Contents – Gen Z is revolting: Why the world’s youth will not be silenced

19 Dec 2025 | Afghanistan, Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Belarus, Chile, China, Europe and Central Asia, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Magazine Contents, Middle East and North Africa, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nicaragua, Palestine, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Volume 54.04 Winter 2025

Contents

Zoomers – the young people born between 1997 and 2012 – have been taking to the streets this summer. They haven’t got a common ideology but they are angry about the state of world and feel hopeless for the future.

In the UK we have seen them on Saturday marches for Palestine, but in countries where Gen Z make up a significant proportion of the population, they have been toppling governments.

In Morocco, from where we have a frontline report, the government has remained in place, but police acted with a huge show of force, detaining almost 2,500 young people including under-12s. Near Agadir, normally known as a tourist resort, three young people were killed when the police fired on them with live ammunition.

In Madagascar and Nepal, leaders did flee in the face of what looked like a mass uprising. But as the editor of the Nepali Times writes, the young revolutionaries can’t decide what happens next. Nor are they particularly sympathetic to others’ freedom of expression. Journalists reporting on what happened in Nepal found themselves trolled online.

There is something else that marks out Gen Z. They are digital natives to their fingertips, theoretically able to exercise freedom – at least online - on a scale previous generations could only dream of. And yet many are afraid to say what they really think in public forums.

Up Front

Gen Z is revolting: Sally Gimson
The next generation are raising their voices, but what do they want?

The Index: Mark Stimpson
The latest in the world of free expression, including an update on our imprisoned former colleague

Features

Silence is the best option at Israeli universities: Akin Ajayi
If you hold a particular view, the campus is no place for academic freedom

The show must go on: Emily Boyle
Could it be curtains for the Purple Slut cabaret?

End for the NDAs which protected Harvey Weinstein?: Ruth Green
Bad businesses have been hiding behind the law. Zelda Perkins is out to stop them

Silenced over trans care article: Daisy Ruddock
Professionals are falling victim to the culture wars, left unable to discuss gender-affirming healthcare

An exceptional editor: Jo Glanville
A tribute to the late Index editor, Judith Vidal-Hall

Powerful Indian women cancelled in the classroom: Nilosree Biswas
Narendra Modi's solution to women who don't fit the narrative - delete them

The strange tale of a Russian rapper: John David Vandevert
Being a female US-style rapper is a step too far in Putin's Russia

Shock jocks of Uzbekistan: Katie Dancey-Downs
Culture wars are raging, and one side has got plenty to say

The secret graffiti grandma of Tehran: Fatemeh Jamalpour
Meet the woman sneaking out at night to spraypaint the worlds of the Iranian revolution

Censoring negativity: Cindy Yu
On Chinese social media, if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all

Inside the mind of Madame War Criminal: JP O'Malley
Olivera Simić discusses her biography of Biljana Plavšić, and whether the Balkans have since made room for free speech

The exclusion of Palestinian voices: Raja Shehadeh
The missing piece in Donald Trump's plan

Gen Z is revolting: Why the world's youth will not be silenced

The revolution will be polarised: Katie Dancey-Downs, Yelyzaveta Buriak, Arthur O'Keefe
How Gen Z are influencing the world, and who’s influencing them

Shitposting and the rehabilitation of Pinochet: Juan Carlos Ramírez Figueroa
Chile’s rapid-fire social media content can lead to bad places, fast

Dissidents in disguise: Alexandra Domenech 
Young critics in Belarus are hiding in plain sight

The summer of revolt: Viktória Serdült
From popstars to Pride – Gen Z in Hungary are speaking up

Gen Z’s secret language: Connor O’Brien
What do they meme?

The fight for freedom in Nepal: Sonia Awale
Between One Piece protests and upcoming elections, Gen Z are demanding government accountability

Discord for Morocco’s Gen Z: Omar Radi
A new style of protest that started with football fans and gamers

Uganda’s top TikTok trend: Danson Kahyana
Social media influencers beware. One judge in Uganda is coming down hard on government critics.

Young people haven’t given up the fight to be heard: Michael Deibert
Haiti’s cultural landscape is alive and kicking

Lessons from the Milk Tea Alliance: Mackenzie Argent, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
A look at the older siblings of today’s protests

Comment

How the far-right has weaponised free speech: Anshuman Mondal
When freedom of expression is for me and not for thee

You won’t fool the children of Kenya’s revolution: Samuel Kimeu
The Kenyan government must pay attention to the young protesters they are silencing

I want the full story: Jemimah Steinfeld
Unpicking the delicate line between censorship and an editorial decision

Tell the world what is happening to us: Rahima Mahmut 
From Tiananmen Square to imprisoned female poets – a Uyghur musician writes about her inspiration

