12 Aug 2025 | Americas, News and features, Newsletters, United States
There was a full house for the launch of the summer edition of Index this week. The theme was the Trump administration’s war on free expression, and our panel of experts attracted an impressive and noticeably young audience. Some were there to support Anvee Bhutani, from the Wall Street Journal. She’s now based in the UK but previously reported from the frontline of the US government’s attacks on immigrants and protestors. Also speaking were the American historian and journalist Erica Wagner, now working at the Observer, and lawyer Charlie Holt, who specialises in environmental law and is a longtime ally of Index in the fight against SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation).
There seemed to be a consensus that it was now possible to talk about “the American dissident” in light of the administration’s attacks on state-funded media, the legal establishment and academia. Erica caught the mood when she said she was “both shocked and not shocked” by what was going on and Trump’s behaviour. “When people tell you who they are, pay attention,” she said.
Charlie reminded us that Trump has been involved in over 2,000 lawsuits, many of them used to target journalists. As chair of the discussion, hosted by St John’s Church, Waterloo, it felt like the work of Index was more vital than ever. Anvee said she had accepted the invitation when she heard it was about the crackdown on press, protest and academic freedom: “I feel I have seen all three collapse in the last year in America.”
It also felt appropriate that the audience was reminded of Index’s history and tradition as the champion of dissident writers and artists in eastern and central Europe. The Belarusian poet Hanna Komar read from her collaboration with Greek poet Katerina Koulouri using words which the Trump administration has banned federal agencies from using.
It is always good to be reminded of the complexities of the debate over free expression and the final question of the evening provided just this check on complacency. Audience member Marko Begic asked whether we need to reconsider our understanding of the concept of censorship in the third decade of the 21st century. With the populist right and the activist left both claiming their free expression is under threat, we are certainly a long way from the Cold War certainties at the heart of Index’s origin story. But the concept of the dissident remains as powerful as it ever was, whether it is embodied by an exiled Belarusian poet or an American journalist in the progressive tradition.
11 Aug 2025 | Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Palestine
Since 7 October, 2023, Israel’s military campaign across the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of more than 260 Palestinian journalists and media workers: men and women, who carried nothing but their cameras, microphones, and notebooks. They were not on the battlefield, they were the battlefield. Targeted, hunted, threatened and killed alongside their families in what can only be described as a deliberate campaign to silence the truth.
Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qreqeh, along with five more colleagues from Al Jazeera were the new victims of truth. They did not die because they were caught in “crossfire” or in a tragic accident. Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues were killed because he refused to be silenced. Because they exposed the atrocities and crimes of the Israeli military against innocent civilians in Gaza. They reported on the massacres, on the weaponisation of starvation and thirst, and on the relentless bombardment of residential neighborhoods.
Anas paid his life as a price for his truth-telling, and so did many other colleagues. They all met the same fate.
Before them, their parents and families were also killed. These were not isolated incidents. They are part of a systematic pattern.
This is how Israel’s war on Palestinian journalism works: first, it eliminates the voice; then it erases the family; and finally it seeks to bury the story.
I know this because I am living it. I am a journalist who has reported for years from Gaza City, and my own family there has been threatened. My home has been surrounded by fear like many more, reminding us that our reporting comes at a cost. These are not random acts of intimidation. They are part of the same machinery that murdered Anas and Mohamed, a machinery designed to frighten Palestinian journalists into silence.
It doesn’t stop at bullets and bombs. Israel wages an incitement campaign against Palestinian journalists, smearing them with baseless accusations and without presenting a shred of credible evidence.
The aim is clear: to strip us of legitimacy in the eyes of the world so that when we are killed, our deaths can be rationalised, excused, and forgotten.
These accusations are amplified when parts of the Western media adopt Israel’s unverified narrative – sometimes word for word – while those same foreign correspondents are themselves barred from entering Gaza.
Yes, Israel has kept international journalists out of Gaza since the start of this war. It is not only silencing Palestinian voices, it is preventing the world from seeing the truth through the eyes of all journalists.
This unprecedented media blockade means the only witnesses left inside Gaza are Palestinian journalists, who are being systematically hunted.
By killing them, Israel is not just destroying the local press, it is choking off the world’s last source of first-hand account from the Strip.
Some will call this a tragedy for Gaza. But it is more than that. It is a tragedy for journalism everywhere.
Each time a Palestinian journalist is killed for doing their job, a bullet tears through the very heart of global press freedom.
When one government can murder reporters with impunity, threaten their families, smear their reputations, and block the international media from entering, it sends a message to every repressive regime on the planet: You too can kill the story by killing the storyteller.
What happens in Gaza does not stay in Gaza. If Israel’s campaign to silence journalists succeeds here, it will embolden governments worldwide to use the same tactics: violence, intimidation, and narrative control to shield themselves from accountability.
