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

Contents – The long reach: How authoritarian countries are silencing critics abroad

10 May 2024 | Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, Eritrea, Hong Kong, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Magazine Contents, Mexico, North Korea, Palestine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Volume 53.01 Spring 2024

Contents

The Spring 2024 issue of Index looks at how authoritarian states are bypassing borders in order to clamp down on dissidents who have fled their home state. In this issue we investigate the forms that transnational repression can take, as well as highlighting examples of those who have been harassed, threatened or silenced by the long arm of the state.

The writers in this issue offer a range of perspectives from countries all over the world, with stories from Turkey to Eritrea to India providing a global view of how states operate when it comes to suppressing dissidents abroad. These experiences serve as a warning that borders no longer come with a guarantee of safety for those targeted by oppressive regimes.

 

Up Front

Border control, by Jemimah Steinfeld: There's no safe place for the world's dissidents. World leaders need to act.

The Index, by Mark Frary: A glimpse at the world of free expression, featuring Indian elections, Predator spyware and a Bahraini hunger strike.

Features

Just passing through, by Eduardo Halfon: A guided tour through Guatemala's crime traps.

Exporting the American playbook, by Amy Fallon: The culture wars are finding new ground in Canada, where the freedom to read is the latest battle.

The couple and the king, by Clemence Manyukwe: Tanele Maseko saw her activist husband killed in front of her eyes, but it has not stopped her fight for democracy.

Obrador's parting gift, by Chris Havler-Barrett: Journalists are free to report in Mexico, as long as it's what the president wants to hear.

Silencing the faithful, by Simone Dias Marques: Brazil's religious minorities are under attack.

The anti-abortion roadshow, by Rebecca L Root: The USA's most controversial new export could be a campaign against reproductive rights.

The woman taking on the trolls, by Daisy Ruddock: Tackling disinformation has left Marianna Spring a victim of trolling, even by Elon Musk.

Broken news, by Mehran Firdous: The founder of The Kashmir Walla reels from his time in prison and the banning of his news outlet.

Who can we trust?, by Kimberley Brown: Organised crime and corruption have turned once peaceful Ecuador into a reporter's nightmare.

The cost of being green, by Thien Viet: Vietnam's environmental activists are mysteriously all being locked up on tax charges.

Who is the real enemy?, by Raphael Rashid: Where North Korea is concerned, poetry can go too far - according to South Korea.

The law, when it suits him, by JP O'Malley: Donald Trump could be making prison cells great again.

Special Report: The long reach - how authoritarian countries are silencing critics abroad

Nowhere is safe, by Alexander Dukalskis: Introducing the new and improved ways that autocracies silence their overseas critics.

Welcome to the dictator's playground, by Kaya Genç: When it comes to safeguarding immigrant dissidents, Turkey has a bad reputation.

The overseas repressors who are evading the spotlight, by Emily Couch: It's not all Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Central Asian governments are reaching across borders too.

Everything everywhere all at once, by Daisy Ruddock: It's both quantity and quality when it comes to how states attack dissent abroad.

A fatal game of international hide and seek, by Danson Kahyana: After leaving Eritrea, one writer lives in constants fear of being kidnapped or killed.

Our principles are not for sale, by Jirapreeya Saeboo: The Thai student publisher who told China to keep their cash bribe.

Refused a passport, by Sally Gimson: A lesson from Belarus in how to obstruct your critics.

Be nice, or you're not coming in, by Salil Tripathi: Is the murder of a Sikh activist in Canada the latest in India's cross-border control.

An agency for those denied agency, by Amy Fallon: The Sikh Press Association's members are no strangers to receiving death threats.

Always looking behind, by Zhou Fengsuo and Nathan Law: If you're a Tiananmen protest leader or the face of Hong Kong's democracy movement, China is always watching.

Putting Interpol on notice, by Tommy Greene: For dissidents who find themselves on Red Notice, it's all about location, location, location

Living in Russia's shadow, by Irina Babloyan, Andrei Soldatov and Kirill Martynov: Three Russian journalists in exile outline why paranoia around their safety is justified.

