Latest news and features
Preparing for a new fight against book bans
Just over a month after Banned Books Week 2022, the risk to literature has intensified. Depending on the outcome of the US midterms, moves from Republican lawmakers to silence certain books could take a firmer grip. On library shelves in the USA, certain books have...
Model UK Anti-SLAPP Law
Advancing robust protection against SLAPPs within the parameters of the MOJ’s proposed legislative framework
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Serbia: Media freedom mission to probe longstanding challenges and advocate for reform
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School book banning escalates in the UK as Greater Manchester secondary school censors scores of books
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We need the world service more than ever
-
Truth dies when you fire the fact-checkers
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Defending the right to protest means defending it for everyone
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Russia: Googling anything against the authorities is a crime
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Offline by decree: Iran’s war on the internet
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Women’s rights activists arrested on International Women’s Day in Pakistan
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Iran: “Whoever we blame – this moment is overwhelming”
-
Hungary’s Gen Z have only known one leader, Orbán
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Council of Europe report: “Increasingly hostile environment for journalism”
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Free speech is the casualty in Ukraine war
-
Unwritten chapters: The story of an Afghan girl
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Eight years on from the murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak
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The BBC World Service must be defended not defunded
-
Index reports on the breaking of the old order in Europe
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How TikTok and Instagram hook Gen Z
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Kosovo: Media freedom groups demand adequate budget for broadcaster RTK
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Gen Z voices “muffled and contained, if not outright censored”
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How the Ukraine War has split the country’s youth
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Banning social media is a kneejerk reaction that should be resisted
-
The Gen Z revolution will be polarised
-
Former Pussy Riot member and Uyghur activist say encryption keeps them safe
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Australia cracks down on protest
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Journalists as well as generals have been purged – only Xi is safe in China today
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We must keep fighting for Jimmy Lai
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UK’s Gen Z are increasingly censoring themselves online
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In Iran, funerals are the new battleground
-
Award-winning young human rights lawyer unlawfully arrested and jailed in Pakistan
-
The US media must stand up to Donald Trump’s assault on its freedom
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Belarus: Andrei Aliaksandrau celebrates his birthday today in a penal colony
-
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine’s freedom message
-
Five decades of Iranian protest
-
When the saviour becomes the monster: Museveni’s 40-year rule
-
The strange tale of a silenced female Russian rapper
-
Starlink offers a glimmer of hope in the internet darkness
-
How the far right has weaponised free speech
-
Rahima Mahmut: Tell the world what is happening to the Uyghurs
-
A tale of two cities in the deplatforming of Jewish and Palestinian speakers
-
The secret graffiti grandma of Tehran
-
Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan named Tyrant of the Year
-
The Far Right is on the rise in 2026…you have been warned
-
On the Record: A monument to fallen journalists
-
End for the NDAs which protected Harvey Weinstein
-
China is punishing online influencers for spreading doom and gloom
-
French LGBTQ+ cabaret faces closure due to Instagram bans
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Can Dündar: The Turkish journalist who met his killer
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In Hong Kong, force majeure means political pressure
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A heart full of hope: behind the doors closed to women in Afghanistan
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On the ground in Serbia: Student protests lead to crackdown on human rights
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Discord for Morocco’s football-loving Gen Z as country hosts Africa Cup
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Should the phrase “globalise the intifada” be banned?
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Putin versus Pussy Riot
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Is impartiality possible when it comes to free speech?
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Europe’s real censorship problem isn’t what Trump claims
-
Gen Z attitudes: An Index on Censorship survey
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Investigative journalism under threat if government breaks end-to-end encryption
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Jimmy Lai’s guilty verdict is a disgrace
-
Meta bans Brazilian left-wing influencers
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How Australia’s social media ban threatens free expression
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Australia’s disproportionate response to online harms
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Who is 2025’s Tyrant of the Year?
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China media giant Tencent gags anti-censorship website FreeWeChat
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Beijing is punishing Japan – and its own young people – by pulling the plug on pop concerts
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Index on Censorship seeks new Development Officer
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The price to be paid for making films in Iran
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MAGA 101: Inside Trump’s fast-track masterclass in undermining academic freedom
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Frank Furedi: The new face of right-wing free speech
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Ukraine: Trump’s peace plan is none of those three things
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Dissidents have started challenging Saudi Arabia and Bahrain through the UK courts
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In memory of Sir Tom Stoppard, a visionary dramatist and fierce champion of free expression
-
New report: Breaking encryption is legally and practically unworkable
-
Freedom of speech needs freedom of thought
-
Israel bans Sudanese activists from protesting outside the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv
-
Algeria’s persecution of poet Mohamed Tadjadit must end
-
Memes: The new frontier of American propaganda
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Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya among winners of Index on Censorship 2025 Freedom of Expression Awards
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A warning from Hungary – the BBC must stick to its rules and avoid political pressure
-
We live beneath a dark roof: what it means to be an Afghan woman today
-
India’s police suppress pollution protests
-
History is being written by the AI victors
-
Is academic freedom at risk in the UK?
