The week in free expression: 5 –11 July 2025

11 Jul 2025 | Africa, Asia and Pacific, Bangladesh, Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Palestine, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia

In the age of online information, it can feel harder than ever to stay informed. As we get bombarded with news from all angles, 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 arrest of a Palestinian newspaper editor, and how the Bangladeshi prime minister ordered violent protest crackdowns.

Hold the front page: Palestinian newspaper editor arrested by IDF

In the early hours of 7 July, veteran Palestinian journalist Dr Nasser al-Laham was arrested inside his home by Israeli forces.

58-year-old al-Laham has been working as a journalist for over 30 years, and is the editor-in-chief of Palestinian news agency Ma’an. He is also the director of Al-Mayadeen TV’s Palestinian office, a Lebanese news channel that is reportedly affiliated with Hezbollah, according to Haaretz.

Ma’an has reported that the raid on al-Laham’s home, located in the village of al-Duha, west of Bethlehem, was destructive. Soldiers reportedly ransacked the property, confiscating computers and phones and destroying personal items before detaining al-Lahham. Al-Mayadeen described the raid as “brutal and repressive” and called for his immediate release.

Al-Lahham’s detention was brought before Ofer Military Court for a hearing on Thursday 10 July, resulting in his detention being extended by a further nine days. Arrested on suspicion of “supporting and inciting terror” due to his role at Al Mayadeen, he joins a long list of Palestinian journalists targeted by Israel since war broke out following the 7 October 2023 attacks and kidnappings by Hamas. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have labelled Palestine as the world’s most dangerous state for journalists, with almost 200 reporters killed in Gaza by the Israeli army over the first 18 months of war, and at least 42 of those likely killed due to their work.

Caught on tape: Former Bangladesh prime minister found to have authorised protester shootings

BBC Eye have verified a recorded phone call that reveals former prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina authorised the use of lethal force against protesters in the mass uprising against the Bangladeshi government that took place in summer 2024.

The student-led uprising began in July 2024 when protesters took to the streets to demand an end to the job quota system that reserved public sector jobs for the descendants of war veterans. The Bangladeshi government cracked down on these protests as they increased in fervour, implementing national curfews and cutting internet access, and responding to demonstrators with lethal force. Armed forces mobilised against peaceful protesters, and the UN report that as many as 1,400 people were killed in just 46 days of protests. The harsh response only led to further demonstrations until Hasina resigned and fled the country on 5 August last year. It brought to an end her second period of rule which had lasted 15 years by that time.

Hasina was tried in absentia for crimes against humanity by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), and leaked audio of a phone call with an unidentified senior government official marks the most damning evidence of her direct involvement in the atrocities. Hasina is recorded saying she authorised security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters and that “wherever they find [them], they will shoot”.

Hasina, alongside two senior officials, were indicted by ICT on 10 July 2025 for crimes against humanity, and court proceedings for the three will begin on 3 August. Hasina lives in self-imposed exile in India, and has dismissed the trial as being politically motivated.

Arresting all rivals: Tunisian opposition leader sentenced to 14 years in prison

Rached Ghannouchi, co-founder and leader of Tunisian opposition party Ennahda, is one of at least 18 politicians and officials sentenced to lengthy jail terms on 8 July 2025 in President Kais Saied’s mass crackdown on dissent. Ghannouchi, who has been imprisoned since 2023, was sentenced to up to 14 years in jail, the latest of a number of charges issued against him in recent months that total more than 20 years behind bars.

Such harsh prison sentences have become the norm for those seen as “conspiring against state security” in Tunisia; Nadia Akacha, Saied’s former chief of staff, and Rafik Abdessalem, Ghannouchi’s son-in-law and former foreign minister were also each handed a 35-year prison sentence in absentia for their alleged offences, as well as for “forming an organisation and conspiracy related to terrorist crimes”.

In 2021, Saied suspended elected parliament and began ruling by decree in what many described as a coup. Since this takeover, opposition politicians and dissenters have faced increasing repression; Ennadha’s party headquarters were shut down in April 2023, and numerous journalists have been imprisoned for “broadcasting false information”.

A war on reporting: Sudanese forces arrest freelance journalists

Independent Sudanese journalists Nasr Yaqoub and Mohamed Ahmed Nazar were arrested on Monday 7 July by soldiers affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the North Darfur region of Sudan.

Yaqoub and Nazar were reportedly in a shop when they were arrested by members of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council (SLM-TC). Two days earlier, Yaqoub was also the victim of an assassination attempt by an officer also affiliated with the SAF; he was allegedly shot after refusing to hand over a device connected to the internet via Starlink.

The two operate as freelance journalists, using Starlink to cover the Sudanese civil war since it began in April 2023. They post updates to their popular Facebook accounts – Yaqoub has 5,000 followers on the platform, while Nazar has almost 10,000 – working to keep people informed on a conflict that has very few active reporters. Starlink has become crucial for any reports on the conflict, with internet access being routinely blocked nationwide as part of the war effort.

The SAF has claimed that Yaqoub was arrested for directing “severe insults” at the officer who shot him, and that internet restrictions were necessary to prevent “collaborators” from relaying information to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A violent crackdown: Anti-government protests met with violence in Togo

Since 26 June, thousands have taken to the streets of Togo’s capital Lomé to protest constitutional reforms that may allow President Faure Gnassingbé to remain in power indefinitely, after he was sworn in with no term limit, and presidential elections were abolished. These protests were met with repression, and now reports are trickling in detailing the violent crackdown carried out by Togo forces.

At least ten people are thought to have died in the protests. Lomé residents report security forces entering people’s homes, beating civilians and firing tear gas. Videos verified by Al Jazeera show men in plain clothes, believed to be officers, dragging civilians away. 

The spark that lit the demonstrations was the arrest of popular Togolese rapper Tchala Essowè Narcisse, known as Aamron, whose music denouncing corruption and state neglect garnered him a following on social media. He was arrested without a warrant and held incommunicado for 10 days, according to his lawyer, and a video surfaced where he reported being held in a psychiatric facility.

The protests were led by young people, many of whom have never known a leader other than Gnassingbé. Togo has been under the rule of the Gnassingbé family since 1967, apart from a three-month period in 2005 following the death of Faure’s father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma. Faure has ruled since, and his latest constitutional reforms were described by the Touche Pas à Ma Constitution coalition as “a coup against the Togolese people”.