Index decided it would be best to deliver our #DontSpyOnMe petition to EU leaders the old fashioned way…
CATEGORY: Europe and Central Asia

Djukanovic’s double dealing on the media
Montenegro’s EU membership negotiations progress against a backdrop of ever regressing media freedom, writes Zeljko Ivanovic

Surveillance critic barred from US
Author Ilija Trojanow, a driving force behind an anti-surveillance campaign, was travelling to the US for a conference on German literature. That was his plan, anyway. At an airport in Brazil, he was told his entry to the US had been denied. No explanation was provided then, and none has been provided since, Milana Knezevic writes

Sarah Brown meets Index on Censorship competition winner
Sarah Brown met the winner of the Index on Censorship blogging competition, Charley-Kai John, when she spoke at the launch of the autumn issue of the magazine.

EU and Belarus: Applying the “goat principle”
An old Belarusian joke suggests a simple way of improving EU-Belarus relations . If you feel unhappy, just allow a goat in your house, live with it for some time, and then take the goat away. In principle, nothing changes – but you feel real relief and happiness, Andrei Yahorau writes

Basically, you can’t, like, say this. Innit?
A London school has produced a list of phrases students are banned from using. As opposed to Liverpool Football Club, who back in July issued their own list of "unacceptable words", the Harris Academy in Upper Norwood doesn’t appear to be trying to...

Locking up free expression: Azerbaijan silences critical voices
Intimidation, violence and media clampdown – free expression in Azerbaijan is under siege. The country’s record on free expression has undergone a marked deterioration in the run up to its presidential election.

Azerbaijan’s photographers: Facing arrest for capturing the raw truth
In the run up to Azerbaijan’s presidential election, authorities have showed open hostility to journalists, activists, ordinary citizens and artists. Rasul Jafarov and Rebecca Vincent look at some of the country’s courageous photojournalists, who document what life’s really like under President Ilham Aliyev

Putin’s cold calculation on Arctic drilling
Greenpeace prosecutions show the lengths the Russian president will go to to protect his oligarch friends, says Elena Vlasenko

Five things Aliyev doesn’t want you to know about Azerbaijan’s presidential election
Although its government has been working hard to promote a positive image of Azerbaijan abroad, at home, it continues to crack down on citizens’ ability to exercise their basic rights and fundamental freedoms, Rebecca Vincent writes