occupiers

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna was on her way to Mariupol when she was taken hostage. Sh...

All the news that’s fake to print

Index on Censorship's new editor rounds up the stories that have made headlines this week includi...

Index pays tribute to Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna who has died in Russian detention

The war reporter wrote from the front line for several Ukrainian news outlets before she was capt...

Al Jazeera’s closure sets a dangerous precedent for journalism, says union

The shutdown of the West Bank news centre has been labelled a security step by Israeli officials,...

One year on from 7 October: free speech violations in Israel and Palestine

Amongst the horrendous loss of life and destruction, journalists and peace activists have been pe...

Telling fact from fiction

Journalistic "black holes", such as in Gaza and Sudan, curtail people's ability to understand geo...

Georgia: Press freedom and the safety of journalists in peril

Findings of a recent press freedom mission to Georgia by the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journa...

Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera’s West Bank office is a blow to press freedom

This is just another example of Israel’s suppression of Palestinian journalists, which stops them...

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah denied freedom once again

The political prisoner remains behind bars after serving a five-year jail term, but his family wo...

Is jail time for Just Stop Oil protesters justified?

When countries like the UK and the USA start punitively punishing peaceful but disruptive protest...

The hypocrisy of how Western democracies respond to protest

Nations in the "Global North" continue to crack down on protests and freedom of expression, while...

ODEE and Fishrot: Index signs letter in support of artistic freedom

An artist is being sued by one of Europe's largest fishing companies and now dozens of organisati...

United Nations member states must call for Toomaj Salehi’s release

The family of Toomaj Salehi are calling for Iran to immediately and unconditionally release the j...

The most ridiculous book bans

For Banned Books Week 2024, Index staff share some of the most absurd examples of literary censor...

Who holds the pen on scrutinising the most powerful?

The influence wielded by newspapers has come into sharp focus in the past week

The corporate silencing of the truth about Ukraine’s “Holocaust by bullets”

Index co-hosted the private UK premiere of an important film about the Babyn Yar massacre to pers...

Breaking end-to-end encryption would be a disaster

Index launches campaign to highlight why politicians should not rush to add a "back door" to mess...

Iranian filmmakers pull it out of the bag

An exploration of some of the innovative strategies employed by Iran’s directors to circumvent ce...

Two plus two equals five in US presidential debate

The adjective Orwellian is overused but the surreal ABC News debate between Donald Trump and Kama...

Silenced Afghan women raise their voices in hope

Women gather in Albania in defiance of the Taliban's new "vice and virtue" laws which aim to stop...

Fictitious legal letter threatening legal action is sent to every sitting MP

UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, of which Index is co-chair, launches campaign as Parliament delays estab...

Bread, Work, Freedom

Afghan women gather in Tirana for global summit to defy the Taliban

Back to school: a hard lesson for Hong Kong

Secondary school students are now going to be educated in Xi Jinping Thought to promote patriotis...

Israel’s trajectory into a nascent police state

Israel’s push towards authoritarianism by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is not sl...

The enforced silence of Afghanistan’s women

Taliban-enacted "vice and virtue" laws have taken away both voices and human rights

Modi’s plans to muzzle India’s internet

The Indian government may have withdrawn the latest version of its Broadcasting Services (Regulat...

The great X-odus

People are leaving X by the droves and with good reason. But it still has many strengths, not lea...

The painful death of Syria’s independent media

A number of independent media outlets opened in the wake of the Arab Spring but lack of funding a...

Why Project 2025 is a threat to a free media

A prototype for Donald Trump in power will restrict local independent journalism

Banned: school librarians shushed over LGBT+ books

A special investigation reveals more than half of UK school librarians surveyed by Index have bee...

Violent repression and torture in Zimbabwe on eve of major development conference

Index reports on the government’s increasing brutality towards protesters and human rights activists

The importance of local journalism to understanding the UK riots

Mill Media with its network of local journalists was able to spot the rising far-right threat to ...

Belarus: If you want freedom, take it

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the disputed election in Belarus that saw Alyaksandr Lukash...

Russia, disinformation and two Olympic boxers

Female boxer Imane Khelif is guaranteed a silver or gold today at the Paris Olympics but her achi...

How many letters can they shred?

The Belarusian president-elect in exile, denied her victory by Lukashenka, writes exclusively for...

Undercover freedom fund

We talk to the founders of Bysol, a non-profit humanitarian foundation using cryptocurrency to he...

UK journalists fall victim to new police tactics

Journalists covering protests in the UK are still being arrested, even before they have arrived a...

Vladimir Kara-Murza: The dissident spirit of Russia

The historian and writer represents views which run counter to the authoritarian tendency that ha...

The unstilled voice of Gazan theatre

Laura Silvia Battaglia recalls the last play she saw in Gaza and talks to its director today abou...

Russia: Index welcomes release of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Evan Gershkovich from jail

The vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and the Wall Street Journal reporter are among a number of peo...

First they came for the Greens

A look at the violent attacks being carried out against Germany’s Green Party as politicians stan...

The Bangladesh government has been killing student protesters but reporting it has become nearly impossible

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ministers are trying to cover up what the government has don...

Kenya: Young reporters and NGOs targeted as part of clampdown on Gen Z protests

Our reporter talks to a young journalist and the director of a young people’s organisation who ha...

Iran: Complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in response to the ongoing judicial persecution of Toomaj Salehi

Index on Censorship, Human Rights Foundation and Doughty Street Chambers make submission on behal...

Ukraine | A chronicle of censorship

A TV giant in the USA is preventing a documentary film about the Babyn Yar massacre being shown

The latest rubbish joke from China

An unexpected view of China and the Wall Street Journal’s sacking of a reporter named chair of th...

How Russia is shaping the Syrian media narrative

The way that announcements about illnesses and deaths are reported shows signs of external influe...

It’s radio silence around Venezuela’s election

Venezuela is heading to the polls on 28 July but both national and international media are being ...

Rwanda polls: The Kagame “landslide” that would embarrass other dictators

A lack of meaningful opposition is behind the incumbent president's re-election

Encouraging signs on freedom of expression after Starmer’s first week

Appointments to and actions from the new Cabinet suggest a shift in approach

Report pinpoints role of likely Russian troll networks in European election disinformation

Thousands of social media accounts promoted pro-Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories

Exhibition about Russian political prisoners cancelled over Israel-Gaza row

A London art gallery has pulled an exhibition about Russian dissidents because an Israeli artist ...

Fears mount over health of Azerbaijani political prisoner

The son of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu speaks to Index about the deteriorating health of his father, who w...

Lukashenka unexpectedly releases political prisoners

Despite the announcement, more than 1400 remain behind bars in Belarus leaving questions over lea...

General Election 2024: We can’t assume Keir Starmer will be a champion of all things anti-censorship

Index has a long history with the UK's new Prime Minister but we will still hold him to account ...

Football can’t escape the free speech debate

UEFA’s plan to keep politics out of football at this summer’s European Championships has been dif...

Julian Assange released: What now?

The plea deal reached between the WikiLeaks founder and the US government sets a worrying precedent

Has Russian disinformation caused Europe’s lurch to the right?

A tsunami of disinformation from Russia may have helped far-right and Eurosceptic groups in this ...

A chilling update from Belarus

Despite Lukashenka's regime running trials in absentia for its critics overseas, the opposition r...

Our manifesto: the next UK government’s necessary actions to restore freedom of expression

From protecting protest rights to addressing transnational repression, the upcoming government ha...

Iran’s supreme court overturns death sentence given to Toomaj Salehi

Decision welcomed by Toomaj Salehi's family, Index on Censorship, Human Rights Foundation and Sal...

Index on Censorship seeks new Communications and Events Manager

Role sits at heart of the organisation, helping to lead the communications strategy through socia...

Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani sentenced to six years in prison

Facing “harshest punishment” for her activism, Atena Farghadani must be released immediately

Fears of censorship grow as Modi begins third term

Despite the BJP’s reduced number of seats, there are fears that journalists and India’s civil soc...

The silencing of media in times of war

National security arguments cannot become a tool to control free expression in democratic societies

No D-Day for the Channel Islands

The recent inquiry into slave labour camps on Alderney showed much of the story of the islands re...

Looking forward: Challenges facing online speech regulation in India

With the Digital India Act on the horizon, Index is working to ensure the country's proposed regu...

Slovakia: democracy just bearing up

The country is one of the smallest members of the European Union and sometimes struggles to devel...

Are people in Israel getting the full story on Gaza?

The world is seeing a completely different war from the domestic audience

Israeli military censor bans highest number of articles in over a decade

The sharp rise in media censorship in 2023 comes as the Israeli government further undermines pre...

Bahrain: Joint letter on human rights situation to the United Nations Human Rights Council

Index joins more than 30 other organisations to raise concerns over the situation in the country ...

South Africa votes amid corruption and rampant abuse of power

Thirty years on from the dismantling of apartheid, the country's electorate are still waiting for...

On never being able to stop

Our outgoing CEO Ruth Anderson shares her thoughts as she hands over the freedom of expression baton

Are we sleepwalking into Orwell’s nightmare?

Forty years on from Nineteen Eighty-Four, a panel of freedom of expression experts has explored t...

Georgia’s foreign agent bill: an existential threat to democracy

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in an attempt to stop the country's slide into ...

How artificial intelligence is influencing elections in India

Deepfake videos and other content is appearing with increasing regularity and regulators are too ...

New magazine Atar fills information void in Sudan

As a brutal war rages in Sudan a new publication fights to share stories which would otherwise be...

The death of North Korea’s propaganda chief marks the end of an era

Kim Ki Nam spent decades shaping the narrative of the totalitarian state and building a personali...

Sting, Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak and Coldplay join more than 100 artists, musicians, writers and leading cultural figures to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi

Musician faces death sentence after three years of judicial harassment, including arrest, impriso...

Protesting to save democracy in Georgia

All those across the world who care about freedom need to demonstrate solidarity with protesters ...

Urgent appeal filed with United Nations for Iranian rapper sentenced to death for his music

Toomaj Salehi, who was beaten and tortured in jail, has just 20 days to appeal charges of "corrup...

Nobody is safe from Iran’s protest crackdown

Protests over Toomaj Salehi's sentence have rightfully begun, but his is not an isolated case

Burkina Faso has chosen the tool of the tyrant

A report into the death of 223 civilians in the African state has led to a clampdown on the media

We the screamers

The atrocity deniers are everywhere and we need to scream over them with the truth

Statement: Iranian dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death

Index on Censorship has issued a joint statement with ARC and PEN America condemning a decision b...

The death penalty is the new normal in Iran

Our weekly newsletter leads on the announcement of a sentence we all feared for rapper Toomaj Sal...

Toomaj Salehi: A voice of defiance

Our 2023 Freedom of Expression Art Award winner was jailed for the power of his words. Now he fac...

Review | Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington | Imperial War Museum until 29 September 2024

An exhibition of the work of the acclaimed late photojournalist has opened in London. The recipie...