-
Joint statement demands immediate release of Algerian Hirak poet Mohamed Tadjadit
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The week in free expression 31 October – 7 November
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Breaking norms to survive in war-torn Yemen
-
How artist Sai’s exhibition in Thailand was censored after Chinese protests
-
Hungary: a severely restricted media environment
-
A letter to the Home Secretary on transnational repression in the UK
-
The ethics of AI-generated content and who (or what) is responsible
-
The dissident family challenging Slovakia’s Robert Fico
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New report: Urgent reform needed on media freedom in Bulgaria
-
The week in free expression 24 October – 31 October
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An exceptional editor: a tribute to Judith Vidal-Hall who reinvented Index magazine after the end of the Cold War
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Do the dead have free expression?
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Israeli society is not a monolith
-
Remembering Ivan Klíma
-
There’s only room for one god in China
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The trauma of being Lukashenka’s prisoner
-
The week in free expression 17 October – 24 October
-
Police in Islamabad raid the press club in an escalation of Pakistan’s attack on the media
-
Reports of Urdu’s death are greatly exaggerated
-
North Korea fears the Squid Game effect
-
Scotland’s culture wars: the library curation challenge
-
Why we need to support Global Encryption Day
-
Silence in the valley: The brutal repression of Kashmiri writers
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How a billionaire mogul pushed France’s media to the right
-
We’re going on a bear hunt: Spitting Image challenged over Paddington satire
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The week in free expression 10 October – 17 October
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Losing three years of your life to litigation abuse isn’t funny
-
The legal system is being weaponised to silence survivors of sexual and gender-based violence
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Madagascar: President flees Gen Z protests but deep problems remain
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With hopes of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, freedom of expression must be repaired
-
Index on Censorship announces 2025 Freedom of Expression awards shortlist
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The week in free expression 3 October – 10 October
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Honour killings and the silencing of women in Pakistan
-
Riyadh Comedy Festival: Making the jokes the real comedians can’t
-
Banned Books Week: The author writing to stop history repeating itself
-
Free speech tested at party conferences
-
Index joins call for robust protections against transnational repression in the higher education sector
-
The week in free expression 26 September – 3 October
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Yemeni journalists caught between Israeli airstrikes and authoritarian crackdown
-
Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival: nothing to laugh at
-
Index on Censorship seeks new Editor
-
Jimmy Kimmel: No laughing matter
-
The week in free expression 19 September – 26 September
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Bulgaria: Press freedom undermined by political polarisation and delayed reforms
-
The return of Syria’s underground theatre
-
Will artificial intelligence be the death of journalism?
-
Haiti’s violence is so extreme, it’s difficult to face up to it. But we must.
-
The week in free expression: 12 September – 19 September 2025
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Freedoms in flames: Trump’s second term in figures
-
An un-American story on book bans
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From Nepal, a familiar warning
-
The week in free expression: 5 September – 12 September 2025
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Gen Z movement sparks political change in Nepal
-
Charlie Kirk’s murder: Use words to counter speech you don’t like, not bullets
-
What the US closure of global media means for freedom of speech in Asia
-
Tanzania’s election by elimination
-
The week in free expression: 29 August – 5 September 2025
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These anti-protest laws are what we expect in Putin’s Russia
-
Malian writer Étienne Fakaba Sissoko forced into exile
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The arrest of Graham Linehan is a cop and ball story
-
The rise of the newsfluencer under Donald Trump
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The so-called trial of Jimmy Lai
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The week in free expression: 22 August – 29 August 2025
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The fine line between free speech, protest and terrorism
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Journalists face persecution, intimidation and physical abuse in Somalia
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CCP clamps down on Beijing subway protest songs
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The week in free expression: 16 – 22 August 2025
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TikTok at the frontline of dissent in Nigeria
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The National Library of Scotland: When curation becomes censorship
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Summer festivals grapple with censorship
-
What to expect from Trump and Putin’s special relationship
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The week in free expression: 9 August – 15 August 2025
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The Online Safety Act risks making everyone less safe
-
Just Stop Oil climate protests feel the chill
-
The rise of the American dissident
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Israel’s systematic war on Palestinian journalists is a war on press freedom everywhere
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The week in free expression: 2 – 8 August 2025
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From Hong Kong with hate
-
Tackling Transnational Repression in the UK Working Group
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The week in free expression: 26 July – 1 August 2025
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Free expression concerns over Online Safety Act’s age verification requirements
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Zimbabwe: Emmerson Mnangagwa’s online stormtroopers target women who speak out
-
How India’s comedians are paying the price for free speech
-
Shadow of Gaza conflict hangs over education
-
The week in free expression: 19 – 25 July 2025
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Has President Trump launched the age of the American dissident?
