The removal of the Rajapaksa clan will not solve Sri Lanka’s deeply ingrained problem with corruption and the repression of dissent
Where poetry is labelled extremism
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CATEGORY: Asia and Pacific
Fighting tyranny with poetry: Myanmar’s silenced voices
The last time a political activist was hanged in Myanmar was in 1976, when the ethnic Chin student Salai Tin Maung Oo, 25, was executed for sedition. I was hoping against hope that the junta was bluffing when it announced in early June 2022 that it...
Remembering the political prisoners executed in Myanmar
Kyaw Min Yu and Phyo Zayar Thaw were prominent voices in the democracy movement in Myanmar. But on 25 July 2022, state news outlet Global New Light of Myanmar released a statement claiming that they had been executed on the grounds of “terror...
You can’t “put the genie back in the bottle”
A panel of activists, journalists and writers from Hong Kong reflect on the rights landscape as the city marks 25 years since the handover and why freedom is something they will never give up on
We stand with Rappler as they are ordered to shutdown
Dear readers and viewers, We thought this day would never come, even as we were warned in the first of week of December last year that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be handing down a ruling against us. Because we have acted in...
The dangers of “red tagging” and other lessons from the Philippines
Rey Valmores, a 25-year-old political activist from Quezon City, on the challenges faced by campaigners in the Philippines in advance of this week’s inauguration of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr
Contents – The battle for Ukraine: Artists, journalists and dissidents respond
The summer issue of Index magazine concentrated its efforts on the developing situation between Russia and Ukraine and consequential effects around Europe and the world. We decided to give voice to journalists, artists and dissidents who chose to...
Beijing is rewriting Hong Kong’s handover history. We must not allow it
Residents of Hong Kong are going to be given “fortune bags” this month. Millions of people in the city of 7.4 million will receive bags containing a mug, a pen and a fan. The souvenirs will be customised to celebrate 25 years since the handover of...
Raised voices: why we must continue to listen
The news coming in from Belarus, Brazil, Hong Kong and Russia is devastating, writes our CEO Ruth Smeeth
China’s fifth most wanted democracy advocate looks back at Tiananmen
Zhou Fengsuo was a student at the time of the Tiananmen Square protests. He tells Jemimah Steinfeld how peaceful times turned to horror