Why we cannot afford to look away

We are at risk of disaster fatigue around the war in Ukraine as new atrocities crowd the story ou...

We must not forget what is happening inside Iran

The Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on domestic protest, particularly by women, says e...

India’s hate speech trackers are being blocked

Even from exile in the USA, a Kashmiri journalist critical of India’s ruling BJP is being silenced

Vladimir Kara-Murza: The family man who has spent two years in prison

Campaigner Bill Browder calls the jailed Putin critic "the type of person that our world needs th...

Why critics like Jay Rayner have a role in battling self-censorship

Our CEO ponders the challenges of being a reviewer after reading the latest column from the Obser...

Kara-Murza’s detention, two years on: A tale of resilience amid Russian authoritarianism

On the two-year anniversary of the journalist and activist's detention in Putin's Russia, we call...

More than 60 experts call for the Anti-SLAPP Bill to be amended

Leading editors, lawyers, journalists, academics and experts say bill should be amended to ensure...

Index on Censorship appoints Jemimah Steinfeld as its new Chief Executive Officer

Steinfeld will succeed Ruth Anderson, who is leaving Index to focus on her role as a Labour Party...

Desperation mounts for Afghanistan’s persecuted journalists

A year on from our call to action in Spring 2023, the situation for journalists under the Taliban...

Israel’s civil and human rights are under siege

The shuttering of Al Jazeera is just the latest in a series of restrictions introduced in respons...

Reflections six months on from 7 October

Our CEO says that we must address the root causes of a conflict that has led to the deaths of mor...

When the old fox walks the tightrope

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a poisoned chalice – and not just for the nation’s LGBTQ+ comm...

Joint letter to mark 1000 days of hunger strike by Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace

Index has joined with more than 25 other human rights organisations to call for the release of th...

Evan Gershkovich: We must be as loud as possible

The unlawful imprisonment in Russia of the WSJ reporter has huge implications for media freedom w...

Solidarity, Assange-style

Our editor-at-large opens up about his personal, complicated relationship with WikiLeaks founder ...

The SLAPP stickers

A conversation between a wokey comedian, Rosie Holt, and her wonky lawyer brother, Charlie Holt, ...

When is a landslide not a landslide?

It’s a question which Vladimir Putin has clearly been thinking about after what would ordinarily ...

The journalists being threatened with artificial intelligence

Perpetrators of gender-based violence are wielding a new digital weapon against Pakistani journal...

Iran: do you want the good or the bad news?

A great privilege of working at Index is, and always has been, the amazing people we get to encou...

Why withdrawal of labour is the ultimate expression of freedom

Forty years on from the miners' strike, our CEO says we are duty-bound to uphold and defend the r...

New Assange film hopes to spur action

The director of a forthcoming documentary on Julian Assange speaks to Index about how he hopes it...

Navalny told them not to give up – and they didn’t

People across Russia risked arrest to pay their respects to the dead opposition leader during a '...

Remembering the women who pay the ultimate price for freedom

On International Women's Day, our CEO Ruth Anderson reflects on another deadly 12 months for fema...

Mexico: Obrador’s attacks on freedom reach new heights

The Mexican president is attacking independent institutions and publicly shared a critical journa...

Calls to sanction architects of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act grow

Uganda's LGBTQ+ community live in fear for their lives following the passage of draconian legisla...

Ukraine’s resilience shows us how to stand up to oppression

The two-year anniversary of Russia's illegal war in Ukraine reminds us that even in the depths of...

UK, USA continue attack of protest rights

Recent incidents add to an already worrying picture of the protest landscape in the respective co...

Index reiterates our urgent call for Assange to be freed

The final stage of Assange's UK appeal begins today. The international community must unite in th...

Pakistan election surprise highlights ways to fight censorship

During the recent elections Pakistan saw internet blackouts and a media narrative dictated by the...

Alexei Navalny dead

Putin's fiercest critic has died in an Arctic Circle penal colony. An Index writer remembers his ...

Love in the time of dissent

A week in which many are celebrating their love has turned the focus on those dissidents who are ...

The deadly challenges of reporting on Sudan’s “forgotten war”

The simple act of asking questions, or holding a camera, places a target on your back and hundred...

China’s feminists walk a tightrope

Within China's extremely censored environment, some conversations on feminism are seemingly untou...

Joke’s on Lukashenka speaking rubbish Belarusian. Or is it?

Belarus’ belligerent leader is both tyrannical and comical. It’s fodder for the nation’s comics –...

We have a duty to protect our politicians

The threats faced by Mike Freer and Nikki Haley are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a broa...

Why a manipulated image of a politician is the tip of the AI-ceberg

The role of traditional media as a trusted source of news is under threat from artificial intelli...

Sport faces growing censorship problem over the Israel-Gaza war

Governing bodies are becoming increasingly heavy-handed in their attempts to remain neutral in th...

The fragility of freedom

Recent history has shown us our own naïveté of hoping for an end to horrors like the Holocaust

Index on Censorship launches search for new chief executive

Freedom of expression charity seeks new leader to help write the next chapter in the organisation...

Moments of Freedom winner announced

Agfhan reporter's flight to safety in Paris from the Taliban is the moment you chose as part of o...

How censorship wins

Publishing with freedom has become impossible in Belarus

The suffering of Wael al-Dahdouh in “deadliest conflict for journalists”

Al Jazeera's bureau chief has lost many family members in the Gaza conflict including his son Ham...

Fined thousands for a joke

Malaysian Comedian Rizal Van Geysel tells Francis Clarke how jokes landed him with a court case w...

Explained: Ecuador’s state of emergency and free expression

A notorious gang leader's escape from prison has plunged Ecuador into chaos, prompting the presid...

Jimmy Lai’s “co-conspirators” speak out after being named in Hong Kong trial

Bill Browder and Benedict Rogers are among those singled out in the Hong Kong-British businessman...

Chinese election interference tests Taiwan’s capability to defend freedom of speech

Analysts say Taiwan needs to strike a balance between defending free speech and addressing the im...

The unravelling of academic freedom on US campuses

When the lines between speech and action have been ambiguous, US colleges have moved too far towa...

From the Danube to the Baltic Sea, Germany takes an authoritarian turn

German authorities are increasingly silencing pro-Palestine activism in an effort to stamp out an...

The world needs to learn from Masha Gessen moments

The Russian-American writer was at the centre of a controversy yet things were not exactly as the...

What does Tusk’s victory mean for oppressed groups in Poland?

The ousting of the Law and Justice party after eight years in power is cause for celebration, but...

Putin’s control threatens Russian dissident voices

Whilst war rages in Ukraine it is easy to lose sight of those saying loudly that the Russian stat...

Hacking is far more than a security issue. It chills free speech

The recent sanctioning by British and US governments of Russian intelligence operatives sheds lig...

Art institutions accused of censoring pro-Palestine views

Ai Weiwei and other artists speak to Index amid a spike in censorship within the art world right ...

We must not stay silent on Iran’s use of the death penalty

Hundreds have been executed in Iran this year as the regime continues to punish those involved in...

UK’s hostile environment continues to silence already persecuted people

By pushing ahead with its controversial Rwanda plan, the UK government is breeding a culture of f...

Saying goodbye to Kissinger the criminal

The forgotten dead of the nations that ‘realpolitik’ devastated are still crying out for justice

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition welcomes Wayne David MP’s Anti-SLAPP Bill

A Private Members’ Bill being presented today is a crucial milestone for the UK to stamp out all ...

Moments of Freedom in a bleak year

Our CEO Ruth Anderson talks about our year-end campaign, launched next week, which will focus on ...

New online platform provides free education to girls in Afghanistan

Afghan girls are being denied access to higher education. The Begum Academy is trying to change that

New report: Juries in defamation cases in Ireland

A new report from Index on Censorship looks at whether the Irish courts should dispense with juri...

If X is so hateful, why are we still on it?

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, we decided to wait and see whether it would remain a bastion of fr...

Argentina’s Milei ushers in atrocity denialism, trolling and attacks on the media

After a campaign marked by online abuse, the libertarian president-elect could embolden the most ...

Qatar fails to deliver on World Cup promises

One year on from the 2022 World Cup, improvements to human rights in Qatar have yet to materialise

Life and death in Iran’s prisons

The human rights activist Narges Mohammadi faces yet more charges for her activism and her refusa...

Message to Cameron: No more fish and chips with Xi please

David Cameron is now Foreign Secretary of the UK. Following criticism over his links to China, In...

Punishment cells and limited legal recourse

The numbers of journalists and human rights defenders in jail in Belarus has heavily increased si...

Curtailing creativity today will lead to greater censorship tomorrow

Hungary's banning of photos that promote LGBTQI+ lifestyles and the sacking of the head of the co...

The Magufuli hangover

Tanzania's civic space was hopeful for reform after the death of John Magufuli in 2021 but early ...

Silent Palestinians in Gaza and Israel

It’s not just anti-war voices that are being gagged in a conflict that threatens to spiral out of...

Why academic freedom and freedom of speech are not the same thing

The right to debate ideas in universities does not give free rein to voice hateful ideas outside ...

The stakes are high for free expression in Israel-Hamas conflict

Journalists have been attacked and killed, individuals have been silenced and protests banned as ...

Index CEO writes open letter on EU plans for political advertising rules

Ruth Anderson addresses European presidents on the chilling effect on freedom of expression of pr...

Standing together for peace in the Middle East

Activists working for peace in Israel and Palestine came together this week to raise their voices

Rights are still under attack globally

While the world is watching one conflict, our gaze is diverted from other important stories, writ...

Campaigner for Afghan girls’ education takes the path to freedom

A week after winning an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award, Pen Path’s co-founder ha...

2023 Freedom of Expression Award winners announced

Index on Censorship has recognised activists and campaigners from Afghanistan, India and Iran for...

X marks the spot where Israel-Hamas disinformation wars are being fought

The Elon Musk-owned social media platform used to be the go-to in times of crisis but its strengt...

Myanmar’s growing doxxing problem

As a new Myanmar Witness report shows yet more evidence of critics being targeted online, the org...

Media freedom groups call for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia

Index joins call for improved media safety on sixth anniversary of investigative journalist's murder

Israel and Palestine – the key free speech issues

Freedom of expression looks certain to be a casualty as the Gaza Strip explodes into conflict

1,000 days behind bars: In solidarity with Andrei Aliaksandrau

Andrei’s friends and former colleagues stand in solidarity with him as he remains imprisoned by L...

“There is no book so dangerous that it should not be available in a library”

The banning of books has repeatedly proven to be a key tool in the arsenal of tyrants and repress...

Why we need Banned Books Week more than ever

In just one year, book bans in the USA have increased by a third – largely targeted at works cont...

Questioning of journalist at UK airport highlights increasing overreach of border forces

Matt Broomfield's interrogation by police at the UK border is evidence of a worrying trend which ...

How to celebrate Putin’s 71st birthday? At the Ukrainian festival telling him to ‘fuck off’

Next weekend, Kyiv's hipsters will be fed a diet of stand-up comedy, music, fashion and food as t...