Culture

Secret words of hope: Kate Clanchy
Female Afghan poets give us a glimpse into their lives, through the power of verse

A chilling vision: Mark Stimpson, Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Welcome to this dystopian future, imagined by a Gen Z author

The shadow of injustice: Connor O’Brien, UPPN
We hear the story of a Nicaraguan political prisoner, in an exclusive comic

Zombies, women and power: Naomi Alderman
The author of The Power discusses her new book on our current times

Contents – Truth, trust & tricksters: Free expression in the age of AI

22 Oct 2025 | Azerbaijan, Balochistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Europe and Central Asia, Georgia, Georgia, Germany, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Magazine Contents, Myanmar, North Korea, Palestine, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Volume 54.03 Autumn 2025, Yemen

Contents

It is difficult to spend a day without using artificial intelligence.

Whether we look up a fact on Google or use our car’s navigation system, AI is helping to guide us. AI is not human, but is increasingly taking on human characteristics. Want to write a five-year strategy for work? AI can give you the structure. A text to the lover you’re breaking up with, ChatGPT is on hand with the perfect choice of words. Even as I compose this editor’s letter in a Word document, the sinisterly named Copilot – Microsoft’s AI assistant – is hovering in the margin with the tantalising offer that it could do a better job.

So what does it all mean for free expression? We asked a range of writers to explore themes around censorship and AI for this latest issue, and the result is fascinating. Kate Devlin delves into griefbots which are essentially deepfakes of dead people – often with all their unpleasant characteristics removed.

Innocent enough but in the wrong hands they are pernicious. A country’s political hero can be resurrected to encourage causes they would have disavowed were they alive. Ruth Green looks at whether AI has free speech.

In a recent US lawsuit, the owner of a chatbot which had been talking to a teenager, in a sexualised way, before he killed himself, argued that the bot’s communications were covered by the First Amendment. Luckily the judge threw the case out.

Meanwhile Timandra Harkness examines how AI can trawl social media to discover every word you’ve ever written.

Up Front

Truth, trust & tricksters in the age of AI: Sally Gimson
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, but is free expression at risk?

The Index: Mark Stimpson
The latest in the world of free expression, including travel bans for artists and the ongoing trial of Jimmy Lai

Features

Strength in numbers: Antonia Langford
Burmese artist Sai thought he was safe in Thailand, until the censors came knocking

Jailed for criticising the royal family: Tyrell Haberkorn Sophon “Get” Suratitthamrong
A Thai student protester sends letters from prison

Midnight trek to Georgia: Will Neal
A journalist tries to return to Georgia, after being smeared by its government

The trauma of being Lukashenka’s prisoner: Jana Paliashchuk
A sit-down with released Belarusian political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski

Caught in the middle: Akbar Notezai
The murder of a journalist has further restricted the media in Balochistan

Reports of Urdu’s death are greatly exaggerated: Nilosree Biswas
Urdu is thriving among young people

The Squid Game effect: Katie Dancey-Downs
K-drama might be the greatest weapon against the North Korean regime

We’re blaming everybody: Laura Silvia Battaglia
Yemeni women take over a poignant location, and refuse to be silenced

A journalist’s life in Yemen: Khalid Mohamed
The reporters holding the line while under fire

Without more women in power, the regime can force its patriarchal agenda: Emily Couch
A picture of feminism in Kazakhstan

Erasing secularism: Rishabh Jain
Bangladesh is at a crossroads, and religious freedom is under threat

Special Report: Truth, trust & tricksters: Free expression in the age of AI

Is AI friend or foe?: Kenneth Cukier
The future of free thought is in the hands of big tech

The ghost in the machine: Kate Devlin
Awakening the dead might have implications for free speech

I, robot?: Ruth Green
Should AI bots enjoy free speech protections?

The dark side of AI adoption in Turkey: Kaya Genç
Dissidents could be at increased risk, if President Erdoğan has a hand in shaping technology

Deepfake it to make it: Danson Kahyana
Uganda has a new way to sow seeds of doubt about its critics

History is being written by the AI victors: Salil Tripathi
An age-old problem, with new technological capabilities

Digging in the (social media) dirt: Timandra Harkness
Could your old tweets be your downfall?

A new frontier of American propaganda: Mackenzie Argent
Trump is on a mission to meme America great again

Comment

Blown to pieces: how the UK government’s Muslim policy unravelled: Martin Bright
We need to talk about extremism

Freedom of speech needs freedom of thought: Maria Sorensen
The first defence against dictatorships? Free thinking

What’s the story?: Nadim Sadek, Toby Litt, Anna Ganley
Three writers discuss whether artificial intelligence will help or hinder literature

The rise of the useful idiot: Jemimah Steinfeld
Apologists and the wilfully ignorant. Just how dangerous are they?

