The week in free expression: 2 – 8 August 2025
Bombarded with news from all angles every day, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at the imprisonment of a prominent Georgian journalist, and a blow to democracy in El Salvador.
A slap in the face: Georgian journalist is the country’s “first female prisoner of conscience”
Following a detention that lasted over 200 days, prominent Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli has been sentenced to two years in prison in a case described by human rights groups as “disproportionate and politicised”.
Amaglobeli, founder of independent news websites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was taking part in national protests against the disputed national election that took place in October 2024 when she was twice arrested by Georgian police – first for placing a sticker on a building, and then for allegedly assaulting a police officer. A recording of the altercation showed that Amaglobeli lightly slapped the officer before being forcefully arrested, and her lawyers have stated that she was verbally abused and denied access to water following her arrest.
She has been recognised as the first female prisoner of conscience in a country where democracy and free speech have rapidly crumbled. While her initial charge of assault was downgraded to “resisting or using violence against a law enforcement officer”, her two-year sentence has been condemned by the EU, with a spokesperson denouncing the “instrumentalisation of the justice system as a tool of repression against independent voices”. Numerous rights groups have called for her release, with the Committee to Protect Journalists describing the sentence as “outrageous” and “emblematic of Georgia’s increasing use of authoritarian tactics” against independent media in the country.
President Nayib Bukele here to stay: El Salvador abolishes presidential term limits
On Friday 1 August, El Salvadoran Congress voted 57-3 to abolish presidential term limits, allowing President Nayib Bukele to potentially serve for life. Following the announcement, opposition congresswoman Marcela Villatoro announced that “democracy in El Salvador has died”.
Bukele, who has described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator”, has garnered significant popular support since coming to power in 2019, with an approval rating of over 80%. This is largely due to his intense crackdown on the gang violence that has plagued the Central American nation. In 2022 he announced a “state of exception” allowing the government to arrest tens of thousands without due process. This practice has led to close to 2% of the nation’s population being incarcerated.
There may, however, be another side to the crackdown. In May, Independent Salvadoran news site El Faro released an interview with a gang leader who reportedly struck deals with Bukele to help the 44-year-old rise to power. Shortly after, numerous journalists at El Faro were forced to flee the country under threat of arrest. They are far from the only targets of Bukele’s administration; at least 40 journalists have been forced to flee El Salvador since May because of threats from the government. The country’s leading human rights group Cristosal decided in July to completely relocate following the arrest of Ruth López, Cristosal’s chief legal anti-corruption officer.
Human rights groups are alarmed about the swift deterioration of press freedom in El Salvador – but with Bukele’s popularity still sky-high and his party controlling 90% of seats in congress, he appears unassailable.
The crime of speaking up: Turkish youth activist detained over Council of Europe speech
On 5 August, Turkish youth and LGBTQ+ activist Enes Hocaoğulları was detained upon arrival at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport over a speech he gave at a Council of Europe (COE) meeting in Strasbourg.
Hocaoğulları, who is Turkey’s youth delegate to the COE’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, gave a speech in March titled “Young people in Turkey say ‘Enough’” in which he railed against police brutality, crackdowns on dissent, and the imprisonment of opposition politicians such as Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was arrested earlier that month. Following his address, Hocaoğulları was subject to a targeted smear campaign branding him as a “traitor” who seeks to “spread LGBTI+ ideology”.
Hocaoğulları faces charges of “publicly disseminating misleading information” and “inciting hatred and enmity”, charges that “flout the fundamental right to free expression”, according to COE’s congress president Marc Cools. The COE previously expressed concern over the Turkish Government’s attacks on democracy after the arrest of İmamoğlu, who intends to challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 elections. The COE have called for Hocaoğulları’s immediate release, describing his arrest as “scandalous and unacceptable”.
A step in the right direction: St Lucia strikes down colonial-era anti-LGBTQ+ law
In a landmark judgement, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has ruled that St. Lucia’s colonial-era “buggery”and “gross indecency” laws outlawing consensual same-sex relations are unconstitutional.
Previously, engaging in intercourse with a member of the same sex was punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Although the law was rarely enforced, Human Rights Watch have detailed how such laws imposed under British colonial rule allow for discrimination in employment and healthcare, creating a “climate of fear” for LGBTQ+ communities who felt they could not report homophobic abuse to the authorities. The court held that criminalisation of homosexual conduct results in “public humiliation, vilification and even physical attacks” on LGBTQ+ individuals.
St. Lucia is the latest Caribbean nation to repeal colonial-era anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, following in the footsteps of Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados, among others. However, many of its neighbours still hold on to these laws, with Trinidad and Tobago & St. Vincent and the Grenadines recently voting to uphold repressive legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people.
Jailed for a TikTok: Ugandan university student imprisoned for posting TikTok critical of the president
Ugandan university student Elson Tumwine, who went missing for over a month after posting a TikTok criticising Ugandan President Yowerei Museveni, has been sentenced to two months imprisonment.
Tumwine, a third-year student at Makerere University in Uganda’s capital Kampala, posted a video accusing Museveni of being responsible for the 1989 Mukura massacre, allegedly doctoring a clip of parliamentary speaker Anita Among to make these claims. He was working as an agricultural intern in Hoima, western Uganda, when he disappeared, causing Makerere University to issue an urgent appeal for his whereabouts. Secretary-general of opposition NUP party David Lewis Rubongoya claimed to have information that Tumwine was dumped at a police station on 13 July after being subjected to “incredible torture” by military intelligence units.
The prosecution stated that the TikTok was intended “to ridicule, demean and incite hostility” against Museveni and Among, and charged Tumwine with offensive communication and computer misuse. In court he swiftly pled guilty, resulting in a more lenient sentence than expected. although local reports allege that he may have done so under pressure from security operatives.
Tumwine is the latest Ugandan to face charges over videos critical of the government on social media, with the Ugandan e-paper Monitor stating he is the sixth TikToker to be imprisoned in the country for “offensive communication”. Emmanuel Nabugodi, was jailed for 32 months in November 2024 for “insulting” Museveni in a TikTok, while Edward Awebwa faced 24 months on similar charges in July 2024.