Trump raises the stakes on media freedom

Former President threatens to cancel the licences of media outlets he perceives to be critical of...

The Embassy Murders: A new short story

Marking 50 years since Pinochet's coup and 33 years on from our introduction to political prisone...

India’s Right to Know under threat as social media giants bend to censorship

The big platforms are kowtowing to Indian government pressure to censor dissent while hateful con...

Botswana’s trans activists battling silence with creativity

Botswana has made progress on LGBTQ+ rights, but many still feel silenced. A growing movement of ...

Shortlists announced for the 2023 Freedom of Expression Awards

Artists, activists and journalists from Afghanistan, India, Myanmar and Somalia are among the nom...

Britain’s legal system silences sexual assault victims

The Brand allegations highlight how British courts can be used by the rich and powerful to silenc...

Over 60 editors, journalists, writers, publishers and experts call on the UK Government to commit to a standalone anti-SLAPP law

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, of which Index is a co-chair, has co-ordinated and sent a letter to ...

Parliament’s China spying scandal breaks the bond of trust

The arrest of a parliamentary researcher will have worrying implications for Chinese dissidents a...

‘There simply is no moral high ground anymore’ – Stella Assange

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange is running out of options to avoid extradition, despite growin...

‘People are scared to come, but we want writers, journalists and artists to visit’

The Lviv BookForum curator on organising a festival during a war, the importance of countering Ru...

50 years on wounds still raw from Chile coup

The country is still divided over the dictator's legacy, as violence over the weekend shows

“An attack on encryption unprecedented in any democracy” 

The Online Safety Bill returns to the House of Commons for the first time in eight months on 11 S...

Vladimir Kara-Murza: ‘Putin has elevated his status’

As the Russian dissident turns 42 today in jail with a 25-year prison sentence ahead of him, it's...

Online Safety Bill loophole opens door to unprecedented investigatory powers

On 11 September, the House of Commons will review the Online Safety Bill for the first time in ni...

Zimbabwe’s ‘crocodile’ crushes dissent ahead of Wednesday elections

Human rights have been under attack since President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power

The day the music died

When Kabul fell to the Taliban two years ago today, musicians were among the first to experience ...

“They simply do not care about us”

A male-dominant political sphere contributes to a toxic environment for women in Nigeria. Some ar...

Is X really a bastion of free expression?

The Center for Countering Digital Hate says the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter,...

All lose out when books are banned

We should be celebrating books that seek to challenge our world view, not banning them

Report: At what cost? Chinese funding and academic freedom in Europe

Read our publication on Chinese funding and academic freedom in Europe as part of our #BannedByBe...

It is time for the EU to be an ally for freedom of expression

As Spain assumes the presidency of the European Union, the bloc needs to reflect on the draft pol...

Pakistan’s political vandals

As Pakistan gears up for a general election, Ahmadi Muslims are experiencing vandalism at the han...

Afghans who supported the British government’s mission now face death

We have turned our backs on those left behind in Afghanistan. It is not too late to act

What is the Marxist vision of journalism?

China has launched an education platform for would-be reporters that requires them to pledge loya...

Chilling intimidation campaign against journalist outside Chinese borders

Anonymous efforts to silence a Dutch reporter are signs of increasingly shameless psychological w...

Britain’s Holocaust island

The peaceful island of Alderney was involved in the darkest chapter of World War II. Both residen...

“For Hong Kong, may freedom reign”

Our CEO Ruth Anderson reflects on a shocking week when China's transnational repression efforts e...

Belarus, the country where journalists are terrorists

Index speaks with the chair of the country's journalism association, which has now been labelled ...

Targeted activists vow “the voices of Hongkongers will never be eliminated”

After Hong Kong authorities issued arrest warrants for eight exiled pro-democracy activists, a pa...

Death of a storyteller

John Sweeney remembers Ukrainian novelist turned war crimes investigator Victoria Amelina, who ha...

The international community must resist Hong Kong’s attempts to threaten human rights across the globe using the National Security Law

Eight pro-democracy activists living in exile in the UK, USA and Australia, including Nathan Law ...

Seeking the real story of Prigozhin’s challenge to Putin

Finding the truth about what is happening in Russia is almost impossible but the country's remain...

“Wherever I take this exhibition, they follow me“

Chinese dissident artist Badiucao highlights how he is targeted overseas by Beijing in their bid ...

Celebrating the work of investigative journalists

Our chief executive reflects on the value of dedicated and determined reporters in unearthing the...

The dangers in Europe’s proposals for political advertising

Our CEO Ruth Anderson says big tech platforms could be inundated with vexatious requests to remov...

Index on Censorship host event Beijing would rather you didn’t see

Hear from Uyghur campaigner Rahima Mahmut and see art from Badiucao, Lumli Lumlong and vawongsir

Afghan journalist speaks out on the UK’s “shameful silence”

An expert panel met last week to discuss the plight of Afghan women, journalists and refugees, an...

Twitter ‘Blue’: Sex workers, censorship and the fight for online visibility

After being shut out online, sex workers saw Twitter Blue as a tool for more visibility. However,...

A lot of hot air: Johnson, Braverman and climate protests

Distate of tactics used by groups such as Just Stop Oil should not be used as an excuse to furthe...

Maria Ressa: “Journalism research has no integrity if it endangers journalists at risk”

Rappler editor-in-chief breaks silence over Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report ...

There is no right to be heard

Our CEO defends the right of people, with views and values different to her own, to express thems...

Tiananmen Square? Don’t mention it

Efforts by Beijing to wipe out any memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre continued to expand th...

This is no joke

In China a comedian risks jail time for mocking the army. Dr Qian Gong and Dr Jian Xu chart the r...

Turkey and Thailand: Two elections, different outcomes

One poll remains deadlocked while another has seen the population vote for a change of direction

Sir Salman Rushdie wins Freedom to Publish Award

Author says has freedom of expression has never been under greater threat in the West in his life...

Coronation crackdown: It couldn’t happen here…could it?

The heavy-handed treatment of anti-monarchy protesters at King Charles III's ceremony is ominous

Turkey’s elections: “No rule of law anymore”

The country’s human rights landscape has disintegrated since Erdogan took over in 2003

Turkish youth turn to YouTube amid stifling of information

In the weeks leading up to the election, young professionals lean on YouTube to gather varied and...

Don’t give up on Myanmar

The country has a vibrant future believes author Oliver Slow, despite the military junta's attack...

Argument for urgent intervention in Jimmy Lai case laid bare in new report

Pressure on UK government to intervene in Lai case highlighted in a new report, which exposes the...

Defying the Taliban – A stark reminder of the collapse of Afghan women’s rights

Last Thursday, human rights organisation Anotherway Now hosted a screening of the Sky News docume...

India tightens grip on social media platforms

New rules that force platforms to "fact-check" content relating to government business are deeply...

Modi’s India: The age of intolerance in the world’s biggest democracy

Recent estimates suggest that India has now overtaken China in population size, but where the wor...

The daily risks taken by Afghanistan’s female journalists

Life for women in the media has been bleak since the Taliban takeover, and experts don’t see that...

Facebook policies put human rights defenders at risk

Laws designed to stop political ads being used for misinformation on Facebook are being used to t...

Salma al-Shehab becomes the latest Saudi prisoner to go on hunger strike

The 34-year-old mother of two was sentenced to 34 years for exercising her freedom of expression

Destroyed ballot boxes, arrests, assaults – Nigeria reels from latest elections

Violence around Nigeria’s elections was aimed at voters and at journalists. The country’s media p...

In Mexico, a journalist is attacked every 13 hours. The government is to blame

Under fire from organised crime and from the government, reporters working in Mexico have been su...

The harsh reality for Afghanistan’s journalists

Two reporters share a plea to the world not to forget them as they face intimidation from the Tal...

Media outlets excluded from UK Home Secretary’s trip to Rwanda

Index raises second Council of Europe alert over exclusion of journalists seen as critical of Gov...

Journalists battle for truth after Turkish earthquakes

Since February’s earthquakes, free speech NGO the Media and Law Studies Association has been moni...

‘Thank Gary Lineker for being a true advocate for refugees’

A sports journalist, who can't work safely in Afghanistan anymore, tells us why Gary Lineker's st...

Israel: Free expression hangs in the balance

The attack on the Supreme Court is just one way in which due process and dissent are coming under...

Open up your doors as you promised

Even journalists who escape Taliban rule face deportation, starvation and imprisonment so the UK ...

The UK Government must honour its pledge to resettle Afghans at-risk

The number of Afghan journalists and media workers who are in imminent danger remains incredibly ...

Bunker Cabaret: From the bomb shelters of Kyiv to Somerset House

Ukranian collective explores the making of art in time of war

Academic freedom under threat for more than 50% of world’s population

The ability to express and discuss ideas openly is being curtailed in univerisites, new data publ...

UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition welcomes end of Realtid case

Index and other coalition members continue to call for urgent action to be taken against SLAPPs a...

UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition reiterates its support for Carole Cadwalladr

Index joins other members of the coalition in welcoming court’s dismissal of majority of appeal i...

Censoring Roald Dahl is not the answer, just a problem

Rewording Dahl's classics sets a worrying precedent. Instead of censoring his works we should inv...

Do Chechens really support Putin’s war in Ukraine?

Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine mirrors the two bloody wars for independence in Chechnya. But...

The silence after the earthquake in northwestern Syria is deafening

Bahar al-Assad is using the natural disaster that has killed thousands to launder his reputation ...

The shock waves from Turkey’s Twitter restriction

Criticism of the Turkish government in the wake of this week's deadly earthquakes led to the bloc...

CCP undermining the right to protest in the birthplace of European democracy

Activists in Greece protesting China’s hosting of the Winter Olympics in 2022 were arrested

Iran protests: “Mahsa” Amini does not exist

The name of the woman murdered by Iran’s “morality police” was Jina Amini but Kurds in the countr...

“I have gone through hell”: assault, starvation, discrimination

An Afghan journalist says her escape from the Taliban to Pakistan has only gone to show why the U...

Hong Kong’s travesty of a show trial begins

The Hong Kong 47 are now on trial. There is nothing free or fair about this

Iran’s erased women remembered

A new exhibition by Soheila Sokhanvari celebrates Iranian freedom and womanhood

Two years on: The dwindling freedoms following Myanmar’s military coup

On the second anniversary of the coup, democracy in the country is slipping further away. A Burme...

Brazil is falling into an abyss

Attacks on free expression in the country are the worst since the dictatorship ended in 1985, wri...

Those who refuse to despair

Today, 27 January, is the birthday of our former colleague Andrei Aliaksandrau, another one spent...

New play gives a voice to the forgotten Crimean Tatars

The powerful work tells the stories of indigenous Tatar dissidents and their families on the Russ...

We need to end SLAPPs now

The UK’s legal structure continues to let oligarchs bully reporters

Major new global free expression index sees UK ranking stumble across academic, digital and media freedom

A major new global ranking index tracking the state of free expression is published today

Ntwali’s death is a huge loss for Rwanda’s challenging media landscape

The journalist was one of the few to challenge the long-standing president. Who will speak out now?