-
Palestine Action proscription and Afghan data leak test UK’s commitment to free expression
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Attacked on all fronts in the West Bank
-
News in India is being erased from the internet
-
Afghans at risk on all fronts
-
The week in free expression: 12 – 18 July 2025
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Africa’s appetite for coups grows as military leaders strengthen their grip
-
Will The Telegraph’s new owners give China media influence in the UK by the back door?
-
Environmental defenders facing violent attacks as social media platforms fail to act
-
How Iran and Israel control information
-
Kenya’s president takes aim at protesters
-
The week in free expression: 5 –11 July 2025
-
Banned Books Week UK 2025
-
Turkey’s crackdown on cartoonists is no laughing matter
-
Ireland’s Defamation (Amendment) Bill fails to protect public interest speech
-
The week in free expression: 28 June–4 July 2025
-
Turkish arrest warrant against Nedim Türfent condemned
-
Budapest Pride proved that freedom and love cannot be banned
-
The fog of war lifts in Iran
-
The week in free expression: 21–27 June 2025
-
Death by a thousand cuts in Hong Kong
-
The gravest threat facing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists so far
-
The world’s “coolest dictator” is ruthlessly opposed to free speech
-
The week in free expression: 14-20 June 2025
-
Escaping Afghanistan was painful but staying meant silence – or worse
-
I was once a journalist in Gaza – now I’m a refugee in Egypt
-
Who’s the Boss? Trump and Springsteen’s war of words
-
Georgia: Independent media face increasing repression as new laws come into effect
-
Protest is becoming perilous in the USA
-
The week in free expression: 7–13 June 2025
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The Reckoning: A new play brings Ukrainians’ war stories to life
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The female TikTokers silenced through murder
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The week in free expression: 31 May–6 June 2025
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The exclusion of Palestinian voices means the same mistakes are being made on Gaza
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Kosovo: Council of Europe platform partners conduct fact-finding mission on media freedom
-
Serbia: Media freedom mission to probe longstanding challenges and advocate for reform
-
School book banning escalates in the UK as Greater Manchester secondary school censors scores of books
-
We need the world service more than ever
-
Truth dies when you fire the fact-checkers
-
Defending the right to protest means defending it for everyone
-
Russia: Googling anything against the authorities is a crime
-
Offline by decree: Iran’s war on the internet
-
Women’s rights activists arrested on International Women’s Day in Pakistan
-
Iran: “Whoever we blame – this moment is overwhelming”
-
Hungary’s Gen Z have only known one leader, Orbán
-
Council of Europe report: “Increasingly hostile environment for journalism”
-
Free speech is the casualty in Ukraine war
-
Unwritten chapters: The story of an Afghan girl
-
Eight years on from the murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak
-
The BBC World Service must be defended not defunded
-
Index reports on the breaking of the old order in Europe
-
How TikTok and Instagram hook Gen Z
-
Kosovo: Media freedom groups demand adequate budget for broadcaster RTK
-
Gen Z voices “muffled and contained, if not outright censored”
-
How the Ukraine War has split the country’s youth
-
Banning social media is a kneejerk reaction that should be resisted
-
The Gen Z revolution will be polarised
-
Former Pussy Riot member and Uyghur activist say encryption keeps them safe
-
Australia cracks down on protest
-
Journalists as well as generals have been purged – only Xi is safe in China today
-
We must keep fighting for Jimmy Lai
-
UK’s Gen Z are increasingly censoring themselves online
-
In Iran, funerals are the new battleground
-
Award-winning young human rights lawyer unlawfully arrested and jailed in Pakistan
-
The US media must stand up to Donald Trump’s assault on its freedom
-
Belarus: Andrei Aliaksandrau celebrates his birthday today in a penal colony
-
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine’s freedom message
-
Five decades of Iranian protest
-
When the saviour becomes the monster: Museveni’s 40-year rule
-
The strange tale of a silenced female Russian rapper
-
Starlink offers a glimmer of hope in the internet darkness
-
How the far right has weaponised free speech
-
Rahima Mahmut: Tell the world what is happening to the Uyghurs
-
A tale of two cities in the deplatforming of Jewish and Palestinian speakers
-
The secret graffiti grandma of Tehran
-
Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan named Tyrant of the Year
-
The Far Right is on the rise in 2026…you have been warned
-
On the Record: A monument to fallen journalists
-
End for the NDAs which protected Harvey Weinstein
-
China is punishing online influencers for spreading doom and gloom
-
French LGBTQ+ cabaret faces closure due to Instagram bans
-
Can Dündar: The Turkish journalist who met his killer
-
In Hong Kong, force majeure means political pressure
-
A heart full of hope: behind the doors closed to women in Afghanistan
-
On the ground in Serbia: Student protests lead to crackdown on human rights
-
Discord for Morocco’s football-loving Gen Z as country hosts Africa Cup
-
Should the phrase “globalise the intifada” be banned?
