7 Nov 2025 | Africa, Americas, Bahrain, Europe and Central Asia, News and features, Russia, Sudan, Tanzania, United States
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 journalists under threat in Sudan and a Russian street musician continuing to take a stand.
Sudan: RSF releases video of missing journalist
Sudan’s RSF (Rapid Support Forces) have released a video admitting to the detention of a missing journalist.
Muammar Ibrahim, a freelance journalist, went missing on 26 October in El-Fasher, with a video circulating on Telegram of him being surrounded by armed men.
Ibrahim was thought to have been detained by RSF fighters, a fact that was confirmed in a video released by the RSF on 3 November in which Ibrahim is accused of being biased, and himself states that the investigation against him is due to his description of the RSF as a militia.
The video follows a statement from an RSF spokesperson to Al-Jazeera in which he said: “I have no knowledge of the arrest of Sudanese journalist Muammar Ibrahim”
Bahrain: Calls for release of prisoner after hunger strike
Calls have been made for the release of a prominent human rights defender in Bahrain following a hunger strike.
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, co-founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, has been imprisoned in Bahrain since 2011 and is currently serving a life sentence for his involvement in demonstrations during the pro-democracy uprisings in the country.
This coincides with a wider hunger strike throughout Bahrain’s Jaw prison involving more than 90 prisoners who are protesting against deteriorating conditions in the prison. This type of protest is not uncommon in the prison, with 800 prisoners taking part in a 2023 hunger strike.
Russia: Another sentence for 18-year-old street protest singer
Russian street musician Diana Loginova, also known as Naoko, has been sentenced to 13 days in jail for her performances of banned songs that went viral recently.
Loginova is the singer of St Petersberg band Stoptime, known for their street performances around the city.
This is the second detention she has faced in the last month, having just finished her previous sentence of 13 days; the singer still faces charges of discrediting the army, a charge that may lead to longer imprisonment.
Watch the video of one of Stoptime’s performances that has caused these charges here. For non-Russian speakers, the translation is here.
Tanzania: Crackdown on protest after incumbent wins 98% of presidential vote
A violent crackdown has begun following country-wide demonstrations that erupted during last week’s presidential elections in Tanzania.
Opposition party Chadema claims there have been 2,000 people killed so far, however these numbers have not been independently verified. The government has denied the use of excessive force against protesters.
The demonstrations began on election day last week and led to the deployment of the military to enforce a curfew across the city of Dar es Salaam.
On 1 November Tanzania’s electoral body declared Samia Suluhu Hassan, the incumbent president, winner with 97.66% of votes. Most of her rivals were either imprisoned or barred from taking part in the elections.
Internet watchdog Netblocks announced on 3 November that a five-day internet shutdown had been eased.
USAI: Trump facsimile takes the stage
US President Donald Trump has been accused of posting AI-generated videos of himself on social media again this week.
Trump is no stranger to AI video generation at this point, becoming a regular poster of content such as a video depicting himself flying a fighter jet and images of himself as a character from the Halo video games.
As AI videos become more and more realistic, Trump’s use of the technology sets an alarming precedent for its use by politicians globally, with the risk of it being used against political enemies increasing daily.
Watch one of the uncanny videos here, in which the apparent AI Trump stands behind a podium and recites his own TruthSocial posts.
17 May 2021 | FEATURED: Jessica Ní Mhainín, News and features, Russia
“They say that a hunger strike is declared out of despair, and yes, it’s hard not to agree with that,” Yulia Tsvetkova, a Russian feminist and LGBTQ+ activist and artist, wrote on social media on 1 May as she announced that she would start a hunger strike. “Why a hunger strike? As a person accused of a ‘serious’ crime, I have almost no rights. There is no freedom. No voice. No ability to stand up for myself and my beliefs in the outside world.”
Tsvetkova, who won Index on Censorship’s 2020 Freedom of Expression Award in the arts category, was charged with criminal distribution of pornography in June 2020 for having published body-positive drawings on a social media group she had called the “Vagina Monologues”. She is facing up to six years in prison. While the trial is ongoing, she is forced to remain in her home city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East.
“I’ve recently realised that I can no longer sit still and watch the shame of what’s going on in this country and how my life is being derailed. And when I think about it, what other options do I have for non-violent protest?” she wrote in what was her first social media post in eight months. She also used the opportunity to call on the authorities to stop subjecting her to the protracted judicial harassment. “I just ask you not to waste any more of my time on a farce called ‘Russian justice’”.
Shortly thereafter, photos from the search of her apartment, which had taken place in 2019, were posted online and were being circulated on homophobic public forums. “I don’t know how they got on the web,” Tsvetkova’s lawyer Aleksandr Pikhovkin told Index on Censorship via email, “but we should understand that these [photos] were taken by the criminal investigation department and are under a special procedure of admittance and only for a [small] number of officers. Anyway, disclosure of these materials was made to demoralise Yulia. I think she perceived it like a kind of psychological pressure. And yes, as I realise, she felt herself harassed, suffered and disgusted.”
