Land of the free? Trump’s war on press, protest and academic freedom


Since returning to office, Donald Trump has intensified efforts to crush dissent in the USA: cracking down on protest, targeting the press and threatening academic freedom. His campaign against free expression is sending shockwaves across the USA and beyond.

What does this mean for democracy, independent journalism, and the right to speak out?

Join us on Tuesday 5 August at St John’s Waterloo for the launch of Land of the Free?, the latest magazine issue by Index on Censorship. Come for a reception and panel discussion looking at the impact of the Trump administration on free speech in the USA, and the wider implications for the rest of the world.

Speakers 

Anvee Bhutani

Anvee is an award-winning American journalist & a reporter at The Wall Street Journal in London. She has reported across four continents, from the aftermath of the Moroccan earthquake and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to the U.S.-Mexico border and Muslim communities in India. Most recently, she was a contributing reporter with The New York Times, covering the government crackdown on higher education and pro-Palestine activism. Anvee has worked with outlets including the Guardian, Teen Vogue, the BBC, the Telegraph, Channel 4, CNN and MSNBC, where she was part of the Emmy-nominated US 2024 election night coverage. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School the University of Oxford, Anvee is a strong advocate of global press freedom. She speaks five languages.

Charlie Holt

Charlie is the European lead for Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef), which emboldens climate defenders to act in the face of risk knowing that lawyers have their backs. Prior to CliDef, Charlie advised on legal strategy for Greenpeace International, where he led the organisation’s SLAPP resilience strategy and sat on the European Commission’s Expert Group on SLAPPs. He currently sits on the Steering Committee of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and co-chairs the UK Working Group on SLAPPs. Between 2016 and 2024, Charlie advised on the Greenpeace International response to two aggressive large-scale SLAPPs targeting Greenpeace entities in the USA – including the Energy Transfer lawsuit filed in response to the North Dakota pipeline protests – and in 2018 helped to set up the US anti-SLAPP coalition Protect the Protest.

Hanna Komar

Hanna Komar is a Belarusian poet, writer, translator and performer. She’s published five poetry collections, including the most recent Ribwort, and a non-fiction book about the experience of incarceration for peaceful protest in Belarus. Her debut play Body in Progress was staged at the Voila! festival in London.

She will perform a poem informed by the banned words list introduced by Trump administration, co-written with Katerina Koulouri.

Erica Wagner

Erica Wagner is Consulting Editor, Comment for the Observer. She was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is a contributing writer for the New Statesman, consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar and a host of the CHANEL podcast, “Les Rencontres”. She is the author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award; her other books are Ariel’s Gift, Seizure, Gravity, Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort-of Love Story and she is the editor of First Light, a celebration of the work of Alan Garner. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023 and in 2025 was awarded a Public Humanities Fellowship by the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She identifies as a New Yorker.

About Index on Censorship

Index on Censorship is a UK-based charity dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of expression around the world. Founded in 1968 as Writers and Scholars International, we have a long and proud history of standing up for the right to speak, write, create and protest without fear. Read about the history of Index on Censorship

We publish the work of censored writers and artists, spotlight global threats to free speech, and foster debate on the value of freedom of expression. We believe that everyone should be free to express themselves without fear of censorship, persecution or violence. Our mission is simple but vital: to raise awareness, challenge suppression and amplify voices that others try to silence.

Sponsored by Sage.

 

We’re Still Alive: Resistance, Solidarity and Hip-Hop in Iran

Join Index on Censorship and Some Great Reward for a Listening Party celebrating the music, resistance and solidarity of Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi. 

Toomaj is a Farsi-language rapper who has never shied away from using his music to stand up for those raising their voices calling for human rights and democracy in Iran. For his courage and music, he has long been persecuted by the Iranian regime – facing harassment, surveillance, imprisonment and a death sentence as a result. 

Toomaj has been persecuted for his music so there is no more powerful way to stand in solidarity with him than to celebrate his music. That is why we are inviting music fans to come together on the southside of Glasgow to share his songs, learn about his life and stand in solidarity with him and everyone in Iran standing up for human rights and democracy. This is not a ticketed event – just turn up.

About Toomaj Salehi’s persecution 

Over the last four years, Toomaj has faced continuous judicial harassment, including arrest and imprisonment. He has been more intensely targeted following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody September 2022, when he became a vocal supporter of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. After publishing songs in support of the courageous protesters and taking part in the protest himself he was arrested and sentenced to over 6 years in prison. On 18 November 2023, Toomaj was released on bail. But his freedom was not to last. 

Days later he was rearrested after he uploaded a video to YouTube documenting his treatment and torture while in detention. In April 2024, an Iranian court sentenced him to death on charges of “corruption on earth”. It took the Supreme Court to intervene to quash the death sentence, leading to Toomaj being released from prison in December 2024. 

 

Am I Facing a SLAPP?: Identifying the tools and tactics used by bullies to target free speech

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are abusive legal threats and actions brought by powerful and wealthy people against public watchdogs with the aim of silencing them. Due to the high cost of defending a case, public watchdogs can effectively be silenced even when what they have said is accurate and in the public interest. When SLAPPs successfully drive information out of the public domain, it is much more difficult to hold power to account.

But how do you know if you’re facing a SLAPP? Sometimes it is difficult to tell. That is why Index on Censorship is launching our “Am I Facing a SLAPP?” tool. The tool is aimed at supporting anyone who is facing legal threats or actions and wants to know if their experience could amount to a SLAPP. Using a robust methodology developed by leading anti-SLAPP experts, the tool enables users to inform and empower themselves by quickly and confidentially answering a few questions about their experience.

So whether you are a journalist, whistle-blower, environmental campaigner, social media user, writer or human rights defender you can use the tool to understand more about the threats you are facing. 

This webinar will bring together SLAPP targets from across Europe and the US to share their experiences of fighting a SLAPP. This will be followed by a walkthrough of the new tool.

With speakers:

Amy Jacobsen, Legal Counsel at Greenpeace
Tracy, SLAPP Target
Mark Stephens, Partner, Howard Kennedy and Trustee, Index on Censorship (Chair)

So join us on 27 May for this webinar to learn more about SLAPPs and our new resource aimed at empowering those speaking out in the public interest.

Register here

Left Speechless

The devastation of war extends beyond the loss of civilian lives and destruction of cities.

Often overlooked is the profound psychological trauma that can leave survivors—including children—traumatised and sometimes, speechless. This panel will bring together medical experts and journalists to explore the psychological toll of living in a warzone that affects one’s ability to speak. Focusing on the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the discussion will examine how war-induced trauma affects the most innocent victims.

This event celebrates the launch of Index’s latest magazine. Free copies available for those who attend.

Speakers

  • Rafael A González, clinical psychologist
  • Kieran King, head of humanitarian, War Child
  • Youmna El Sayed, journalist
  • Gabriella Jozwiak, journalist

 

Click here for tickets
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