13 May 2025 | Americas, Canada, Europe and Central Asia, News, Statements, United Kingdom, United States
Margaret Atwood has won the prestigious Freedom to Publish award at the British Book Awards 2025, as announced at a gala last night held in central London. A long-time Index contributor, Atwood is known for her tireless support of freedom of speech. Today – an era marked by the rollback of women’s rights, the global rise of populism, and increasing threats to diversity, freedom of thought and expression, which can and often does manifest in the banning of books – her voice resonates with a clarity and urgency that is both profound and timely.
In a video acceptance speech, Atwood said: “I cannot remember a time during my own life, when words themselves felt under such threat. Political and religious polarisation, which appeared to be on the wane for parts of the 20th century, has increased alarmingly in the past decade. The world feels to me more like the 1930s and 40s at present than it has in the intervening 80 years.
“I have worked as a writer and in my youth in small press publishing for 60 odd years. Those years included the Soviet Union, when Samizdat was a dangerous method of publishing. Hand-produced manuscripts were secretly circulated, and bad luck for you if you were caught. [They now include] the recent spate of censorship and book banning, not only in the oppressive countries around the world, but also in the United States. [They also include] the attempt to expel from universities anyone who disagrees with the dogmas of their would-be controllers.
“This kind of sentiment is not confined to one extremism or the other – the so-called ‘left’ or the so-called ‘right’. All extremisms share the desire to erase their opponents, to stifle any creative expression that is not propaganda for themselves, and to shut down dialogue. They don’t want a dialogue, they want a monologue. They don’t want many voices, they want only one.”
Atwood ended her speech wishing publishers “strength and hope”, adding: “In a free world publishers and booksellers stand for the many. If free governments and the free human intelligence are to survive, the guardians and transmitters of words in all their multiplicity must be brave. I wish you strength and hope, and the courage to withstand the mobs on one hand and the whims of vengeful potentates on the other.”
Channel 4 News’s international editor Lindsey Hilsum, who presented the award to Atwood, said: “When I first read The Handmaid’s Tale I thought it was a dystopian fantasy. Then I learnt that every idea was based on evidence of how women have been oppressed – it was fiction, but not really. The book was in itself an act of resistance, just one example of how Margaret Atwood has always stood at the forefront of the literary world as a tireless advocate for reading as a form of rebellion. Using her powerful voice and her fame, she has consistently championed justice, fairness, and freedom of speech – principles that feel more vital today than ever before.”
The British Book Awards has been the leading awards for the UK book trade since they began in 1990. The Freedom to Publish Award, which is presented in partnership with Index, has been running for four years. It pays tribute to the remarkable efforts of the individual in defending free expression and the freedom to read, write and publish, while also shining a spotlight on the growing and concerning trend of censorship within the global literary community. Previous recipients include Georgian-Russian author Boris Akunin, who is the most banned writer in Russia since Soviet times and Booker Prize-winning novelist Salman Rushdie, while in 2022 the award recognised the fortitude and bravery of HarperCollins and its editor Arabella Pike when facing legal threats (SLAPPs). Atwood is a long-time supporter of Index, a patron of the organisation and a contributor to the magazine. In the USA, her book The Handmaid’s Tale frequently appears in the top 10 most banned books from school libraries.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO at Index, said of choosing Atwood: “Censorship is on the rise around the world and where do censors so often begin? With culture. Yet there are voices that have consistently stood firm in defence of free expression. One of the most powerful of them is Margaret Atwood. Atwood has long used her extraordinary talent and global platform to champion this fundamental right. Whether through her writing, her public advocacy or acts of bold creativity – like the unburnable edition of The Handmaid’s Tale – she confronts repression not with fear but with wit and clarity. I can think of no more deserving a recipient of the Freedom to Publish award this year than her. Atwood has shown, time and again, that imagination remains one of our most potent tools against small-mindedness.”