-
Putin versus Pussy Riot
-
Is impartiality possible when it comes to free speech?
-
Europe’s real censorship problem isn’t what Trump claims
-
Gen Z attitudes: An Index on Censorship survey
-
Investigative journalism under threat if government breaks end-to-end encryption
-
Jimmy Lai’s guilty verdict is a disgrace
-
Meta bans Brazilian left-wing influencers
-
How Australia’s social media ban threatens free expression
-
Australia’s disproportionate response to online harms
-
Who is 2025’s Tyrant of the Year?
-
China media giant Tencent gags anti-censorship website FreeWeChat
-
Beijing is punishing Japan – and its own young people – by pulling the plug on pop concerts
-
Index on Censorship seeks new Development Officer
-
The price to be paid for making films in Iran
-
MAGA 101: Inside Trump’s fast-track masterclass in undermining academic freedom
-
Frank Furedi: The new face of right-wing free speech
-
Ukraine: Trump’s peace plan is none of those three things
-
Dissidents have started challenging Saudi Arabia and Bahrain through the UK courts
-
In memory of Sir Tom Stoppard, a visionary dramatist and fierce champion of free expression
-
New report: Breaking encryption is legally and practically unworkable
-
Freedom of speech needs freedom of thought
-
Israel bans Sudanese activists from protesting outside the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv
-
Algeria’s persecution of poet Mohamed Tadjadit must end
-
Memes: The new frontier of American propaganda
-
Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya among winners of Index on Censorship 2025 Freedom of Expression Awards
-
A warning from Hungary – the BBC must stick to its rules and avoid political pressure
-
We live beneath a dark roof: what it means to be an Afghan woman today
-
India’s police suppress pollution protests
-
History is being written by the AI victors
-
Is academic freedom at risk in the UK?
-
Joint statement demands immediate release of Algerian Hirak poet Mohamed Tadjadit
-
The week in free expression 31 October – 7 November
-
Breaking norms to survive in war-torn Yemen
-
How artist Sai’s exhibition in Thailand was censored after Chinese protests
-
Hungary: a severely restricted media environment
-
A letter to the Home Secretary on transnational repression in the UK
-
The ethics of AI-generated content and who (or what) is responsible
-
The dissident family challenging Slovakia’s Robert Fico
-
New report: Urgent reform needed on media freedom in Bulgaria
-
The week in free expression 24 October – 31 October
-
An exceptional editor: a tribute to Judith Vidal-Hall who reinvented Index magazine after the end of the Cold War
-
Do the dead have free expression?
-
Israeli society is not a monolith
-
Remembering Ivan Klíma
-
There’s only room for one god in China
-
The trauma of being Lukashenka’s prisoner
-
The week in free expression 17 October – 24 October
-
Police in Islamabad raid the press club in an escalation of Pakistan’s attack on the media
-
Reports of Urdu’s death are greatly exaggerated
-
North Korea fears the Squid Game effect
-
Scotland’s culture wars: the library curation challenge
-
Why we need to support Global Encryption Day
-
Silence in the valley: The brutal repression of Kashmiri writers
-
How a billionaire mogul pushed France’s media to the right
-
We’re going on a bear hunt: Spitting Image challenged over Paddington satire
-
The week in free expression 10 October – 17 October
-
Losing three years of your life to litigation abuse isn’t funny
-
The legal system is being weaponised to silence survivors of sexual and gender-based violence
-
Madagascar: President flees Gen Z protests but deep problems remain
-
With hopes of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, freedom of expression must be repaired
-
Index on Censorship announces 2025 Freedom of Expression awards shortlist
-
The week in free expression 3 October – 10 October
-
Honour killings and the silencing of women in Pakistan
-
Riyadh Comedy Festival: Making the jokes the real comedians can’t
-
Banned Books Week: The author writing to stop history repeating itself
-
Free speech tested at party conferences
-
Index joins call for robust protections against transnational repression in the higher education sector
-
The week in free expression 26 September – 3 October
-
Yemeni journalists caught between Israeli airstrikes and authoritarian crackdown
-
Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival: nothing to laugh at
-
Index on Censorship seeks new Editor
-
Jimmy Kimmel: No laughing matter
-
The week in free expression 19 September – 26 September
-
Bulgaria: Press freedom undermined by political polarisation and delayed reforms
-
The return of Syria’s underground theatre
-
Will artificial intelligence be the death of journalism?
