The call by four Arab states — UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — for Qatar to close news network Al Jazeera is clearly motivated by a desire to control the media in the region.
Qatari-funded media network Al Jazeera has hit back at Arab states' calls for it to be closed down. The demands were an attempt to "silence freedom of expression", it said. Read the full article
Index on Censorship has joined with international organisations to urge Formula 1 to address restrictions on peaceful protesters and journalists in Bahrain.
Plans for a Counter-Extremism Commission have been announced in the Queen’s Speech, but free speech campaigners called for the Government to pause its plans and consult widely. Read the full article
Index on Censorship has joined with seven other organisations to urge OSCE to appoint a new representative on freedom of the media
Margaret Atwood has said she would like to see those who have been killed in the fight to protect free speech honoured, either through a statue or a wall in London's Hyde Park. Read the full article
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]At a time of deep political division, this year’s Banned Books Week, September 24–30, will celebrate the importance of the freedom to read for all Americans, as books can open the door to conversations among those...
The summer 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine explores how the consequences of the 1917 Russian Revolution still affect freedoms today, in Russia and around the world. Andrei Arkhangelsky argues that the Soviet impulse to censor never left Russia, North Korea art expert BG Muhn shows how the nation’s art was initially, at least, affected by the USSR, and Nina Khrushcheva, a great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, reflects on the Soviet echoes in Trump’s use of the phrase “enemies of the people”.
Prominent journalists were among 17 people who went on trial in Istanbul on Monday on charges of links to the group allegedly behind last year's failed coup, in a case that has amplified concerns over press freedom in Turkey. Read the full article
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Prominent journalists were among 17 people who went on trial in Istanbul on Monday on charges of links to the group allegedly behind last year's failed coup, in a case that has amplified concerns over press...
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Samuel Beckett and Cecil Day-Lewis helped Stephen Spender set up Index to highlight censored writers’ plight behind Iron Curtain. The same fight continues elsewhere today. Read the full...
The world is in serious need of a laugh right now. A ridiculous, oversized belly laugh would let the tension ease out. We are on edge, with that nasty grating feeling, a bit like when there’s raw skin in your mouth and you can’t stop touching it...