‘We won!’ Maria Ressa’s victory is a win for global media freedom

As a Philippines tax court acquits veteran journalist Maria Ressa, she and Rappler celebrate - an...

Join our Twitter storm of protest against Salma al-Shehab’s 34-year sentence

On Sunday 15 January, we mark the two-year anniversary of the arrest of the University of Leeds s...

Tyrant of the year 2022 named

You voted in your thousands and there was a clear winner, Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Belarus: Free Andrei and Irina now

Index on Censorship and ARTICLE 19 call for charges against human rights defenders to be dropped

Remember their names: The protesters executed by the Iranian authorities

Four men have been executed following unjust show trials in Iran. Here's what we know about them

Ramita Navai: No turning back from Iran’s women-led uprising

The British-Iranian journalist and author of the award-winning City of Lies speaks about the grow...

Pavel Litvinov: A dissident hero

An interview with Red Square demonstrator Pavel Litvinov on his role in founding Index, Russian ...

In memory of Viktor Fainberg, 1968 Red Square demonstrator

The dissident fought hard for free expression and paid dearly. Here we shed more light on his ama...

Seeing Auschwitz is a timely reminder of the importance of documenting atrocities

A new exhibition in London takes a different viewpoint on the horrors of the Holocaust

Why end-to-end encryption is essential for national security and public safety

As the Online Safety Bill makes its way through Parliament, we look at why at least one element o...

The Saudi problem: can human rights ever trump trade?

As we mark 23 months since University of Leeds dental student Salma al-Shehab was arrested after ...

New South Wales’ chilling landscape for environmental protest

Australian authorities are dramatically ramping up the sentences faced by peaceful climate crisis...

An insidious and unlegislated form of policing?

The Metropolitan Police has made hundreds of requests to remove online content in the past year. ...

China’s tradition of inventive protest is in full swing

Protesters in China unhappy with Xi Jinping's government and its policies are getting creative wi...

Who is 2022’s Tyrant of the Year?

Choose from our shortlist of 12 despots and vote on who you think has done most to crack down on ...

Landmark report finds China using arts “to silence critics and drive censorship”

Major new investigation from Index on Censorship reveals the scale and reach of the CCP’s interna...

New legal opinion on the Online Safety Bill

Index on Censorship has commissioned a legal opinion by Matthew Ryder KC and finds that the power...

Letter to Justice Secretary: Adoption of a UK Anti-SLAPP Law

Editors, journalists, lawyers and academics write to Dominic Raab to express support for the Mode...

A new generation of protesters in China?

Trying to make sense of the protests in China right now is hard but one thing's certain - they hi...

Failed empty gesture 0 – 1 Strong silent stand

The Iranian team's defiant stand against oppression at the World Cup in Qatar puts everyone else ...

Italy: a call in support of Roberto Saviano

The Italian writer is facing a lawsuit for aggravated defamation initiated by Prime Minister Gior...

“The Online Safety Bill will fundamentally undermine rights to freedom of expression”

Index and other organisations ask UN Special Rapporteurs to intervene on proposed UK legislation

Junket journalism is taking off in China

China’s attempts to woo foreign journalists and bloggers in bid to control conversation

Questions that Sunak should have asked Mohammad bin Salman at G20…(but probably didn’t)

As we continue to mark the ongoing detention of University of Leeds PhD student Salma al-Shehab, ...

Roberto Saviano: Italian democracy on trial

The Gomorrah author heads to court tomorrow in a case that illuminates the precarious state of me...

How ‘industrial football’ was used to silence protests

Football fans turned out in large numbers during the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul. They’ve paid...

Xi’s real China dream

China’s leader is football mad and he has put the sport at the forefront of many initiatives. Whe...

Letter to Suella Braverman on policing of Just Stop Oil protests

Index joins other organistions in writing to the Home Secretary to say the arrest of journalists ...

Detained, cuffed and thrown in a cell for seven hours: reporting protest in the UK in 2022

A London reporter describes the day he ended up in jail simply for doing his job

Refereeing rights: Why we shouldn’t expect footballers to hand out human rights red cards

Do sports stars have a duty to be politically active? A leading philosopher argues that the respo...

Journalism is at risk from the National Security Bill. We’re fighting back

Imagine a country where the authorities target investigative journalists as spies, and outlaw new...

Coalition of journalism organisations slams the National Security Bill

Index, RSF, the NUJ and openDemocracy say the overly broad and vague way the bill is currently dr...

Preparing for a new fight against book bans

Just over a month after Banned Books Week 2022, the risk to literature has intensified. Depending...

Can a familiar face herald a new start in Brazil?

After spending two years outside his home country, Guilherme Osinski returned to vote in hope of ...

World leaders will have “blood on their hands” if Alaa Abd El-Fattah dies

Attendees at COP27 need to raise the case of the British-Egyptian writer before it's too late, sa...

What Russia’s children think about the war in Ukraine

Since the end of February, author Yulia Yakovleva has interviewed children aged five to seventeen...

Winners of Index’s 2022 Freedom of Expression Awards announced

The “bravery and brilliance” of free expression champions from China, Cuba, Russia and Ukraine ce...

Britain needs to do more to help Jimmy Lai

A panel convened in the House of Lords on Monday to highlight the plight of Hong Kong activist an...

What does Hu Jintao’s Great Hall removal mean?

A who, what, why on the dramatic moment China's last leader was removed from the Party Congress

Postcard campaign provides comfort to Jimmy Lai in prison

US students are sending the imprisoned activist postcards in act of solidarity

“Where is the sense of urgency?”

Civil society coalition calls out delays in justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia

A dark light

In the five years that have passed since Daphne Caruana Galizia's death, her family have had to f...

Letter to UK Foreign Secretary on Salma al-Shehab

Index and other human rights organisations call on Rt Hon James Cleverly to act in case of jailed...

Keep up focus on rights in Qatar argue Index panel ahead of World Cup

“If there is ever an opportunity to try and pretend a country is a nice country, it’s when everyo...

How to make the Online Safety Bill work for the British people

A new briefing report on five key areas for UK government decision-makers to consider in order to...

Women pay ultimate price for Iran protests

As the world marks the tenth International Day of the Girl, young Iranian women are risking every...

How well do you know the beautiful game?

What do you know about the intersection of human rights and football? Take our quiz and find out

14-year sentence for Andrei Aliaksandrau “a damning indictment of Lukashenka’s Belarus”

Index and ARTICLE 19 call on Belarusian authorities to quash prison terms and release our former ...

How China’s limited human rights have collapsed under Xi Jinping

As Xi Jinping likely starts an unprecedented third term in power next week, Jemimah Steinfeld ref...

Anti-SLAPP measures cannot come fast enough

New rules cannot come fast enough as Kazakhstan university endowment fund associated with former ...

Brazil: tragedy, farce and fascism

Brazil's far-right demons are loose and democracy is under attack, writes author Urariano Mota ah...

The woman exposing the propaganda puppet masters

Emma Briant researches the players behind some of the largest misinformation and disinformation c...

The Online Safety Bill must be completely overhauled

Index calls on the new Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to ensure legisla...

Iran shuts down internet after protests spiral over 22-year-old’s death

Access to popular platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp has been stopped following the death o...

Banned Books Week 2022: In conversation with Xinran

In recognition of Banned Books Week 2022, Index on Censorship’s Jemimah Steinfeld interviews auth...

China must protect the rights of Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing

On the anniversary of the detention of two young Chinese human rights defenders, Index joins call...

Joint statement on the proposal for the European Media Freedom Act

Index joins with other journalists’, media freedom, and human rights organisations to call for st...

Mexican journalists are still being failed

Mexico has long been a ruthless place for journalists and press freedom. According to the interna...

Saudi Arabia is equating free online expression with terrorism

As we mark 20 months since the arrest of Salma al-Shehab, Index calls for the country’s Specializ...

LIVE: Protest and the Royal succession

The Queen's death has put freedom of expression under the spotlight after anti-monarchy protester...

‘Bolsonaro represents death’ reflects Brazilian journalist ahead of elections

I was born in the city of Curitiba, in the south of Brazil, and I was always proud to be Brazilia...

UN report cites serious human rights violations in Xinjiang but ultimately fails the Uyghurs

The UN Human Rights Office report on China's activities in the region has finally been published ...

Mikhail Gorbachev: the Soviet leader who learned to love freedom of expression

The former president, who has died at the age of 91, wrote presciently in the pages of Index on C...

Writers and free speech champions celebrate Salman Rushdie’s work

Supporters of the author read extracts of his work to show their support as he remains in hospita...

Share your messages of support for Salman Rushdie

Join us in sending messages of support to the author, who was attacked as he prepared to give a l...

Index condemns 34-year sentence for Salma al-Shehab

Saudi women’s rights advocate faces longest ever prison term for a peaceful activist after tweeti...

Read Salman Rushdie from the Index on Censorship archives

On 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie, the author of the book The Satanic Verses, was attacked as he ...

Iranian society has been taken hostage, says exiled documentary film-maker

Vahid Zarezade and Gelareh Kakavand have been forced to flee the country after being interrogated...

Why are the letters of political prisoners in Belarus so cheerful?

Censorship of communications means that those detained by Lukashenka's regime are not free to exp...

Index supports The Shift News in freedom of information battle with the government of Malta

The media outlet had requested details of dealings between government entities and Media Today co...

Theatre censorship: An index reading list

Index on Censorship has always supported the theatre of resistance, and our Winter 2021 magazine ...

Index on Censorship files media freedom alert after Sinn Féin MLA legal action

Index on Censorship is concerned at the lawsuits that have been filed against journalist Malachi ...

Where poetry is labelled extremism

The removal of the Rajapaksa clan will not solve Sri Lanka’s deeply ingrained problem with corrup...

Fighting tyranny with poetry: Myanmar’s silenced voices

The last time a political activist was hanged in Myanmar was in 1976, when the ethnic Chin studen...

Remembering the political prisoners executed in Myanmar

Kyaw Min Yu and Phyo Zayar Thaw were prominent voices in the democracy movement in Myanmar. But o...

Co-chairs of UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition welcome Government’s action on SLAPPs

Dominic Raab to announce legislative measures that includes recommendations from coalition co-led...

A memorial for the man who told the world about the Babyn Yar massacre

Anatoly Kuznetsov is the author of Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel. His memoir is a m...

Belarus: Andrei Aliaksandrau writes of his “travels”

Our former colleague writes from prison as his trial is suspended for two months

Peru has a rare thing: a political leader who won’t speak to the press

President Pedro Castillo has not given a statement to the media for more than 100 days. The count...

Kurdish journalists arrested as Turkey flexes its muscles

Journalists in Turkey are once again being targeted in one of the country's largest Kurdish-major...

You can’t “put the genie back in the bottle”

A panel of activists, journalists and writers from Hong Kong reflect on the rights landscape as t...

Lukashenka’s justice on show

As Andrei Aliaksandrau and his fiance face treason charges, another activist shares her own exper...