At the same time, a state channel ended up with Tsvetkova’s personal documents, correspondence, and tickets from her work trips. According to a social media post from Yulia on 6 May, the same channel broadcast an “expert” alleging that Tsvetkova’s work is “aimed purely at molesting minors” and that her drawings “have the same impact as the actions of paedophiles.” “Whether or not [these events] are related to my statement [on 1 May on social media] is probably up to everyone to decide for themselves,” Yulia said in the post.
“Were these abhorrent actions part of a coordinated effort to intimidate and punish Yulia for criticising the authorities? It certainly seems likely,” Index on Censorship’s CEO Ruth Smeeth said. “Yulia has done nothing more than express her very justifiable frustration with this ongoing judicial harassment. We continue to be appalled at Yulia’s treatment and stand in full solidarity with her. We call – yet again – on the Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against her.”
On 7 May, Yulia announced that she was ending her hunger strike. “I reach a dead end, realising that those on the other side have no honour,” Yulia posted. “If the strategy has proved to be unworkable, it needs to be changed. I am stopping the hunger strike for now, because it is the right thing to do (just as it was the right thing to start it). And I’m looking for a new strategy.
3 Jul 2015 | Academic Freedom, Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, mobile
Nine Bahraini and international NGOs and the University College Union launched a campaign this week marking the 100th day of detained human rights defender Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace’s hunger strike.
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), English PEN, PEN International, Index on Censorship, Scholars at Risk, Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association and the University College Union have joined together to express their solidarity with the imprisoned activist.
Dr Al-Singace, a prominent academic and blogger who promoted human rights in Bahrain throughout the 2000s, began a hunger strike on 21 March in protest of the ill-treatment of inmates and the poor, unsanitary conditions at Jaw Prison in Bahrain.
Police arrested Dr Al-Singace for his participation in the peaceful Arab Spring protests in 2011. During his initial detention, security officials subjected Dr Al-Singace to torture and ill-treatment, including forced standing, verbal and sexual assault, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement. He was tried by a military court in June 2011 and sentenced to life in prison for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.
Dr Al-Singace suffers from post-polio syndrome, heart, eye, and sinus problems, and requires urgent nasal and ear surgery. Prison authorities have denied Dr Al-Singace specialist medical treatment.
He is detained in solitary confinement at Al-Qalaa Hospital and is not permitted to go outdoors. He is denied access to novels, television, radio, and even pen and paper. He is also not allowed access to religious books and prayer beads, and was not permitted a condolence visit when his nephew died.
We, the aforementioned NGOs, call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace in addition to all human rights defenders and activists in Bahrain who are detained in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bahrain is a state party. We demand that Dr Al-Singace receives full access to specialised medical attention as a matter of urgency. We remind Bahrain of its obligations to comply with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. We also call on Bahrain to fully investigate the allegations of ill treatment and torture at Jaw Prison, in line with its obligations under the Convention against Torture.
To express your solidarity with Dr Al-Singace, please take urgent action here:
1. Urge UK MPs to sign an early day motion on Bahrain
2. Sign the petition at English PEN
2. Write a letter via Scholars at Risk call for Action
We also invite you to join our social media campaign and to tweet using the hashtag #SingaceHungerStrike.
22 Jul 2013 | Europe and Central Asia
A Macedonian investigative journalist has gone on hunger strike today, in protest against his continued detention.
The wife of Tomislav Kezarovski told local media that both she and her jailed husband are now on hunger strike, in hopes that it will call attention to his “absurd” situation.
Kezarovski has been held in Skopje’s Shutka prison since May, for a 2008 article he wrote for Reporter 92 magazine, for supposedly revealing the identity of a protected witness in an an ongoing murder investigation. However, in February this year the witness confessed that his testimony against the accused killers was fabricated, and that he did not have protected status until 2010.
Skopje criminal court decided in June to extend the journalist’s detention by 30 days, saying that if released, he may “escape or influence other witnesses” in a wider investigation. The court will decide this week whether or not he will be held for another 30 days. Since the investigation is now over, Kezarovski’s family members hope that he will be released.
The Macedonian Journalists Association, the Trade Union of Macedonian Journalists and Media Workers, SSNM, ZNM, and the Macedonian Institute for Media expressed “deep concern” over the journalist’s “fragile physical and mental” condition in a joint statement released today. In June, UN Rapporteur for free speech Frank LaRue was prevented from visiting Kezarovski in prison.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of the journalist, as well as the “constant decline in freedom of information in Macedonia”, which ranks 116 out of 179 in the organisation’s 2013 press freedom index.
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin
