Iranian director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to six years in prison for "colluding in gathering and making propaganda against the regime". Panahi has also been banned from directing films or speaking to the press for 20 years.
Entire staff of Charter97 held by KGB – Index on Censorship learns of prison abuse – Natalia Koliada released
Protest against mass arrests in Belarus 6pm 21 December, Belarus Embassy, London W8 5DL
Index has learned that Special Forces broke into the apartment of Nikolai Khalezin, art director of Belarus Free Theatre, this morning [20 December] and arrested him. He is reported to have been taken to unknown destination. He is already third...
Reports are emerging from Belarus that opposition leaders Andrei Sannikov, Nikolai Statkevich, Rygor Katusev and Vitaly Rymanshevsky have been arrested by police. Sannikov had earlier declared a provisional coalition in Belarus, after thousands...
Index on Censorship has learned that Natalia Koliada, a founder member of the Belarus Free Theatre, has been detained by authorities in Minsk. Koliada has been unable to contact other members of the dissident theatre group. Tens of thousands of...
As the world’s attention turns to Europe’s last dictatorship, Index’s Mike Harris explains the background to today’s demonstrations
Screening: Staging a revolution 19 December, Free Word Centre
As funders threaten to punish the US gallery that censorsed the first major US exhibition of gay art, Salil Tripathi looks at the fallout of America’s culture wars
Our special report brings together some of the world’s finest writers to look back at one of the longest running campaigns for freedom of expression
His 15-year jail term for spying and separatist activities is finally over, but Chinese dissident Hada, (who is ethnically Mongolian) is missing, along with his wife and son. The 55-year-old writer was scheduled to be released last Friday, while...
Robert Ježić, majority owner of the Croatian daily Novi List, was arrested in Zagreb yesterday. His arrest is thought to be connected with the flight of former PM Ivo Sanader, who exited Croatia yesterday morning, hours before the parliament lifted...