The dangers of “red tagging” and other lessons from the Philippines

Rey Valmores, a 25-year-old political activist from Quezon City, on the challenges faced by campa...

All eyes on “one of the safest countries in the world”

As Commonwealth leaders meet in Rwanda, few believe Boris Johnson's assessment of the country. In...

Fifty years of Pride and prejudice

Pride started as a way to give voice to the silenced, but it lost its way. Ahead of its 50th anni...

Cancelling Russian culture is today’s moral imperative

Putin has used Russian culture to further his aims. Promoting it today risks furthering his agend...

Bill of Rights will seriously undermine freedom of expression in the UK

Index joins other organisations in calling for the UK Government to abandon proposals that would ...

Cancel Putin, not culture

Artists must unite in their opposition to authoritarian regimes and there should be an end to the...

Beijing is rewriting Hong Kong’s handover history. We must not allow it

Residents of Hong Kong are going to be given “fortune bags” this month. Millions of people in the...

Index expresses concern over Julian Assange extradition

Home Secretary Priti Patel's decision will have a chilling effect on journalism and put the Wikil...

‘The Amazon is a lawless land’

Journalist Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira went missing in the Amazon in Brazil. Index spok...

Cineworld’s cancellation of Lady of Heaven screenings: an unheavenly response

Cineworld has cancelled all UK screenings of a film in what sets a worrying precedent

“A joker, a poet and an idealist”

Belarusian journalist and poet Sabina Brilo (below) on her friend Andrei Aliaksandrau who goes on...

Egypt: Activist Abdelrahman ‘Moka’ Tarek is free

Human rights groups who have been campaigning for several years for the release of the blogger an...

Belarus: An open letter from Andrei Aliaksandrau on his day in court

Our former colleague writes to his supporters as his trial on charges of treason opens in Belarus

China’s fifth most wanted democracy advocate looks back at Tiananmen

Zhou Fengsuo was a student at the time of the Tiananmen Square protests. He tells Jemimah Steinfe...

Iran enters the multiverse of madness

The Iranian government is holding propaganda events while attempting to silence protests against ...

Chad: Return to democracy still seems a distant prospect

A reconciliation dialogue promised after the death last April of the central African country's pr...

500 days lost in a Belarusian prison

Our former colleague Andrei Aliaksandrau reaches another bitter milestone as a political prisoner...

Belarus: the free press continues despite attacks

The chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists says reporting is harder than ever because...

Awards nominees “celebrate those on the front line in the fight to protect freedom of expression around the world”

Index on Censorship announces shortlist for 2022 Freedom of Expression Awards

Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders welcome High Court’s decision in Realtid case

Swedish business publication and its journalists still face SLAPP cases over articles about Eco E...

Index raises concerns over exclusion of journalists from UK Home Secretary’s Rwanda visit

Alert filed with Council of Europe over key media being unable to hold Priti Patel to account as ...

Syria passes draconian cybercrime laws

Country is latest to criminalise vaguely defined fake news to target human rights activists and j...

“I believe in a new Russia but Putin is going nowhere”

Russian liberal politician, economist and professor Grigory Yavlinsky has long been a thorn in th...

Online Safety Bill will “significantly curtail freedom of expression”

Gavin Millar QC has produced the first analysis of the implications of the Bill for the British m...

Attacks on journalists covering protests increase says new report

The latest annual report from the Council of Europe safety of journalists platform makes for worr...

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter – good for free speech?

The tech entrepreneur has made it clear that free speech is at the forefront of his decision to b...

Apple’s Chinese and Russian takedowns come under scrutiny

A new report by GreatFire and whistleblower Ashley Gjovik reveals the tech giant complies with fa...

Shanghai lockdown shows how far Xi will go to control population

Criticism of China's Covid-Zero policy is being censored online

Dissidents, spies and the lies that came in from the cold

Index on Censorship started at the front line of an ideological war

Index condemns lawsuit against Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins

21 organisations say lawsuit issued by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin is a SLAPP

Switching from cute animals to war: A Ukrainian children’s author speaks out

Kateryna Yegorushkina is a Ukrainian children’s writer and publisher from a town close to Kyiv. H...

Today’s dissidents in Russia: tech savvy and willing to risk it all

Despite the huge risks attached to defying Putin, a handful of Russians are still speaking up. We...

Hungary elections 2022: What does another Orban term mean for freedoms?

The godfather of "illiberal democracy" - Viktor Orban - is fighting his fiercest election battle ...

Call for an end to beatings and abductions of journalists and protesters in Ukraine

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Centre for Civil Liberties in Kyiv, condemns the actions of Ru...

Beijing’s fearless foe with God on his side

Jimmy Lai Chi-Ying, Hong Kong’s 74-year-old self-made billionaire, is a dissident. His cause is f...

Andrei Kurkov on Russia’s war against Ukrainian culture

Anyone who believes that Ukraine should remain independent and become part of Europe is already a...

The Buena Vista Social v The Kremlin

The empty chairs at the empty tables in a journalists’ hangout in Kyiv are a tribute to the ultim...

Ukrainian reporter forced to film propaganda video before release

Victoria Roshchina, who works for independent media channel hromadske, had to deny she was being ...

Mother-tongue abusers

The writer Zinovy Zinik on the moment his granddaughter learnt about Russia's brutal invasion of ...

Ukrainian news reporter detained by Russia’s FSB

The whereabouts of Victoria Roschina, who works for independent news channel hromadske, is unknow...

1972: Nixon went to China, BBC banned McCartney and Index was published

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] You may have heard that the 70s were different. In 1972, when...

Fight… and overcome

As the war in Ukraine intensifies, we publish exclusive new translations of two Ukrainian poems t...

Hong Kong’s National Security Law reaches the UK

High-profile activist Benedict Rogers, who lives in London, is being targeted using the draconian...

How an independent broadcaster in Ukraine is defying the invasion

The TV and YouTube channel hromadske has been forced to abandon its studios but keeps the news fl...

Does Russia’s war have popular support? Navalny says not

Some 14,000 people, including children, have been detained for protesting the war. Putin's pollst...

Lament for Hong Kong

Watching the crushing of Hong Kong’s media is heartbreaking and confirms the dictum that censorsh...

They “have come to rob you of your name and language”

A selection of five pieces on Ukraine from 1972 to 2014 that help shed light on the present confl...

“Russia says it is not killing civilians. That is a lie”

Reporting for Index from Kyiv, John Sweeney says knocking a TV station off air by firing missiles...

Index condemns the threats to the lives and safety of journalists in Ukraine

Council of Europe Platform partners call for protection of Ukrainian and international reporters ...

Statement of support for Ukraine

More than 130 human rights and journalism organisations issue statement in condemnation of invasi...

Why Russian protests against invasion of Ukraine are so vital

Dissent against the action in Ukraine could be crushed just as it was in Czechoslovakia in 1968 b...

Joe Rogan row shows limits of appetite for free speech

Spotify's response to the Joe Rogan row has been on point. Before that the row waded into difficu...

400 days of injustice for Andrei Aliaksandrau

Our friend and former colleague Andrei Aliaksandrau remains behind bars in Belarus

Landmark report shines light on Chinese “long arm” repression of ex-pat Uyghurs

An Index study highlights the shocking extent of Chinese attempts to repress Uyghur ex-pats livin...

“Spies were being sent to look for me”

Since returning home to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the winter of 2020, after spending se...

Index is looking for an assistant editor

Index on Censorship is on the hunt for a passionate, driven journalist to join our editorial team...

No corruption please, we’re British

The UK has developed a parallel vocabulary to avoid labelling anyone with the c-word … until now...

Will athletes risk the wrath of Beijing to stand up for human rights?

The Olympic Games have a history of protest, but China is going out of its way to stop that. With...

Ukraine journalists fight battle on all fronts

Journalists in Ukraine operate in a harsh environment. As tensions with Russia build, the grave s...

The most authoritarian British government since the Second World War?

The right to protest peacefully, the protection of human rights and the ability for journalists t...

“All this for a simple post on Facebook”

Index award winner reveals ordeal after she shared an article on drug trafficking in Niger

Greece: Concern over criminal charges against investigative reporters

Seven organisations including Index are closely monitoring the cases of two journalists who repor...

Kazakh family share horror of speaking up about Xinjiang

First he fled Xinjiang. Then Kazakhstan. And then Turkey. On 20 January 2021 Serikzhan Bilash, a ...

Kazakhstan’s independent media and civil society shiver after protests

Demonstrations over fuel prices have lead to a crackdown and the arrival of Russian troops

Turkish-Armenian academic faces deportation from Greece over controversial views

Sevan Nişanyan believes he has been added to the country's "list of undesirable foreigners" as a ...

Index reiterates its support for Carole Cadwalladr as she faces SLAPP trial

We join seventeen other organisations in supporting the award-winning journalist who is facing a ...

As Russian troops move to border Ukraine history attacked

The closure of Memorial is an attack on Ukraine history, coming at a time of heightened concern a...

Belarus: Join the campaign to free our friends Andrei Aliaksandrau and Irina Zlobina

It is now a year since our former colleague and his partner were detained following Alyaksandr Lu...

Just a week into 2022 and already violations are stacking up

From Kazakhstan to Hong Kong the news is full of horrific stories from around the world. We must ...

Hope in the darkness

Nathan Law, one of the leaders of Hong Kong’s protest movement, is convinced that the repression ...

Index Chair Trevor Phillips honoured with knighthood

Phillips is honoured with knighthood for his work on understanding Covid-19

“I wrote a play then lost my home, my husband and my trust”

Turkish playwright Meltem Arikan’s Mi Minör was blamed for the seminal Gezi Park protests that co...

Hong Kong arrests series of journalists in large-scale assault on media freedom

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Today’s raid on the offices of Hong Kong media outlet StandNew...

Censorship is still in the script

In June 2015, a national newspaper in Britain started a campaign to have a play banned. This surp...

Testament to the power of theatre as rebellion

The Belarus Free Theatre, whose 16 members have now gone into exile to escape the Lukashenka regi...

Call for investigation into historical police handling of Norwegian publisher’s attempted murder

Case is believed to be linked to the publication of The Satanic Verses in the country

Women journalists caught in middle of Afghanistan’s nightmare

Many journalists – women in particular – have fled the Taliban or are in hiding from the brutal r...

“Apple poisoned me: physically, mentally, spiritually”

Ashley Gjøvik, who was fired by the tech giant after blowing the whistle on toxic waste under her...

“We need more courageous writers in theatre,” says leading Turkish playwright

Two Turkish writers discuss Index on Censorship's new magazine, which looks at how playwrights an...

It’s unequivocal – the Chinese government is committing genocide. We must all act

The Uyghur Tribunal in London rules that “beyond reasonable doubt” the Chinese government is guil...

Index condemns the conviction of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Index on Censorship condemns the sentencing to four years in prison of Myanmar leader Aung San Su...

Turning back the tide: the refugee crisis tests Greek media freedom

Dutch journalist forced back to the Netherlands after asking tough questions of the prime ministe...