-
Haiti’s violence is so extreme, it’s difficult to face up to it. But we must.
-
The week in free expression: 12 September – 19 September 2025
-
Freedoms in flames: Trump’s second term in figures
-
An un-American story on book bans
-
From Nepal, a familiar warning
-
The week in free expression: 5 September – 12 September 2025
-
Gen Z movement sparks political change in Nepal
-
Charlie Kirk’s murder: Use words to counter speech you don’t like, not bullets
-
What the US closure of global media means for freedom of speech in Asia
-
Tanzania’s election by elimination
-
The week in free expression: 29 August – 5 September 2025
-
These anti-protest laws are what we expect in Putin’s Russia
-
Malian writer Étienne Fakaba Sissoko forced into exile
-
The arrest of Graham Linehan is a cop and ball story
-
The rise of the newsfluencer under Donald Trump
-
The so-called trial of Jimmy Lai
-
The week in free expression: 22 August – 29 August 2025
-
The fine line between free speech, protest and terrorism
-
Journalists face persecution, intimidation and physical abuse in Somalia
-
CCP clamps down on Beijing subway protest songs
-
The week in free expression: 16 – 22 August 2025
-
TikTok at the frontline of dissent in Nigeria
-
The National Library of Scotland: When curation becomes censorship
-
Summer festivals grapple with censorship
-
What to expect from Trump and Putin’s special relationship
-
The week in free expression: 9 August – 15 August 2025
-
The Online Safety Act risks making everyone less safe
-
Just Stop Oil climate protests feel the chill
-
The rise of the American dissident
-
Israel’s systematic war on Palestinian journalists is a war on press freedom everywhere
-
The week in free expression: 2 – 8 August 2025
-
From Hong Kong with hate
-
Tackling Transnational Repression in the UK Working Group
-
The week in free expression: 26 July – 1 August 2025
-
Free expression concerns over Online Safety Act’s age verification requirements
-
Zimbabwe: Emmerson Mnangagwa’s online stormtroopers target women who speak out
-
How India’s comedians are paying the price for free speech
-
Shadow of Gaza conflict hangs over education
-
The week in free expression: 19 – 25 July 2025
-
Has President Trump launched the age of the American dissident?
-
Palestine Action proscription and Afghan data leak test UK’s commitment to free expression
-
Attacked on all fronts in the West Bank
-
News in India is being erased from the internet
-
Afghans at risk on all fronts
-
The week in free expression: 12 – 18 July 2025
-
Africa’s appetite for coups grows as military leaders strengthen their grip
-
Will The Telegraph’s new owners give China media influence in the UK by the back door?
-
Environmental defenders facing violent attacks as social media platforms fail to act
-
How Iran and Israel control information
-
Kenya’s president takes aim at protesters
-
The week in free expression: 5 –11 July 2025
-
Banned Books Week UK 2025
-
Turkey’s crackdown on cartoonists is no laughing matter
-
Ireland’s Defamation (Amendment) Bill fails to protect public interest speech
-
The week in free expression: 28 June–4 July 2025
-
Turkish arrest warrant against Nedim Türfent condemned
-
Budapest Pride proved that freedom and love cannot be banned
-
The fog of war lifts in Iran
-
The week in free expression: 21–27 June 2025
-
Death by a thousand cuts in Hong Kong
-
The gravest threat facing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists so far
-
The world’s “coolest dictator” is ruthlessly opposed to free speech
-
The week in free expression: 14-20 June 2025
-
Escaping Afghanistan was painful but staying meant silence – or worse
-
I was once a journalist in Gaza – now I’m a refugee in Egypt
-
Who’s the Boss? Trump and Springsteen’s war of words
-
Georgia: Independent media face increasing repression as new laws come into effect
-
Protest is becoming perilous in the USA
-
The week in free expression: 7–13 June 2025
-
The Reckoning: A new play brings Ukrainians’ war stories to life
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