The women silenced by the law: Jessica Ní Mhainín
Lawsuits are being wielded by the powerful to keep victims quiet

Culture

Killing the messenger: Peter Laufer, Mackenzie Argent
A new book hands the megaphone to journalists in danger

The Missing Palestinians: Martha Otwinowski
Germany’s painful past is haunting its cultural institutions

The pity of war: Stephen Komarnyckyj
Preserving the memory of Ukraine’s poets, killed in Russia’s war

Cry God for Larry!: Simon Callow, Laurence Olivier
The actor shares his memories of Laurence Olivier

Frozen feud: Baia Pataraia
What it means to pose a threat to the Georgian government

Anti-SLAPP measures cannot come fast enough

5 Oct 2022 | Kazakhstan, Legal action against journalists, News, Statements, United Kingdom

The urgent need to introduce anti-SLAPP measures, proposed by the UK government in July, has been underscored by the recent announcement that a UK registered company and a Kazakhstan endowment fund have issued legal proceedings against a number of UK media outlets.

In January and February 2022, openDemocracy and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), amongst other outlets, published separate reports on the Nazarbayev Fund and Jusan Technologies Ltd. The Nazarbayev Fund is a Kazakhstan university and schools endowment fund, associated with the former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Jusan Technologies Ltd is a UK registered company that controlled over $7.8bn in gross asset value. This included an online marketplace, a mobile phone operator, financial services and shopping centres. According to the reports, the Nazarbayev Fund owned a controlling stake in the company via an intermediary until late 2021, raising questions as to why a UK company held some of Kazakhstan's wealth.

As a result of their public interest reporting, TBIJ and openDemocracy are among the media outlets who have been threatened with legal action by lawyers instructed by both the Nazarbayev Fund and Jusan Technologies Ltd. There should be no question that investigating and reporting on the financial interests of authoritarian leaders, both during their time in office and afterwards, and entities connected with them, is clearly in the public interest. For this to be met with threats of costly and time-consuming legal action constitutes a significant and severe threat to media freedom and the public’s right to know. 

The undersigned organisations call for the legal action against openDemocracy and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism to be dropped and stand in solidarity with all outlets facing SLAPPs for their reporting. We also reiterate our calls to the UK Government to be both bold and swift with their proposals to bring forward anti-SLAPP legislation to ensure all public interest reporting is robustly protected against abusive lawsuits.

Index on Censorship

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

Blueprint for Free Speech

Tax Policy Associates Ltd

ARTICLE 19 

Spotlight on Corruption

Justice for Journalists Foundation

Whistleblowing International Network

Public Interest News Foundation

Rory Peck Trust

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation

National Union of Journalists 

English PEN

Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID)

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Transparency International UK

PEN International

Global Witness

Society of Authors

Protect

Boris Johnson’s Partygate is a distraction from the important issues

21 Jan 2022 | Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Opinion, Russia, Ruth's blog, United Kingdom, United States

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks down at the podium during a media briefing in Downing Street. Photo: Justin Tallis/PA Wire/PA Images

It should surprise no-one that I am a political geek. I love politics. I love the cut and thrust of debate. I love the moments of high drama and the intrigue. Most of all I love the fact that genuine good can be done. That people’s lives can be made just a little easier by the power of our collective democracy.

So you’d assume that I would have relished the events of the UK Parliament this week. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being completely obsessed with the minutiae of the debate around Partygate and the drama of the precarious position of the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP as he seeks to survive the biggest political crisis of his premiership.

But I’m also angry. The British Government has been distracted for weeks, caught in a political crisis of their own making about whether or not the Prime Minister knowingly broke his own Covid-19 regulations. While the political establishment awaits a report from a senior civil servant to clarify what was, or wasn’t, happening behind the doors of Number 10, important issues are being sidelined or ignored and people are suffering.

This week the British Parliament held vital debates on the genocide of the Uighurs and the use of the British legal system to silence activists and journalists. Both debates passed broadly without comment or wider notice.

The Russian Federation is threatening the sovereign status of a democratic ally, Ukraine, on an hourly basis.

Biden has marked his first year in office.

52,581 people have died of Covid.

Protestors in Kazakhstan are being threatened with death if they continue to protest against the government, with 10,000 already arrested and 225 killed by the authorities.

23 million people in Afghanistan are experiencing extreme hunger as the Taliban starts attacking women activists.

These are some of the heartbreaking and terrifying realities which are happening around the world. These are the issues that should have dominated our news agenda this week, along with a cost of living crisis, a plan to deliver net zero and attacks on free expression around the world.

Index will continue to fight for these issues to be heard. For the voices of the persecuted to be recognised. While some of our leaders focus on domestic intrigue we’ll keep fighting for those that don’t have a voice.

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