Who is 2021’s Tyrant of the Year? WINNER ANNOUNCED

The individual who has been voted the most oppressive in 2021 by Index readers has been named

Internet shutdowns: Sudan’s censorship tool of choice

The African state regularly blocks access to the web when protests flare up and the recent milita...

Lawsuits against the author and publisher of Putin’s People are SLAPPs

Nineteen organisations condemn the legal actions against Catherine Belton and HarperCollins

#WhereIsPengShuai: Tennis world shows it’s OK not to remain silent over China

The silence that usually follows human rights violations is notably absent in the sports star's m...

Marighella’s delayed release shows censorship is alive and well in Brazil

The country's Constitution outlaws censorship but Bolsonaro's government has ways to apply pressu...

Hong Kong’s freedoms under further attack as ‘Captain America’ is jailed

Five year and nine month sentence for protestor raises fears over retrospective action of nationa...

Richard Ratcliffe: The UK Government needs to look long and hard at its hostage policy

The husband of jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe talks about the re...

Change in the pipeline?

Despite one high-profile success by indigenous people in the USA, these communities still face an...

Respect for tradition: Australia’s selective listening on environment issues

First Nations voices are often ignored. Now Yvonne Weldon is hoping to change that as she bids to...

It’s not easy being green

Environmental activism is alive and well in Turkey, despite the peddling of conspiracy theories a...

The rape of Uganda

The nation’s natural resources are being plundered and it’s those doing the damage who are being ...

Suffering in silence: The poetry of Parwana Fayyaz

Three poems on the lives of women in Afghanistan

Letter to US Attorney General on Julian Assange

Index joins other organisations in expressing concern over extradition proceedings against Wikile...

Daphne Caruana Galizia: Four years on from her murder, Malta must be held to account

Index joins the Maltese community, Reporters without Borders, PEN International and others to mar...

Index condemns lawsuits brought by ENRC against Tom Burgis

We join with 14 other organisations to condemn legal action against the journalist, the Financial...

Interpol must clarify its involvement in the arrest warrant issued against British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown

Fourteen organisations join call amid fears reporter may be arrested in Spain following threats b...

Index on Censorship condemns lawsuit against journalist and author Oliver Bullough

Council of Europe media alert filed condemning legal action against the author of Moneyland

Call for the immediate and unconditional release of Egyptian human rights defender Abdelrahman ‘Moka’ Tarek

Index and nine other organisations call for Moka's release as he receives the 2021 Freedom of Exp...

Words under fire: When libraries become targets

When those in power want to control access to history and ideas, libraries are often the first to...

Champions of free expression celebrated at Index on Censorship awards

Winners from Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Niger and the UK named at ceremony

Call for Afghan actors, writers and film-makers to be given safe passage

More than 80 luminaries from the world of film and theatre have written an open letter to The Times

Secret agenda

A reform of the UK’s Official Secrets Act would mean that journalists with confidential documents...

Members of the LGBTQ+ community sign letter calling for reform to Online Safety Bill

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Dear Editor, As proud members of the LGBTQ+ community, we know...

Afghan journalists facing an impossible choice under the Taliban

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] For five days after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban insurgen...

Why journalists need emergency safe havens

Journalists tell Index how a new type of visa is vital to protect lives and stop media censorship...

Belarusian Association of Journalists: facing closure but not extinction

Body representing independent media in country facing liquidation in further crackdown by Lukashe...

Spinning bomb: Fighting the disinformation war

Nerma Jelacic argues revisionists are manipulating free speech defenders

Speaking for my silenced sister Reality Winner

Winner, a US Air Force veteran, has just been released after being imprisoned for exposing secret...

Are we becoming Hungary-lite?

Jolyon Rubinstein fears a British legislative agenda that could stifle protest, satire and the ve...

Right for US students to speak freely off campus upheld

Mahanoy Area High School student Brandi Levy wins Supreme Court case after a profanity-laced post...

The world must look beyond Cuba’s carefully manufactured PR image

It is important that Western human rights organisations do not allow the distorted image of Cuba ...

Obituary: Peter R de Vries ‘a tireless and courageous fighter for justice’

The veteran Dutch crime reporter has died from injuries sustained in a shooting last week

Joint call condemning the Belarusian regime’s raids on journalists and human rights activists

Index joins with 11 other organisations to demand the release of those detained

Afghanistan: Journalists in the firing line

As Western forces leave the country, the free press faces a uncertain future under the Taliban

Attempted murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries “a slippery slope of violence”

The crime reporter was shot earlier this week and is the latest incident in increasing attacks on...

Slovenia no longer a safe haven for the free press

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] As Slovenia takes over the presidency of the council of the E...

UK whistleblower Jonathan Taylor finally freed from extradition torment almost one year on

Former in-house lawyer for oil firm SBM Offshore now allowed to return home

Belarus: Human rights organisations urge the UN Human Rights Council to maintain calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Andrei Aliaksandrau

Call comes as Council receives the report of the UN special rapporteur on the situation regarding...

Index on Censorship announces shortlist for 2021 Freedom of Expression Awards

Imprisoned Egyptian human rights campaigner, Russian feminist performance artist, and persecuted ...

Myanmar keeps it poets locked up despite prisoner release

Maung Yu Py, a well known name in Burmese poetry circles, remains in Myeik prison despite the rel...

Fourteen organisations call for the immediate and unconditional release of journalist and human rights defender Andrei Aliaksandrau

Former Index on Censorship staff member faces up to 15 years in prison

Belarus: Journalist Andrei Aliaksandrau faces up to 15 years in prison

Former Index staff member faces charges of high treason

The free speech Euros: Group F

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] In celebration of one of football’s biggest international tou...

World Whistleblowers Day: why we must be able to speak freely

On the launch of a new charity to help those who wish to speak out about wrongdoing

Government’s Online Safety Bill will be “catastrophic for ordinary people’s freedom of speech” says David Davis MP

Leading experts brand Government’s Bill “catastrophic” at press conference today

As Apple Daily looks set to close down, speech crime comes to Hong Kong

The national security law has been used against journalists for the first time

Burkina Faso’s media freedom under attack

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Burkina Faso is supposedly one of Africa’s gems when it comes...

Whistleblower Jonathan Taylor releases further allegations of corruption

Former SBM Offshore employee releases details of multimillion dollar payoffs to a Panamanian comp...

Pentagon Papers: Daniel Ellsberg speaks 50 years on

It is five decades since a government whistleblower leaked a 7,000-page report into US involvemen...

Anti-Ha: an exclusive short story by Shalom Auslander

The American author talks about laughter and the power to subvert

Statement on the Maya Forstater judgement

The case before the Employment Appeal Tribunal was about protecting in law the right to hold cert...

Index and 21 other organisations condemn lawsuits brought by ENRC against public watchdogs

Lawsuits represent an egregious attempt to curtail freedom of expression and jeopardise anti-corr...

Why journalists and dissidents turn to Telegram

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As you scroll through your Telegram feed, one image jumps out....

Tiananmen candlelights a sight too beautiful to last

Hong Kong will be dark on the anniversary of the massacre this 4 June as the National Security La...

Letter from Palestine: “I am either dead or I am muted”

The Palestinian author Abbad Yahya says he is unable to freely express his thoughts

George Floyd: what has changed one year on?

It is 12 months since police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nine and a half minu...

Hijack, arrest, torture: Belarusian journalists under attack

The grounding of a Ryanair flight on a fake bomb threat is just the latest escalation of an indep...

Roman Protasevich is a dissident and an activist, but above all a journalist

Belarus regime staged hijack to silence their most prominent critic

Urgent letter to Croatian Minister of Justice: Do not extradite whistleblower Jonathan Taylor

Whistleblower's evidence contributed to an oil company paying fines amounting to over $US800 mill...

Stop holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of Israel

Claims of a Zionist conspiracy are not protected speech but a racist attack on all Jews, writes f...

Yulia Tsvetkova’s hunger strike: “I have reached a dead end”

Index award-winner calls on her supporters not to waste any more time "on the farce called Russia...

Destruction of media building in the Gaza Strip “unacceptable”

Index expresses concern over bombing by Israeli military

Navalny writes from his penal colony: “Books are our everything”

The jailed critic and opponent of Putin is sending messages via Instagram, detailing his ill-trea...

Standing up to a global oil giant

Celebrated author Ma Jian reflects on the terrible legacy of the Chinese Communist Party in its c...

Index shares its concerns about the Academic Freedom Bill

In response to today's Queen's speech, Index, English PEN and Article 19 have written to the Educ...

UK football social media blackout raises free speech issues

Some clubs, players and the Professional Footballers' Association are in support of social media ...

Statement on the Maya Forstater tribunal

Index on Censorship has intervened in a case with important freedom of expression ramifications

The human face and the boot

Celebrated author Ma Jian reflects on the terrible legacy of the Chinese Communist Party in its c...

Urgent action is needed to defend our media

As the 2021 Council of Europe Platform report is published, Index on Censorship and its partners ...

Heberto Padillo’s ‘confession’ 50 years on

As Cuba once again cracks down on artists and intellectuals, twenty have joined together with art...

100 days in prison in Belarus: MP calls for Andrei Aliaksandrau’s release

As our former colleague spends his 100th day in detention, Christine Jardine MP joins our call fo...

Ten years on: Celebrating the legacy of Tim Hetherington

Photojournalist's legacy lives on in the Index on Censorship fellowship in his name

British whistleblower held overnight in Croatian psychiatric hospital

Oil industry exec arrested on holiday in 2020 hospitalised after embassy alerted police

Russia: Index expresses concern over the arrest of Doxa journalists

Student journalism is a building block of media freedom, says Index CEO

What price press freedom in Northern Ireland?

Journalists continue to be threatened as tensions escalate in the province

Russia: Drop all charges against Yulia Tsvetkova

Award-winning artist faces six years in jail for her work promoting body positivity and women's r...

Myanmar: Poets, celebrities and journalists detained by military

The popular poet and comedian Zarganar, and the co-founder of news channel Mizzima have been deta...

Judges named for 2021 Freedom of Expression Awards

Acclaimed writer Fatima Bhutto, Turner Prize-winning sculptor Anish Kapoor and campaigner Ailbhe ...

Impartiality and independence of police watchdog questioned by whistleblower

A report on the policing of protests supported Priti Patel before evidence-gathering was complete...

Xinjiang: “I have no regrets on speaking out”

Newcastle University academic Dr Joanne Smith Finley believes that China has lost “an erstwhile a...

Twenty-four organisations express solidarity with the Swedish media outlet Realtid

Index among those bodies supporting journalists ahead of the first hearing in their UK defamation...

Jess Phillips: Violence against women and girls begins and ends with censorship

The outpouring of grief in the wake of the death of Sarah Everard is not just because of our sorr...

Index welcomes the launch of the National Action Plan to protect journalists

The plan has been developed with the National Committee, of which Index is a member

Nellie Bly: “I said I could and I would. And I did.”