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller and chair of judges at The British Book Awards, added: “Books are the visible representation of the values we hold dear – freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom from authoritarianism. From east to west, our writers are now challenged, coerced and threatened in ways we thought were being consigned to history. Margaret Atwood and her books stand against that, and we are delighted she has accepted this award at a ceremony that has felt steeped in the politics of the times.”
Many books recognised at the British Book Awards 2025 reflected the urgency of political challenges faced today in the minds of both writers and readers. US novelist and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett won the Fiction Book of the Year and Author of the Year for James, Everett’s bold reimagining of Huckleberry Finn. Meanwhile Patriot by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was chosen by judges as Overall Book of the Year and was accepted by Navalny’s widow Julia Navalnya. She said:
“This book was never meant to be published after Alexei’s death, Alexei wrote it with all the strength, wit and honesty that defined him. He wrote in secret from a prison cell under the most brutal conditions with no access to books, to the internet, to anything but his own memory and will. And yet he created a manuscript that speaks with clarity and conviction not only about Russia, but about freedom, justice and what it means to remain human. After he was killed, publishing this book became more than a responsibility – it became a mission. I worked closely with his editors and friends to preserve every word, every sentence, just as he intended.
“I’m profoundly grateful for the compassion and solidarity with which readers around the world have embraced it. Receiving this award from across the book community is a powerful recognition of the strength of Alexei’s voice. It tells us that truth still matters, that integrity matters, that words can break through even the hardest walls and reach hearts everywhere.”
Navalnya added that “Patriot is not just the story of one man’s life. It’s a book about love, truth, and the unshakable belief that Russia can be free.”
9 May 2025 | Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Ghana, India, News, Pakistan, Russia, United States, Venezuela
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 how Voice of America could be morphing into a right-wing mouthpiece, and analyse the Indian government’s censorship of Pakistani online content.
Throttling the free press: Voice of America to use newsfeed from right-wing network
Voice of America (VOA) has been one of Donald Trump’s key targets since his inauguration in January 2025. The government-funded news outlet prides itself on “[exemplifying] the principles of a free press”, broadcasting uncensored news to those in restrictive regimes such as Iran or Russia. The Trump administration however has seen the outlet as a threat, accusing VOA of spreading “radical propaganda” and holding a leftist, anti-Trump bias.
VOA journalists have been shut out of their newsroom for almost two months following an executive order aimed at slashing government funding for news media. A legal battle has ensued, and victory for more than 1,000 VOA workers initially appeared likely following a court ruling in their favour. However, a federal appeals court has now blocked the ruling that had ordered the Trump administration to allow VOA to go back on air, stopping staff from returning to work for the time being. Hopes of a return to their normal broadcasting have also been dashed after Senior Trump adviser Kari Lake announced that VOA will be made to use the newsfeed of right-wing outlet One America News (OAN).
Beyond being a pro-Trump mouthpiece, OAN has become notorious for misinformation, spreading conspiracy theories such as coronavirus being created by Anthony Fauci to harm the first Trump administration. OAN’s takeover of an organisation that has championed objective, independent reporting since World War Two is only the latest development in the dismantling of a free press in the USA.
Online censorship: Muslim social media accounts and Pakistani content banned in India
On 22 April 2025, a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people. India accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack, while Pakistan denies responsibility. India has since retaliated, and the incident has led to rapidly escalating tensions between the two historically-opposed nations, with both sides of the border in Kashmir reporting air strikes. This has claimed further lives in a disputed region that has already seen two wars fought over its contentious borders.
Now, as a result of the increased tensions, the Indian government has tried to purge the country’s internet of all things related to Pakistan. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory note to Indian streaming services that all Pakistani content – such as movies, songs and podcasts – should be taken down immediately. Meta, under the direction of the Indian Government, blocked the prominent Instagram account @Muslim from being accessed in India, alongside the accounts of many prominent Pakistani celebrities. On X, the platform’s official global government affairs team’s account posted its compliance with executive orders from the Indian government to ban more than 8,000 accounts, such as international media and other prominent users – despite @GlobalAffairs clearly stating its discontent at doing so.
