Kim Jong Un is more afraid of Korean television drama series than he is of foreign attacks
North Korea fears the Squid Game effect
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Katie Dancey-Downs
Katie Dancey-Downs has travelled the world to tell stories about people and the planet. She’s passionate about human rights, the environment, and culture, and has a particular interest in refugee rights. Katie has written for a range of publications, including HuffPost, i News, New Internationalist, Resurgence Magazine, Reader’s Digest, and Big Issue, and is the former co-editor of the Lush Times magazine. She has a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts from the University of Birmingham and an MA in Journalism from Bournemouth University, where she focused her research on the ethical storytelling of refugee issues.
Scotland’s culture wars: the library curation challenge
How do librarians create a collection that is welcoming to their community, and balance it with books that challenge ideas or might be unpopular?
Banned Books Week: The author writing to stop history repeating itself
Rachel Seiffert is confronting her family’s Nazi past to prevent the world making the same mistakes in the future
An un-American story on book bans
Librarians and public institutions in the US are facing a growing threat to independent thinking and tolerant values
The week in free expression: 5–11 April 2025
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
The Roma women abused under Czechoslovakia’s haunting legacy
Under Soviet rule, Roma women were subjected to forced sterilisation. Today, they are still facing discrimination in their reproductive care
Mother’s Day 2025: Celebrating the women taking on authoritarian regimes
From Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to Laila Soueif, we pay tribute to mothers around the world who are fighting unimaginable battles for free speech and justice
This World Book Day, let’s fight for the freedom to read
Following an Index investigation into banned books in UK school libraries, the annual celebration has taken on a new meaning
Golazin Ardestani: “They controlled my voice, my body, my agency”
Since Iranian singer-songwriter Gola fled her home country in 2011, she has continued her fight for women’s rights in exile
Book censorship is rife on Amazon.com, according to a report from The Citizen Lab
The research laboratory has identified that books with LGBTQ+ and religious themes are being restricted for sale online in the Middle East
Tainted scientists
Katie Dancey-Downs talks to the scientists who have been censored for questioning the effectiveness of animal testing
Two plus two equals five in US presidential debate
The adjective Orwellian is overused but the surreal ABC News debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris can only be described that way