On International Womens Day, investigative journalist Patricia Devlin shares the story of the wom...

Film awards season: Journalism and activism in the spotlight

Movies on social justice and investigative journalism dominate the nominations for major awards a...

Equatorial Guinea: Journalist Delfin Mocache Massoko facing threats over corruption investigation

South African court demands apology from lawyer linked to country's ruling Obiang family

Journalists held in Insein prison, Myanmar’s “darkest hell-hole”

Reporters covering the pro-demcracy protests are being held in a notorious military-run prison in...

Index statement on Alexei Navalny

Putin critic has been sent to a Russian penal colony following his show trials

Student Press Freedom Day: The challenges of Covid and censorship

A combination of the pandemic and restrictions already in place has made reporting for students m...

Daphne Caruana Galizia: a small step towards justice

Vincent Muscat's guilty plea has led to charges against others in the case of the murder of the M...

Lebanon’s journalists face Hezbollah threat

The murder of publisher and activist Lokman Slim is a stark warning to media in the country

Index condemns the removal of Radio Television Hong Kong’s director of broadcasting

Veteran journalist Leung Ka-wing has been replaced by a civil servant six months before his contr...

The Government’s policy paper on higher education: free speech and academic freedom

Index on Censorship responds to seven specific policy proposals, including the appointment of a F...

Belarus: Index strongly condemns actions against journalists and human rights defenders

Belarusian Association of Journalists and the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" have been targeted

He is loathsome, but I will always defend Ken Loach’s right to offend me

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image="116256" img_size="full" add_caption="yes"][vc_column_t...

The military coup in Myanmar: the media under attack

Journalists are being attacked and pursued for their coverage of the protests

BBC banned in mainland China

British broadcaster has broken rules on truth and impartiality, says Chinese regulator

Letter to MSPs on Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Bill

The decision to withdraw amendments on freedom of expression at the eleventh hour will have a chi...

Index raises concerns over UK Freedom of Information

We join media freedom organisations, editors and broadcasters in calling for an urgent review of ...

Index calls on US Department of Justice to drop Julian Assange appeal

We join 23 press freedom, civil liberties, and human rights organisations in call to drop case ag...

International Day of Solidarity with Belarus

Index and 16 other organisations call for all imprisoned journalists to be immediately released

How farmers’ protests in India are being used to silence the media

Journalists reporting on clashes between police and protestors have faced a fierce backlash

Index on Censorship calls for the immediate de-arrest of photographer Andy Aitchison

Photographer covering conditions at a Kent asylum centre has had his equipment confiscated

Biden’s first week in office and what it means for free speech

A flurry of executive orders reverses many Trump-era policies

Time to act over online privacy

We should all be wary of accepting website terms and conditions, says The Privacy Collective

Letter to Rt Hon Dominic Raab on Andrei Aliaksandrau

Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab MP First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealt...

Letter to the ambassador of Belarus on Andrei Aliaksandrau

Dear HE Ambassador Yermalovich, Index on Censorship expresses our alarm at the detention in Belar...

The desperate situation for six people who are #JailedNotForgotten

We revisit the six activists and journalists currently in jail and call for your messages of supp...

Index calls for the release of Andrei Aliaksandrau

Former Index writer has been arrested and forced to give a confession for his part in protests

The Biden presidency: what can we expect for free speech?

We look at Joe Biden's record sheet on free speech to see if we can find clues about his future p...

Two countries, one system: why we must drop the pretence

The arrest of more than 50 people involved in last year's pro-democracy primaries means no-one in...

A win for Assange, but not for free speech

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] This week’s decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder, Juli...

Major public protest in Cuba might be turning point for free expression

In an extraordinary move, Cuban intellectuals and artists are airing their grievances publicly an...

Ruhollah Zam: 27 July 1978 – 12 December 2020

The founder of the Amadnews channel, a critic of the Iranian government, has been executed for 's...

UK online harms proposals could gravely impact free speech

Index has significant concerns about the UK government’s proposals for online harms and their uni...

Assange hearing outcome could set an “alarming precedent” for free speech

The UK Assange hearing – which will decide whether there are grounds for Assange to stand trial i...

Slapp lawsuit against Swedish magazine Realtid filed in London

Index and other press freedom organisations call for an end to litigation designed to silence val...

Free expression needs to be at the heart of the Covid vaccine response

Today, as the first people in the UK receive the Covid-19 vaccine, we need more information and e...

Let them know they are not forgotten

Join us in sending messages of support to six human rights activists and journalists around the w...

Index launches report looking at the real-world effects of Slapps on journalists

As 60 organisations come together to ask the EU to develop legislation to stop vexatious lawsuits...

Vidal-Hall on 14 years at Index exposing censorship happening under our nose

The former editor of Index discusses working with Noam Chomsky, 9/11 and interviewing Orban befor...

Index launches interactive tool for journalists facing legal threats

The launch is part of the #StopSlapps campaign against the use of lawsuits to silence the media

What the Fuck!? podcast new episode: Punk poet Penny Rimbaud

The founder of punk anarchists Crass speaks about Donald Trump, the repressed British and his new...

“His only crime is to believe that Egyptians deserve the most basic of human rights”

Karim Ennarah, EIPR's criminal justice unit director, is facing fabricated charges of joining a t...

“Tanzanians want democracy, respect for their basic human rights and dignity” – Tundu Lissu

The Tanzanian opposition leader, who has been forced to flee the country, talks to Index about th...

Why a naked feminist statue should remain uncensored

Maggi Hambling's A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft has been roundly criticised, with some tryin...

What the Fuck!? podcast new episode: Harry Potter actor Natalia Tena

The actor who played Nymphadora Tonks talks about why she gets angry about female genital cutting...

The bloody consequences of Turkey’s clashes with the Kurds

In September, two men were abducted, beaten and thrown from a helicopter. One died, the other hos...

“Anxiety has always been part of Hong Kong’s handover story”

A new book on Hong Kong published this November called Making Hong Kong China: The Rollback of Hu...

Index launches weekly What the Fuck!? podcast with Alison Jackson

British artist and photographer talks about artistic freedom and driving a fake and half-naked Do...

“Between the devil and the deep blue sea” – how Nigeria is looking to move forward from the #endSARS protests

Young Nigerians are coming together to make sure their voices heard

Forced motherhood is an infringement on free expression

As various countries around the world seek to make abortion illegal or hard to get, Orna Herr hig...

Journalists and media freedom under attack in Lukashenko’s Belarus

Volha Siakhovich writes from Belarus about the current conditions of journalists working in the c...

#FreeNazanin: Charity worker faces new charges on Monday

MP Tulip Siddiq expresses her support by reciting a poem written for Index by Zaghari-Ratcliffe f...

There are still risks to even talking about voting in the USA today

Openly speaking about who you might vote for in the USA can still get people in trouble, says acc...

Department of Homeland Security visa proposals are “alarming development” for media freedom

The proposals aim to limit the length of stay for foreign journalists through changes to their visa

Tanzania: will Magufuli return to power in free and fair elections?

The polls say that the country's incumbent president will get a second term but will the result b...

Coney Barrett’s free speech stance still unclear as nomination goes to Senate

Supreme Court nominee's responses to questioning on key issues during confirmation hearings have ...

Yuri Dmitriev: the historian being silenced by Putin

A Russian historian's research into killings during Stalin's regime has resulted in an extreme ca...

The crisis in Kashmir: an Index reading list

A reading list of articles from the Index archive detailing the hardships faced by people in Kashmir

French exhibition on facial recognition cancelled over claims it violates police privacy

An exhibition to highlight the dangers of facial recognition has been cancelled in northern Franc...

Remembering Daphne Caruana Galizia: her sister speaks to Index

It is three years since the Maltese investigative journalist died in a car bomb attack

Index on Censorship receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund

We have been awarded £55,441 as part of a government fund to help those in the arts face the chal...

“Who is going to try to seize power?” Caroline Eden talks to Index from Kyrgyzstan

A journalist in the Kyrgyz capital shares her eye-witness account of the protests with Index on C...

What you missed from Banned Books Week 2020

As the annual celebration of the freedom to read comes to a close, we consider the work that stil...

The grannies are revolting: when the older generation protests

As demonstrations in Belarus continue, we take a look at the times the protests of elderly women ...

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee: where does Coney Barrett stand on free speech?

The nomination could be vital to free speech laws in the USA

Choose your moment: the inspirational Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Supreme Court judge, known as the Notorious RBG, was not afraid to use her dissenting voice

Heavy fines on social networks for not tackling online abuse may have unintended consequences

Index CEO Ruth Smeeth discusses the proposed Online Harms Bill in a virtual session organised by ...

New report on protecting the media against Slapps

What measures can be introduced to protect journalists facing vexatious legal actions?

Academic freedom in Hong Kong: “It’s a storm and no one wants to go outside, even with an umbrella”

Academics are losing tenure and teachers are being fired as China's national security law bites

Mehdi Rajabian’s Iran: where making music is a crime

Musician's inclusion of women's voices in his last album has led to his arrest. Here he talks exc...

Meet the 73-year-old great grandmother squaring up to Lukashenko in Belarus

Nina Bahinskaya has been shoved and restrained, arrested and fined half her pension. What drives ...

British MP: “We should forge a path for Uighur freedom” – here’s how

“History will judge us for the unforgivable lack of action thus far,” said Shabana Mahmood, an MP...

Ireland notified by Council of Europe over legal action against media outlet

Index on Censorship have raised a Council of Europe alert amid concerns over current legal action...

Remember the victims of Charlie Hebdo

As a trial commences in France to prosecute accomplices to the Charlie Hebdo murders, we remember...

EU must stand up for independent media in Hungary

One of Hungary's last and biggest independent media outlets, Index.hu, has recently seen its edit...

Scotland’s hate crime bill would stifle free speech

The wording of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill is incredibly vague and could lead...

How did Belarus come to be ruled by “the last dictator of Europe”?

The attack on the people of Belarus today is the result of 26 years of brutal dictatorship, in wh...

Ruth Smeeth: “The brave men and women who refuse to be silenced”

Summer is supposed to be the quiet time for news - not this year

“Have you ever felt joy from finding out a loved one is in prison?”

Yury Savitsky is one of hundreds who have been detained in Belarus following the disputed electio...

Rowan Atkinson joins Index in call for changes to Scotland’s planned hate crime bill

Comedian is one of 20 individuals who have signed a joint letter, along with Index on Censorship,...

Cartoonists being silenced during Covid, report shows

Cartoons make you laugh, wince and - increasingly in this pandemic - angry. We find out why

Kashmir’s journalists have taken great risks this past year to get news out. We must support them

Journalists in Jammu and Kashmir have been working against the odds for a year now following an i...

We should all know the name Merdan Ghappar

Merdan Ghappar's personal video from a prison in Xinjiang tells the story of millions of people s...

Surveillance a growing problem for journalists worldwide say panellists

In the first online magazine launch, three journalists discuss the impact of surveillance on medi...

Freedom on UK campuses is threatened. We need to discuss how to protect it

As part of a new report on academic freedom in the UK, Index CEO Ruth Smeeth discusses why we are...

Use your voice to get in good trouble

Civil Rights campaigner John Lewis used his voice in every way to fight for justice. He set a fan...

Interview with Justice for Journalists’ Maria Ordzhonikidze: how Russia is using Covid to clamp down on the media

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] In March 2020, Index on Censorship partnered with Justice for...

Ruth Smeeth: “Index will always be a home for people who want to be heard”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image="104009" img_size="full"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][...

Who will protect us?

With the re-election of Andrzej Duda as president of Poland, whose campaign featured attacks on t...

#HoldTheLine Coalition calls on Philippines authorities to drop Maria Ressa charges ahead of 22 July hearing

Rappler founder faces up to a century in jail from the various tax and libel charges ranged again...

Interview with Özlem Dalkıran of the Istanbul 10: “It was a clear message to civil society in Turkey: Stop”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On 5 July 2017, human rights defenders from a number of differ...

Ruth Smeeth: “We must make sure that journalism survives the pandemic”

The plight of the Uighurs shows that we must ensure their stories continue to be reported

The Harpers open debate letter: a reading list

The signatories to a letter in Harpers magazine about open debate are familiar to Index magazine

Interview with Nadine Strossen: “People should feel free to engage in respectful but robust and highly critical debate”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship's editor in chief Rachael Jolley speaks wi...

Ruth Smeeth: “Free speech is a force for good”

150 writers and academics have signed an open letter saying the forces of illiberalism are gainin...

Index joins #HoldTheLine campaign in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines

Campaign takes its name from Ressa's commitment to 'hold the line' in response to sustained state...

Malta: Renewed call for justice 1,000 days after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Index on Censorship joins 12 other organisations in calling on Maltese authorities to honour her ...

Ruth Smeeth: “From Ethiopia to Hong Kong, we will not abandon you”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image="114148" img_size="full" add_caption="yes" alignment="c...

The view from Hong Kong in 1997: an Index reading list

A reading list of articles from the Index archive when Hongkongers were wondering what the handov...

We must raise our voice for Hong Kong

As the National Security Law is passed in Hong Kong, read about what is at stake and why we must ...

A personal letter from Hong Kong

A writer from Hong Kong tells the world why the security law is a death knell to their free speec...

Quiz: How well do you know your privacy facts?

How much do you actually know about tracking apps after months of reading about them? Take our qu...

Was Hong Kong’s biggest ever protest in vain?

On the one year anniversary of the biggest ever protest that took place in Hong Kong to fight aga...

English PEN and Index on Censorship condemn prison sentence for Filipino journalist Maria Ressa as a “dark day for media freedom everywhere”

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa has been given a sentence of up to six years in prison under a cyber libe...

Our free speech is under attack, in the UK and across the world, and we need to fight to protect it

Credit: Singlespeedfahrer/Petr Vodicka/Amy Fenton/Executive Office of the President/ Philip Halli...

Governments using virus as cover to restrict newspapers

Several countries have banned publishers from producing and distributing print newspapers and mag...

Tearing down the barriers to discussing slavery and racism

The waves created by George Floyd's death have crossed the Atlantic and toppled Edward Colston’s ...

Index welcomes news of Nabeel Rajab’s release but all charges must be dropped

Index welcomes release of Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab on Tuesday but all charges ...

150 attacks on media freedom reported in 50 days

In the 50 days since Index started tracking incidents where journalists have been attacked or sto...

Quiz: How well do you know your ‘complicity’ facts?

Take our quiz to see how well you know your 'complicity' facts

Index announces first digital fellowship week

Index has held its first digital fellows week because of the coronavirus, Mark Frary reports

“You cannot report on anything that is not confirmed by the government,” Indian journalists report

“It’s as if media is an opponent. It is as if asking questions of the government is crime, or a p...

How FOI laws are being rewritten during the Covid-19 crisis

Governments are sweeping information requests under the coronavirus carpet. We must not let them

Attacks on media in Europe must not become a new normal, report says

Launch of the 2020 Annual Report by Index on Censorship and other partner organisations to the Co...

Coronavirus providing pretext for Modi to increase attacks on press and Muslims

Press freedom in India continues to be chipped away under Narendra Modi in the wake of the corona...

In emergencies we give away our essential freedoms lightly. Do we need to rethink?

As governments look into contact tracing apps to identify and isolate people with coronavirus, Ra...

#IndexAwards20: Online ceremony reveals Freedom of Expression Awards winners

The winners of the Freedom of Expression Awards 2020 include a Turkish lawyer, Bahraini activist ...

Will international companies take on Chinese censorship after the pandemic?

Will international companies take on China's attitude to censorship after the pandemic? Charlotte...

This Week at Index: Index’s new tracking map is featured on the BBC

World leaders are refusing to answer perfectly valid journalist questions on coronavirus while we...

Viktor Orbán’s power grab leaves Hungary without true democracy

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has pushed through...

The leaders who are dodging questions on coronavirus – and how

A growing number of world leaders are avoiding questions asked by the media about coronavirus, as...

“Anyone could be the next Li Wenliang”

A Chinese writer explains what it's like living in a country where information is tightly control...

Turkish writers need to “hold people in power” to account

Turkish author and journalist Kaya Genç answers questions from the Index youth advisory board abo...

States’ use of surveillance to fight pandemic must respect human rights

Index on Censorship and 106 other organisations are urging governments to respect human rights as...

How coronavirus is affecting free speech in Europe

As coronavirus spreads throughout Europe we are seeing several common tactics to undermine our fr...

We must make sure UK coronavirus legislation is only temporary

As the UK passes emergency legislation that hugely restricts people's freedoms, we need to check ...

Why media freedom is so important during the coronavirus crisis

Index have created a map to track media violations around the world amid worrying news that many ...

Index and JFJ launch global initiative to monitor attacks on the media during coronavirus

Index on Censorship and Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) have announced a joint global in...

Silencing the Spanish media

Poor job prospects and a deeply divided society are stopping Spanish journalists covering certain...

Disease control?

Mapping attacks on media freedom during the coronavirus crisis

2020 awards shortlist: Digital activism nominees announced

Three organisations from Egypt, Palestine and Canada are shortlisted in this Freedom of Expressio...

This Week at Index: 2018 Arts Fellow detained and Woody Allen U-turn

A reading list from the Index archives plus our Slapps survey and 2020 Arts Fellow crowdfunder

Freedom of expression in India from The Emergency to the present, a reading list

A reading list of articles from the Index archives covering press freedom, shows of patriotism an...

Index deputy editor on the decision by Hachette to drop Woody Allen memoir (TalkRadio)

Index on Censorship's Jemimah Steinfeld talks to TalkRadio's Matthew Wright about Woody Allen's c...

This Week at Index: awards shortlist revealed and crowdfunding for artists

Activists from Botswana, Turkmenistan, Bahrain and Turkey nominated in campaigning category; our ...

2020 awards shortlist: Meet our campaigning nominees

Campaigners for LGBT recognition in Africa, a group supporting long-term detainees in Turkmenista...

This Week at Index: Censored artists, awards nominees, libel survey, new law packs

Join our new GoFundMe campaign, journalism awards shortlist and legal guidance on free speech

2020 awards shortlist: Recognising the journalism that lets all the world’s voices be heard

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This Week at Index: Dates for your diary

Events at Free Word and the Bloomsbury Institute, plus talks for International Women's Day and Es...

Free speech is for everyone — even if we don’t like it (The Times)

“The assertion that ‘I believe in free speech, but . . .’ has become depressingly familiar,” said...

Index speaks to New York Times journalist about when he was forced to leave China

As China revokes the press credentials of three foreign journalists, we speak to Austin Ramzy abo...

Legal threats to journalists: Call for contributions

Index on Censorship is carrying out research into the scale and nature of vexatious legal threats...

This Week at Index: 2020 Awards arts nominees, live facial recognition, and oh, would you like to be our new CEO?

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Free Speech and Index: a love letter

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2020 Arts shortlist: Using rap and YouTube satire to protect free speech

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This Week at Index: China’s coronavirus cover-up, alert over NI graffiti

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Become the new Chief Executive of Index on Censorship

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We live in the midst of radical changes to the ways people acc...

How is Chinese censorship affecting reporting of the coronavirus?

China is not just trying to contain the coronavirus; it is trying to contain and control informat...

Index calls on UK government to respect role of media

Boris Johnson's exclusion of certain members of the press at a briefing on 3 February is another ...

This Week at Index: Hear from our new free speech champions

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Lewis Jennings on time at Index: “It taught me that it’s not just about words on a page”

Former editorial assistant at Index Lewis Jennings on how his year-long fellowship at Index, and ...

In the name of liberty…

Editor-in-chief Rachael Jolley argues in the winter 2019 issue of Index on Censorship magazine th...

Project Exile: Turkish journalist still fearful in Germany

Turkish journalist Zübeyde Sari began her career in 2009. By 2018, following President Erdogan's ...

Panel explore how macho male leaders stifle dissent

From Russia to Saudi Arabia, the current crop of macho male leaders are stifling dissent in a var...

Charge, attack, restrict: The main ways Turkey silenced journalists in 2019

The three most frequently used means of targeting journalists in Turkey in 2019, according to new...

Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders UK and Transparency International UK urge Azerbaijan to lift journalist’s travel ban

Azerbaijan authorities should lift a travel ban against award-winning investigative journalist Kh...

Social sex entrepreneur, artist and top journalist to judge Freedom of Expression Awards

The awards honour champions of free expression and those battling censorship around the world in ...

Playlist: The Big Noise

The winter 2019 Index on Censorship magazine reports on how macho male leaders around the world a...

Urgent reforms needed to protect journalists from vexatious legal threats: Index on Censorship

The UK should make it harder for powerful individuals and companies to bring libel actions or use...

Quiz: Which macho man said what?

Take our quiz to find out if you can tell one macho man from another from some of their more cont...

This Week at Index: Free speech is for me – the class of 2020

Free speech is in danger of being co-opted by extremists. This has led to all sorts of effects on...

Podcast: The Big Noise with the Real Donald Drumpf, Leonardo Bianchi, Patricia Campos Mello and Viktoria Serdült

The winter Index on Censorship magazine podcast with Richard Hine (@realdonalddrumpf), Leonardo B...

This Week at Index: A look back at 2019, and a new issue

This week, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that he would resign in January – news ...

Index calls on governments to ensure encrypted tools are available to public

Index joined 52 other civil society organisations as well as private companies and security resea...

This Week at Index: Muscat is going – but not soon enough

This week, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that he would resign in January – news ...

Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom: Policy recommendations for Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine

Governments and the EU must take a stronger stand for media freedom, a new Index report on media ...

This Week at Index: Arrest heralds new hopes for justice

Restrictions on the media were once something seen as a problem for other countries but now these...

This Week at Index: Calls for immediate release of re-arrested author

Restrictions on the media were once something seen as a problem for other countries but now these...

This Week at Index: Fears for freedom of the media move closer to home