The control of online speech is seen as a guarantor of political dominance, both for the party and its leader
Tyrant of the year 2025: Narendra Modi
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CATEGORY: India
Who is 2025’s Tyrant of the Year?
Choose from our shortlist of 10 authoritarian leaders and vote on who you think has done most to crack down on freedom of expression this year
India’s police suppress pollution protests
Nearly 100 people detained after heavy-handed response to demonstration at India Gate
History is being written by the AI victors
Erasing inconvenient truths isn’t new but technology is making it so much easier
Reports of Urdu’s death are greatly exaggerated
An exploration of Urdu’s origins, its rich literary tradition and its increasing popularity among the young as a language of resistance
Silence in the valley: The brutal repression of Kashmiri writers
Works are banned and authors raided if they are seen to promote secession
The week in free expression 10 October – 17 October
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
Jimmy Kimmel: No laughing matter
From the USA to India leaders can’t take a joke. Comedians are paying the price
How India’s comedians are paying the price for free speech
An incident in which Mumbai’s Habitat comedy club was vandalised by supporters of a local political group after Kunal Kamra made jokes about its leader is a worrying sign of the times
News in India is being erased from the internet
Journalism critical of the government is vanishing from digital archives, years after it has been published