13 Oct 2025 | Awards, Fellowship 2025, News and features, Press Releases
Today Index on Censorship announces the shortlist for its annual Freedom of Expression Awards. The remarkable individuals and organisations that make up the shortlist are testament to how free expression can be protected at a time of shrinking democracies, worsening conflicts and heightened disinformation and censorship.
Each nominee addresses diverse and critical issues including transnational repression, enforced disappearance, attacks on artistic freedom, the protection of journalists in conflict zones and in exile. The nominees tackle oppression in a variety of ways, responding to threats with bravery and at times great creativity.
The awards are divided into three categories: Arts, Campaigning and Journalism. They’re a poignant and important opportunity to celebrate the courage and creativity of the journalists, artists, campaigners and dissidents who, against all odds and facing threats of persecution, including harassment, imprisonment and even death, speak up and out to defend human rights and democracy for all.
The shortlist announced today is:
Arts
Campaigning
- The Saturday Mothers (Turkey) – the longest peaceful protest campaign in Turkish history focusing on raising awareness of enforced disappearances.
- Chloe Cheung (Hong Kong) – a prominent member of the pro-democracy movement who has continued her advocacy from exile in the UK.
- Unchained Vibes Africa (Nigeria) – an organisation and social enterprise monitoring and responding to censorship threats and actions across the country and continent, which target artistic freedom.
- Exile Hub (Myanmar) – an organisation working across the region to support public interest journalism and establish protections for journalists reporting under threat.
Journalism
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO of Index on Censorship, said:
“We’re living through an especially challenging time for freedom of expression on the global stage, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But this shortlist reminds us that there are still many brave and brilliant individuals out there using their voices to make a difference. While on awards night only a few may take home a prize, from where we stand every one of these individuals and organisations is a hero. It’s been an honour to learn more about them and through this announcement I hope others learn about their vital work too.”
Can Dündar, award-winning journalist, said:
“Lies are bigger today than ever before. That is why truth is more precious than ever. The pressure is immense, and therefore the need for resistance is even greater. Supporting those who defend truth against falsehood and democracy against autocracy, and standing shoulder to shoulder with their struggle for rights, is both our duty and our responsibility. Freedom fighters around the world defend freedom of expression in their own ways. I am grateful that, thanks to Index, we were able to honor a few honorable members of this brave army. If the world still holds hope for tomorrow, it’s partly thanks to their tireless struggle.”
The Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards, established in 2001, have long championed those who have risked everything for the right to speak out and defend democracy and human rights. Previous winners include the imprisoned Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi; the Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai; the global whistleblowing platform, Wikileaks; the Turkish artist, Zehra Dogan; Honduran investigative journalist, Wendy Funes and many others.
This year’s shortlist demonstrates the creative, courageous and diverse voices opposing authoritarianism and silence. The winners will be announced on 19 November at a ceremony in London. The jury panel for the 2025 awards is made up of Baroness Hollick OBE; Can Dündar, award-winning journalist; Sir Trevor Phillips OBE, chair of Index on Censorship; Ben Preston, Culture, Arts and Books Editor of The Times & Sunday Times; Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO of Index on Censorship.
ENDS
Media contact:
Index on Censorship is a non-profit organisation that campaigns for and defends free expression worldwide, including by publishing work by censored writers and artists and monitoring threats to free speech. We lead global advocacy campaigns to protect artistic, academic, media and digital freedom to strengthen the participatory foundations of modern democratic societies. www.indexoncensorship.org
10 Oct 2025 | Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Australia, Madagascar, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Saudi Arabia, United States
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 social media restrictions in Afghanistan and the indictment of Letitia James.
Afghanistan
Taliban sources have confirmed that new restrictions on social media platforms in Afghanistan this week are intentional.
Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are among platforms facing disruption, according to global internet monitor NetBlocks, who also reported another internet outage in Kandahar province.
Last week saw a total telecommunications outage across Afghanistan, which Taliban officials told journalists was caused by old fibre optic cables that needed to be replaced. With this somehow causing a country-wide blackout of both internet and phone services.
USA
New York’s Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted on charges of fraud as part of a wider push by President Donald Trump to use the Justice Department as a weapon against his political enemies.
In 2022 in her position as Attorney General, James had filed a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organisation, as well as aiding in a three-year criminal investigation into Trump’s New York business dealings that led to a now overturned $500 million fraud ruling.
In order to prosecute James and also the former head of the FBI James Comey who had investigated Russian interference in the 2016 elections (and was fired by Trump), the President installed his former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan as interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia. This was after her predecessor refused to bring charges against people Trump had characterised as enemies.
In September before these prosecutions started, Trump posted to Truth Social a message he later admitted was intended as a private memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi stating: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Comey this week pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to congress.
Australia
Canberra, Australia, 9 October, whistleblower David McBride, who was jailed for leaking documents that alleged Australian Special forces had killed innocent people in Afghanistan, had an application rejected to have his case heard by Australia’s High Court.
This is the latest in an ongoing battle to have his sentencing overturned.
During the original trial, the Australian Government moved to prevent McBride from seeking protection under Australia’s whistleblower laws by blocking expert witnesses from speaking, citing “public interest immunity laws”.
The former military lawyer-turned whistleblower was convicted of three charges last year and sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for the theft of classified documents and for passing the documents to journalists at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The documents formed the bases of an ABC investigation titled ‘The Afghan Files’ that claimed Australian Special forces units had committed war crimes whilst stationed in Afghanistan.
McBride is the only person imprisoned in relation to these crimes.
Madagascar
Even following the dissolution of his government, embattled President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar refuses to step down in the face of large scale youth-led protests.
Rajoelina said at a press conference: “I swear that if power cuts persist in the capital within a year, I will resign.”
Protesters from group Gen-Z Mada were not convinced, calling for more protests to take place on Thursday, during which rubber bullets and tear gas were used to disperse demonstrators. They also called for a general strike as a display that they reject the President’s promises.
Saudi Arabia
Human Rights Watch have told comedians who performed at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy festival that they “cannot accept” money that originated from the government of Saudi Arabia.
The statement comes as comedians who performed at the festival scramble to get public opinion back on their side.
Bill Burr, Louis C.K. and Omid Djalili have all attempted to spin their participation as positive, whilst comics Aziz Ansari and Jessica Kirson offered to donate their fees in a futile effort to buy back public opinion.
10 Oct 2025 | Asia and Pacific, News and features, Pakistan
The weather was pleasantly cool in the Degari area outside Quetta when I visited along with a local guide at the end of September. There is silence because the population is scattered. But the district is dominated by the local Satakzai tribesmen in this part of Balochistan, a southwestern province of Pakistan, sharing a border with Afghanistan and Iran.
In recent months, the Degari region has attracted nationwide media attention for all the wrong reasons: a gruesome video went viral on social media, in which a couple can be seen being shot multiple times at point blank range.
They were later identified as Noor Bano Satakzai and Ehsan Sumalani. And they were killed in the name of honour – the murder of a person, especially of a girl, bringing shame to the family. In most of the cases, the victims are killed for refusing to marry, committing adultery or being in a relationship that displeases their relatives or family members. The crimes are frequently committed by those family members against their female relatives. In this case it was allegedly the local tribal council, the Jirga which was involved in their deaths.
“In Balochistan, honour killings take place due to socio-economic reasons, as well to show muscular power by men to settle personal scores over matters such as land disputes and debts,” says Sadia Baloch, a human rights defender in Balochistan who documents gender-based violence.
“When I studied cases in Balochistan, I came across a lot of cases in a short period, in which women have been silenced or killed in the name of honour.”
Sadia hails from Balochistan’s Nasirabad belt, where women are routinely silenced. One tragic incident in this region took place in 2008, when three teenage girls – believed to have been aged between 16 and 18 – were buried alive in an honour killing.
In a high-profile case in 2023, three bullet-riddled bodies—one girl and two boys—were found in a well near the house of Balochistan’s minister and tribal chief Sardar Abdur Rehman Khetran. He was arrested in connection with the triple murder and for keeping the children in his private jail in Balochistan. He was given bail and quickly released and remains in the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan.
Even after the Degari incident, honour killings continue to take place in the said division and innocent lives are taken away, particularly of women and girls.
According to Sadia, families abandon if not kill women involved (even allegedly) in cases of honour. They give women to the Sardars (tribal leaders), particularly in the Sindh province, who hold social legitimacy and who largely decide their fate.
This can involve them being forcibly married off in exchange for money, made to work as servants in the Sardar’s home or being murdered in an honour killing which take place with absolute impunity.
“The families hand over their girls to the tribal heads who sell them out [and] take a small amount,” she laments. “The said cases don’t get reported at all, which is why there is no end to the women being silenced in the name of honour.”
According to human rights organisations, a thousand women are killed in the name of honour in Pakistan annually, although most of these cases go unreported in the country itself.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) states that at least 405 women were killed in Pakistan in the name of honour in 2024.
According to activists, the actual figure is higher because cases of honour killings don’t come into the limelight, because they get buried along with the victims.
Punjab is one of four provinces that share the grisly record of having most honour killings.
Based in Lahore, Punjab’s provincial capital, Sunny Zia works at the HRCP.
“It is a known fact Punjab is the most populous province in a country with a population of over 100 million people, where almost half of Pakistan lives. This is why the figure related to honour killings of the women is reportedly higher than the other provinces. There is better media coverage too,” Sunny told Index.
“In Punjab, there is a strong caste system just like in India. In many cases, honour killings are related to the caste system as well when inter-caste marriages take place which are not socially accepted.”
Shah Mohammad Marri, a prolific author and historian who writes frequently about tribal affairs, told Index: “In Pakistan’s tribal belt, Sardars get to decide about cases of honour killings as there are no laws or police stations for the local tribesmen. The reason, the Sardar is the supreme authority there and they rule the roost.”
Jahanzeb Rind, an assistant professor at LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences), told Index: “In Pakistan’s patriarchal society, even though both male and female couples are killed in the name of honour, the majority of the victims are female.”
“Our judicial system is weak,” added Rind. “The state has neither given its citizens the proper rights nor due statuses, especially in the tribal belt of the country, which is why people go to tribal leaders to sort out their issues out of court. This is why honour killing persists.”
While writing this piece, I picked up a newspaper and came across an article about Pakistan’s women which attracted my attention for all the wrong reasons.
The article said 93% of women in Pakistan experience some form of sexual violence in public places during their lifetime and 73% of women and girls face physical or sexual violence from their intimate partners, family members, friends, relatives or neighbours; 62% of the reported victims are between 10 and 19 years old.
Pakistan has clearly failed its women.
Honour killings are the pinnacle of this shame but the problems go deeper. Even today, women are silenced in the name of honour as if society was still living in medieval times.
9 Oct 2025 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Saudi Arabia
This is the final day of the Riyadh Comedy Festival so we thought we’d publish some jokes audiences probably won’t have heard during the last fortnight.
Index staff have used AI to imagine some gags from artificial facsimiles of stand-ups Bill Burr, Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall and Louis C.K.
We felt compelled to do this because we support those in Saudi Arabia whose voices are so often silenced and those who are currently in prison. Last week we published an article by Ghanem al-Masarir about how he was persecuted as a Saudi comedian, and we remember journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered by the regime in the Saudi embassy in Turkey seven years ago on 2 October – a grim reminder of the stance the Saudi government takes against their critics.
For extra context, this is part of a leaked contract for performers at the festival and was a condition of them performing:
“ARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule A) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture, or people; B) The Saudi royal family, legal system, or government, and; C) Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice.”
Google Gemini in the style of Bill Burr
“The whole thing with this Saudi oil money… everybody’s going, ‘How could you? How could you take that blood money?’ And I’m just looking at them like, ‘Have you seen the offer? That’s not money, that’s a yacht dealership. That’s a ‘Hey Bill, we’re giving you enough cash to never have to stand next to a TSA agent again.’ Suddenly, all that moral outrage I was preaching about two years ago? Yeah, that’s gone. It’s in a tiny little oil drum somewhere in the desert. I went from ‘Speak truth to power!’ to ‘Does this robe come with a gold chain?’ in like, nine seconds.”
Anthropic’s Claude in the style of Jimmy Carr
“The Saudi royal family spent 100 billion dollars on a futuristic city in the desert called NEOM. 100 billion! On a city that doesn’t exist yet!
You know what would be MORE futuristic? Women’s rights.
[pause for laughs]
Cost a lot less, too.
[short laugh]
They’ve got plans for flying cars, robot servants, artificial moons… but apparently equal rights for half the population? ‘Woah, woah, woah… let’s not get science fiction about this!’
[smirks]
And they claim it’s going to be this eco-friendly utopia powered entirely by renewable energy. Which is ironic, because the only thing they’ve been good at renewable is OPPRESSION.
[staccato laugh]
The Saudi government says journalists are always welcome to come visit and report on their progress. Just… maybe don’t write anything negative. Or critical. Or true.
You know, JOURNALISM.
[pause]
Because the last guy who did that? Let’s just say… he’s in pieces about it.
[waits for groan/laugh]
Too dark? Oh, I’m sorry—I didn’t realise we were suddenly worried about what’s inappropriate!”
Google Gemini in the style of Jack Whitehall
Right, so my agent, – you’d hate him, he wears a gilet indoors – he rings me up. “Jack, darling! Got a massive gig for you. Corporate do. The fee is… well, let’s just say you could buy a controlling stake in Waitrose.”
I’m in. Obviously. I’m thinking, lovely jubbly, probably some tech bros in a horribly trendy warehouse in Shoreditch.
He goes, “It’s in Riyadh.”
Ah. Right.
He says, “Don’t worry! They’re super keen. They’ve just sent over a small list of topics to avoid in your set.”
He starts reading it out. “Okay so… no politics, no religion, no mentions of the royal family, no observational stuff about men and women… and absolutely no sarcasm.”
And I’m just sitting there, thinking… my God. That’s my entire personality gone. What am I supposed to do for twenty minutes? Just list my favourite types of hummus?
But then he read the last rule: “And finally, absolutely no crowd work.”
And honestly? That’s where I drew the line. I mean, you can take away my freedom of expression, you can censor my political satire… but you will not take away my God-given right to bully a man in the front row for wearing terrible shoes. Some principles are just non-negotiable.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the style of Louis C.K.
“So the Saudi government…
You ever look at a country and think, ‘Wow… that place is like if God gave a toddler infinite money and zero supervision’?
It’s just oil, gold, and beheadings. Like… literal beheadings. Not metaphorical. Like, actual… ‘Whoops, I tweeted!’ — CHOP.
And people still say, ‘Well, they’re making progress!’
Yeah? So is cancer.”
[Crowd groans — Louis leans in, smirking]
“No, really — they let women drive now!
As long as they don’t drive… their own thoughts.”
[Beat — he shrugs, mock-defensive]
“I know. I shouldn’t talk. I come from America — the land of freedom, where we bomb the same countries we lecture about human rights.
It’s like yelling at your kid for smoking while you’re doing heroin in the garage. ‘Don’t do that, it’s bad for you!’”
[He pauses, then sighs]
“But I still fly through Riyadh sometimes. Why?
‘Cause I’m a piece of shit.
And they’ve got phenomenal airport lounges.
Like, terrifying government… but you can get a foot massage and a lamb biryani while pretending they don’t jail poets.”