“To comply with the orders, we will withhold the specified accounts in India alone. We have begun that process. However, we disagree with the Indian government’s demands,” reads the post. “Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.”
A daring escape: Five Venezuelan opposition politicians rescued from Argentinian embassy
Five aides of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado have been rescued and brought to the USA after spending more than a year trapped in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dubbed a “precise operation”. The aides, all of whom are part of Machado’s political party Vente Venezuela, had taken refuge in the embassy last March after a warrant was issued for their arrest in Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s intense crackdown on political opposition.
Vente Venezuela ran against Maduro’s party in last year’s presidential elections – a highly controversial affair in which Maduro claimed victory and was sworn in as president despite numerous claims from opposition politicians of fraud, inciting sanctions from western nations. Since these elections, Maduro’s government has cracked down on dissent, committing widespread human rights abuses against protesters and critics, according to Human Rights Watch.
The five aides, who were victims of these crackdowns, escaped from the embassy whilst under intense government surveillance. Some are reported to have fled through the Dutch-Caribbean island of Curacao, 40 miles off Venezuela’s coast. It is as yet unclear whether US forces were directly involved in the escape, but some argue that the success of the operation shows cracks are beginning to form in Maduro’s regime.
From Russia’s clutches: Escape of kidnapped Russian journalist orchestrated by Reporters Without Borders
The five Venezuelan aides were not the only captured dissidents to escape – the 63-year-old Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash, known for being critical of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was under house arrest and faced a potential 10-year prison sentence for her anti-war Facebook posts made in 2022 and 2023, and was labelled a “foreign agent”. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) intervened, and helped to orchestrate a risky, arduous escape from her home country to Paris, France.
This escape involved her ripping off her electronic tag and making a journey of over 1,700 miles, using “clandestine routes” to avoid any Russian agents that would be looking for her. Declared as “wanted” by Russia since 21 April, RSF’s director said that at many points along her journey she was believed to have been arrested, and at one she was even suspected to have died – but two weeks later, exhausted but undeterred, she arrived in Paris to give a press conference. Of her perilous escape, she stated: “I fled – I had no other choice. Journalism no longer exists in Russia.”
Suspension of law: Ghanaian Prime Minister suspends chief justice without due process
Hundreds of opposition protesters have taken to the streets this week in Ghana after President John Mahama suspended the country’s Supreme Court chief justice without following due process. They are accusing him of violating the nations’ constitution to further his own political agenda.
Chief justice Gertrude Torkornoo was suspended last month following the filing of three petitions with undisclosed allegations against her, marking the first time a chief justice has ever been suspended in Ghana. Opposition parties have claimed that this is an attack on the judiciary’s independence, and that Mahama is attempting to pack the courts with his sympathisers. Torkornoo was nominated in 2023 by previous president Nana Akufo-Addo, and she has been accused of siding with his now opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on key legal decisions.
The NPP led a coalition of opposition parties in submitting a petition to reverse Torkornoo’s suspension, and took to the streets of Accra on Monday 5 May to protest against Mahama’s decision, with one protester telling the BBC that “The youth (of Ghana) will not sit for him to do whatever he wants to do”.
6 May 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, News, Newsletters, Russia, Ukraine
Victoria Roshchyna had two strikes against her: she was Ukrainian and she was a journalist. Roshchyna frequently reported from Russian-occupied territories, which was and is incredibly dangerous work. In 2022, she was detained, which she wrote about for Index. A year later, she vanished once again. It took nine months for Russian authorities to confirm she was in custody, held without charge. As with much of Russia’s penal system, the details remain murky. But we know she was alive as recently as summer 2024, when she spoke to her father from custody and told him she was on hunger strike. Months later, she was dead.