Comment

Solidarity, Assange-style, by Martin Bright: Our editor-at-large on his own experience working with Assange.

Challenging words, by Emma Briant: An academic on what to do around the weaponisation of words.

Good, bad and everything that's in between, by Ruth Anderson: New threats to free speech call for new approaches.

Culture

Ukraine's disappearing ink, by Victoria Amelina and Stephen Komarnyckyj: One of several Ukrainian writers killed in Russia's war, Amelina's words live on.

One-way ticket to freedom?, by Ghanem Al Masarir and Jemimah Steinfeld: A dissident has the last laugh on Saudi, when we publish his skit.

The show must go on, by Katie Dancey-Downs, Yahya Marei and Bahaa Eldin Ibdah: In the midst of war Palestine's Freedom Theatre still deliver cultural resistance, some of which is published here.

Fight for life - and language, by William Yang: Uyghur linguists are doing everything they can to keep their culture alive.

Freedom is very fragile, by Mark Frary and Oleksandra Matviichuk: The winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize on looking beyond the Nuremberg Trials lens.

The death of North Korea’s propaganda chief marks the end of an era

10 May 2024 | News, North Korea, Opinion, Ruth's blog

One of the core roles of Index from its establishment was samizdat, providing access to real news for those people caught behind the Iron Curtain as an alternative to Soviet propaganda. We provided both a platform for dissidents and a news outlet for those subject to totalitarian censorship, an aspiration we continue to hold today.

However when you think about censorship and repressive regimes we only ever refer to the dictator as the main driver for censorship - Putin’s Russia, Xi’s China, Lukashenka’s Belarus, but we rarely consider or even know the names of the people who do the dirty deed.

That isn’t the case in one of the most restrictive dictatorships in the world.

In the tightly controlled information environment of North Korea, the recent passing of Kim Ki Nam, a key figure in the regime's propaganda apparatus, marks the end of an era. Kim Ki Nam, who spent decades shaping the narrative of the totalitarian state and building a personality cult around the ruling Kim dynasty, leaves behind a legacy of censorship and manipulation.

Kim Ki Nam's career demonstrated the potent blend of ideology and media manipulation that characterise authoritarian regimes. As deputy director and later leader of Pyongyang's Propaganda and Agitation Department, he played a central role in crafting the regime's messaging, cementing the authority of the ruling dynasty, and stifling dissent.

The propaganda machine overseen by Kim Ki Nam maintained an iron grip on communication within North Korea, tightly controlling information flows and censoring external influences. The banning of South Korean and Western entertainment, including music and movies, illustrates the regime's determination to isolate its citizens from alternative narratives and perspectives, something that perpetuates today. The draconian punishment meted out to individuals caught consuming foreign media, such as the public sentencing of teenagers for watching K-dramas, highlights the regime's extreme measures to enforce ideological conformity.

Moreover, Kim Ki Nam's influence extended beyond North Korea's borders, with his role in shaping the regime's external propaganda efforts and projecting an image of strength and unity to the outside world. Something undertaken at a huge cost to the citizens of North Korea, as they were forced to engage in the charade.

As we reflect on Kim Ki Nam's legacy and the ongoing impact of his work, it is imperative to recognise the profound implications of state-controlled propaganda for freedom of expression and the broader struggle for human rights. The manipulation of information, censorship of dissent, and cult of personality perpetuated by regimes like North Korea not only deprive citizens of their basic rights but also threaten the foundations of democracy and open society.

The death of Kim Ki Nam must remind us of the need to reaffirm our commitment to defending freedom of expression, combating propaganda, and standing in solidarity with those who dare to speak truth to power. Only through vigilance, solidarity, and unwavering dedication to the principles of freedom and democracy can we hope to challenge the tyranny of censorship and authoritarianism wherever it may arise.

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