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Just Stop Oil climate protests feel the chill
There is growing pressure on environmental activists in the UK, the second most likely country in the world for protesters to be arrested
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The rise of the American dissident
A panel at Index's latest magazine launch discussed the Trump administration’s attacks on state-funded media, the legal establishment and academia
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Israel’s systematic war on Palestinian journalists is a war on press freedom everywhere
Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues from Al Jazeera were killed in a targeted attack because they refused to be silenced
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The week in free expression: 2 – 8 August 2025
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
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From Hong Kong with hate
Someone is carrying out transnational repression of its exiled critics by post
Banned Books Week UK returns from 5–11 October 2025. It’s a week to celebrate the books that have been challenged, removed or silenced, and to stand with the people who write, sell and share them
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Spotlight: Trump's official visit to the UK
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Has President Trump launched the age of the American dissident?
A new era of authoritarianism has dawned in the “land of liberty”. What can US political activists learn from those who defied Soviet repression?
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Who’s the Boss? Trump and Springsteen’s war of words
It is ironic that the US president, a supposed champion of free speech, has threatened Bruce Springsteen for expressing his thoughts
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Could Donald Trump’s administration be a double-edged sword for free speech?
We speak with the USA-based non-profit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) about the new president's complicated approach to fre...
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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 chilling implications for free speech globally
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MAGAZINE
LATEST ISSUE: VOLUME 54.02 SUMMER 2025
Land of the Free?: Trump's war on speech at home and abroad
Has the USA, the so-called Land of the Free, become a dangerous country for those who question its government?
Such a notion is, of course, in opposition to the country’s founding principles. Enshrined in the 1791 First Amendment to the US Constitution are citizens’ fundamental freedoms – including freedom of religion, speech, the press, protest and petition. Conveniently glossing over its dark history of colonisation and slavery (which would continue for nearly a century after the First Amendment was ratified), it signified the USA as a global bastion of democracy, equality and civilised values. Now, Trump appears to be metaphorically setting fire to the paper these principles are written on.
This is having profound impacts within the USA and around the world. Trump was inaugurated for his second term only six months ago, but already he has sought to deport people for their views on Israel and Palestine; threatened universities with eye-watering financial sanctions if they do not adhere to his ideological viewpoints; slashed the budgets of state-funded broadcasters; deployed the National Guard to police protests, a tactic used by military dictatorships; and dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID), stopping the work of human rights groups globally.
In this edition, we explore these attacks on free speech at home and abroad.
Uncensored gallery
Index commissions censored and exiled artists from around the world to illustrate our magazine covers and feature stories. You can view some of their work here