In February, Moscow handed over the bodies of 757 Ukrainians to Kyiv. Roshchyna’s body was among them. This week the details of a forensic examination were revealed: they showed visible signs of torture. Several organs were missing too, which pathologists believe was a deliberate attempt to hide the cause of death. The leading theory is strangulation.
Saturday marked World Press Freedom Day. Index, alongside many others, raised the alarm about the state of global media freedom. Violations are mounting and too many journalists are paying the ultimate price simply for doing their jobs. Each of them deserves to be remembered as more than just a statistic. Victoria Roshchyna was one of them.
Known to those close to her as Vika, she was strong-willed and fearless, which comes across in her article for us. “I had no fear. I knew they were trying to break me,” she wrote defiantly when recounting the death threats she received during her first detention.
When Roshchyna later disappeared in Russian-occupied Melitopol, she was gathering evidence on the treatment of Ukrainians imprisoned by Russian forces. In honour of her tenacity, Forbidden Stories – an organisation committed to continuing the work of silenced reporters – picked up her investigation. The work the outlet has done is extraordinary, and it’s likely Roshchyna would be proud that her stories have not been buried.
Since she was committed to giving a voice to Ukrainian political prisoners, it feels only fitting that we highlight them too. According to the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, as of April 2024, 16,000 civilians have been disappeared. Included in that number are many who have spoken out against Russia, including Oleksandr Sizikov. A Crimean Tatar, last year Sizikov was forcibly transferred to a prison in Siberia. At the end of April, in a rare move, Russia’s prison service filed for his release, citing that he is blind and entirely dependent on assistance. If granted, it would mark an unusual flicker of compassion from a system known for its cruelty.
Such compassion was never afforded to Roshchyna. Instead, her name will forever be associated with both the best of journalism – utter dedication to exposing injustice and pursuing truth – and the worst of authoritarian cruelty from Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
6 May 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, Greece, News, Volume 54.01 Spring 2025
This article first appeared in Volume 54, Issue 1 of our print edition of Index on Censorship, titled The forgotten patients: Lost voices in the global healthcare system, published on 11 April 2025. Read more about the issue here.
In August 2022, one of the largest surveillance scandals in modern Greek history came to light. Often referred to as the Greek Watergate, it revealed that officials within the government and the National Intelligence Service (EYP), including associates of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had been involved in deploying Predator – a spyware tool developed by former Israeli military personnel.
Intellexa, the founding company, had sold multiple licences to the EYP and, according to reports from The Guardian, Reuters and elsewhere, the EYP had subsequently sent messages intended to infect mobile phones and enable electronic surveillance of certain individuals.
Hundreds were targeted, including political opponents of the ruling New Democracy party, journalists, and even government ministers. Among those targeted, the most prominent politician identified was Nikos Androulakis, leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and leader of the opposition.
The Greek government continues to deny ever having purchased or used Predator spyware. On 5 August 2022, during a live television address, Mitsotakis responded to revelations of wiretapping. His inability to provide credible explanations for how the EYP obtained the spyware, combined with his denial of any knowledge of the scandal, heightened suspicions among politicians and journalists. Notably, he had restructured the EYP on the first day of his premiership in 2019, placing it directly under the control of the prime minister’s office. Consequently, many questioned how he could have been unaware of such activities.
Nearly three years have passed since the scandal emerged, yet most questions remain unanswered. The prosecutor investigating the case closed the probe last July and refused to further grill individuals linked to the deployment of Predator.
The government allegedly interfered with aspects of the inquiry – including the deliberations of certain committees – and hindered the work of oversight bodies such as the communication security regulator, reported Politico.
Meanwhile, courts have declined to prioritise journalistic and investigative efforts that continue to uncover evidence related to the wiretapping activities.
Unsurprisingly, the government’s actions extended beyond covert surveillance. Many people allegedly investigated for their involvement – including Mitsotakis’s nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis, the former secretary-general in the prime minister’s office – fought back by aggressively pursuing lawsuits against journalists and media outlets investigating the scandal, including Efimerida ton Syntakton and Reporters United.
These weren’t just ordinary lawsuits but strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps) – deliberately-initiated legal actions aimed at intimidating and silencing critics.
The party filing a Slapp – in this case Dimitriadis – typically does not intend to win the case. The objective is to overwhelm the defendant with legal expenses, fear and exhaustion, ultimately compelling them to cease their reporting or opposition.
Nevertheless, while investigating how the surveillance activities were carried out, Greek journalists managed to uncover something far more significant than they had anticipated – a system that undermines the democratic standards typically upheld by EU member states.
In this regard, Mitsotakis closely resembles Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has systematically controlled media organisations by placing them under direct supervision, suppressing criticism and dissent.
Since 2019, corruption has flourished under Mitsotakis’s administration and the government appears to have engaged in favouritism and a deliberate dismantling of fundamental human rights – undermining the very foundations of democracy in Greece.
He also allocated funding to the press – both during the Covid-19 pandemic and amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict – in ways that were widely condemned as attempts to financially control specific media outlets.
The funding excluded certain newspapers that were critical of the government, raising concerns about selective support for government-friendly sources, but did include far-right publications affiliated with Kyriakos Velopoulos (an MP known for spreading disinformation) and even non-existent news outlets.
The government has been accused of deploying an extensive network of online trolls on X and TikTok for damage control, including a dedicated war room called Omada Alithias which serves as its mouthpiece. These operations systematically target and suppress dissenting voices, critical media outlets and investigative journalists – particularly those who have exposed the wiretapping scandal – through co-ordinated attacks and gaslighting tactics. These have included downplaying the scandal and dismissing investigative work as fake news.
The impact on press freedom has been dire, with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) confirming some of the worst fears expressed by journalists. In the RSF index, Greece plummeted to 107th position in 2023 before improving somewhat in 2024, rising to 88th. Despite RSF’s concerns, Mitsotakis has dismissed the organisation’s findings and labelled any criticism of Greece’s press freedom as “crap”.
Research demonstrates that democratic backsliding invariably begins with media manipulation and the imposition of excessive control – tactics that Mitsotakis has prioritised since the start of his tenure.
The situation in Greece reveals a complex phenomenon, described by Dutch political scientist Matthijs Rooduijn as a “snowball effect”. Centrist parties previously perceived as moderate, such as New Democracy, are increasingly cloaking themselves under a liberal façade with the explicit intent of undermining democratic norms.
Instances such as those seen in Greece illustrate that Europe is confronted not only with an existential threat to its democratic institutions but also with the danger of normalising illiberal policies. This troubling trend is underscored by the EU’s increasingly permissive approach to surveillance, where the potential consequences are acknowledged yet policy measures remain inadequately implemented.
Additionally, the sustained erosion of press freedoms further exacerbates the vulnerability of democracy. These developments indicate a systemic weakening of safeguards, and the issue is further illustrated by the close and often opaque connections among elected officials which undermine transparency. Without decisive and comprehensive interventions, Europe risks undermining the very foundations that ensure its democratic resilience and integrity.
Greece serves as a prime case study of this troubling trajectory. The country endured a military dictatorship from 1967 to 1974, before democracy was re-established. It has also experienced a serious socio-economic crisis from 2010 to 2019, the subsequent neoliberal restructuring of its economy and a recent resurgence of neo-Nazism. Some of these phases of extreme instability are common in post-authoritarian countries that struggle to uphold the rule of law and democratic principles.
The legacy of the wiretapping scandal cannot be underestimated or overlooked. New Democracy and its successors may attempt to preserve these tools of suppression, potentially leading to further democratic backsliding. Without determined efforts to eliminate such practices, freedom of the press will continue to deteriorate, lacking the legal safeguards needed to prevent unconstitutional measures that can cause long-term damage.