The chilling effect will ripple far beyond the Gaza Strip and Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Journalists covering corruption, human rights abuses, atrocities and war crimes, will all feel the shadow of what is happening in Gaza.
Freedom of the press is not a slogan. It is the breath of democracy, the safeguard against tyranny, the public’s last line of defence against lies, manipulation and corruption.
In Gaza, that breath is being suffocated. And if the world does not act; if governments, media organisations, and press freedom advocates do not unite to hold Israel accountable, then the suffocation will spread.
Anas is gone. Mohamed is gone. Too many of my colleagues are gone. I do not know how much longer those of us still reporting from Gaza can keep going under this level of threat. But I do know this: as long as we have breath, we will speak. We will write. We will record. Because the truth is worth more than our fear, and the story of Gaza must not be buried with its journalists.
Silencing Palestinian journalists is not just an assault on Gaza’s truth. It is an assault on the world’s right to know. And the day we allow that assault to succeed is the day press freedom dies everywhere.
[Editor’s note: The IDF claims that al-Sharif had been a member of Hamas since 2013. Al-Sharif and Al Jazeera had previously called these claims “baseless”.]
8 Aug 2025 | Africa, Americas, El Salvador, Europe and Central Asia, Georgia, News and features, St. Lucia, Turkey, Uganda
Bombarded with news from all angles every day, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at the imprisonment of a prominent Georgian journalist, and a blow to democracy in El Salvador.
A slap in the face: Georgian journalist is the country’s “first female prisoner of conscience”
Following a detention that lasted over 200 days, prominent Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli has been sentenced to two years in prison in a case described by human rights groups as “disproportionate and politicised”.
Amaglobeli, founder of independent news websites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was taking part in national protests against the disputed national election that took place in October 2024 when she was twice arrested by Georgian police – first for placing a sticker on a building, and then for allegedly assaulting a police officer. A recording of the altercation showed that Amaglobeli lightly slapped the officer before being forcefully arrested, and her lawyers have stated that she was verbally abused and denied access to water following her arrest.
She has been recognised as the first female prisoner of conscience in a country where democracy and free speech have rapidly crumbled. While her initial charge of assault was downgraded to “resisting or using violence against a law enforcement officer”, her two-year sentence has been condemned by the EU, with a spokesperson denouncing the “instrumentalisation of the justice system as a tool of repression against independent voices”. Numerous rights groups have called for her release, with the Committee to Protect Journalists describing the sentence as “outrageous” and “emblematic of Georgia’s increasing use of authoritarian tactics” against independent media in the country.
President Nayib Bukele here to stay: El Salvador abolishes presidential term limits
On Friday 1 August, El Salvadoran Congress voted 57-3 to abolish presidential term limits, allowing President Nayib Bukele to potentially serve for life. Following the announcement, opposition congresswoman Marcela Villatoro announced that “democracy in El Salvador has died”.
Bukele, who has described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator”, has garnered significant popular support since coming to power in 2019, with an approval rating of over 80%. This is largely due to his intense crackdown on the gang violence that has plagued the Central American nation. In 2022 he announced a “state of exception” allowing the government to arrest tens of thousands without due process. This practice has led to close to 2% of the nation’s population being incarcerated.
There may, however, be another side to the crackdown. In May, Independent Salvadoran news site El Faro released an interview with a gang leader who reportedly struck deals with Bukele to help the 44-year-old rise to power. Shortly after, numerous journalists at El Faro were forced to flee the country under threat of arrest. They are far from the only targets of Bukele’s administration; at least 40 journalists have been forced to flee El Salvador since May because of threats from the government. The country’s leading human rights group Cristosal decided in July to completely relocate following the arrest of Ruth López, Cristosal’s chief legal anti-corruption officer.
Human rights groups are alarmed about the swift deterioration of press freedom in El Salvador – but with Bukele’s popularity still sky-high and his party controlling 90% of seats in congress, he appears unassailable.
The crime of speaking up: Turkish youth activist detained over Council of Europe speech
On 5 August, Turkish youth and LGBTQ+ activist Enes Hocaoğulları was detained upon arrival at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport over a speech he gave at a Council of Europe (COE) meeting in Strasbourg.
Hocaoğulları, who is Turkey’s youth delegate to the COE’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, gave a speech in March titled “Young people in Turkey say ‘Enough’” in which he railed against police brutality, crackdowns on dissent, and the imprisonment of opposition politicians such as Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was arrested earlier that month. Following his address, Hocaoğulları was subject to a targeted smear campaign branding him as a “traitor” who seeks to “spread LGBTI+ ideology”.
Hocaoğulları faces charges of “publicly disseminating misleading information” and “inciting hatred and enmity”, charges that “flout the fundamental right to free expression”, according to COE’s congress president Marc Cools. The COE previously expressed concern over the Turkish Government’s attacks on democracy after the arrest of İmamoğlu, who intends to challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 elections. The COE have called for Hocaoğulları’s immediate release, describing his arrest as “scandalous and unacceptable”.
A step in the right direction: St Lucia strikes down colonial-era anti-LGBTQ+ law
In a landmark judgement, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has ruled that St. Lucia’s colonial-era “buggery”and “gross indecency” laws outlawing consensual same-sex relations are unconstitutional.
Previously, engaging in intercourse with a member of the same sex was punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Although the law was rarely enforced, Human Rights Watch have detailed how such laws imposed under British colonial rule allow for discrimination in employment and healthcare, creating a “climate of fear” for LGBTQ+ communities who felt they could not report homophobic abuse to the authorities. The court held that criminalisation of homosexual conduct results in “public humiliation, vilification and even physical attacks” on LGBTQ+ individuals.
St. Lucia is the latest Caribbean nation to repeal colonial-era anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, following in the footsteps of Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados, among others. However, many of its neighbours still hold on to these laws, with Trinidad and Tobago & St. Vincent and the Grenadines recently voting to uphold repressive legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people.
Jailed for a TikTok: Ugandan university student imprisoned for posting TikTok critical of the president
Ugandan university student Elson Tumwine, who went missing for over a month after posting a TikTok criticising Ugandan President Yowerei Museveni, has been sentenced to two months imprisonment.
Tumwine, a third-year student at Makerere University in Uganda’s capital Kampala, posted a video accusing Museveni of being responsible for the 1989 Mukura massacre, allegedly doctoring a clip of parliamentary speaker Anita Among to make these claims. He was working as an agricultural intern in Hoima, western Uganda, when he disappeared, causing Makerere University to issue an urgent appeal for his whereabouts. Secretary-general of opposition NUP party David Lewis Rubongoya claimed to have information that Tumwine was dumped at a police station on 13 July after being subjected to “incredible torture” by military intelligence units.
The prosecution stated that the TikTok was intended “to ridicule, demean and incite hostility” against Museveni and Among, and charged Tumwine with offensive communication and computer misuse. In court he swiftly pled guilty, resulting in a more lenient sentence than expected. although local reports allege that he may have done so under pressure from security operatives.
Tumwine is the latest Ugandan to face charges over videos critical of the government on social media, with the Ugandan e-paper Monitor stating he is the sixth TikToker to be imprisoned in the country for “offensive communication”. Emmanuel Nabugodi, was jailed for 32 months in November 2024 for “insulting” Museveni in a TikTok, while Edward Awebwa faced 24 months on similar charges in July 2024.
5 Aug 2025 | Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Hong Kong, News and features, United Kingdom
For years now people in Hong Kong have been perfecting the art of letter writing and sending them to the neighbours of government critics living in the UK. I first came across the trend in 2018 and interviewed some of the subjects of the letters. The messages followed a pattern – people were identified as enemies of the Chinese people and, while outright threats were atypical, there was always the subtle threat – the sender knew where they lived.
Since the passage of the National Security Law in 2020, which saw thousands of Hong Kongers aligned with the democracy movement flee to the UK, the letter writers – whoever they may be – have seemingly grown in number, and their threats have become bolder and coupled with incentives. Some offer cash prizes to recipients, as was the case for the neighbours of prominent Hong Kong campaigner Carmen Lau, who were told they could receive £100,000 for information on her.
In 2018, one interviewee reported to me that their mother had told the police about receiving a letter. The police never tracked down who sent them, but they did take it very seriously. Lau reported her letters to the police too. Except in her case she claims Thames Valley police requested she “cease any activity that is likely to put you at risk” and “avoid attending public gatherings” like protests. I find this a spineless response, shifting the burden of responsibility away from the perpetrator and onto the victim. Lau has accused them of asking her to essentially “self-censor”. When approached about the story, Thames Valley police gave a tight- lipped response, neither confirming nor denying these details. The Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit are, however, apparently investigating the letters.
And so they should. An important report came out this week from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, following their public inquiry into transnational repression (TNR). Over 180 responses came in, including from Index, which showed how TNR is not a niche issue impacting a small minority – it affects freedom of expression across “entire communities”. Critics, journalists, campaigners and academics, to name a few, have all reported threats on UK soil.
The report calls for stronger action to stop the growth of TNR, including a dedicated reporting line to provide support and triage cases to law enforcement. It also calls for improved police training to deal with incidents of TNR. Lau’s case shows how much that is needed. Tackling TNR is a monumental task – the perpetrators often operate beyond borders and deep in the shadows. But while it’s one thing to tell the victim that the person behind the attack might not be caught, it’s quite another to tell them to stay indoors and stay silent.
