10 Jan 2026 | Africa, News, Tanzania
Mama Samia has won Tyrant of the Year. Many Tanzanians voted for her. They mobilised each other online and campaigned for her to win. But here is the thing, I don’t think she should have won this one, even though her list of sins is endless. Sure, she abducted and jailed dissidents. Killed protesters. Let the police shoot, kill, beat, rape innocent Tanzanians without any accountability, just to name a few. Honestly, I thought Netanyahu had this one in the bag! I mean, what can beat a genocide? I imagine Donald Trump must be pissed he didn’t win despite his best [worst] efforts.
If it weren’t for the events of 29 October 2025, Samia wouldn’t have made the list, not by a long shot. Up until then she had been in the minor leagues, a wannabe tyrant at best. But she did what tyrants do and ignored the voice of the people who wanted electoral reforms before the general elections. There is a saying in Swahili – “Sikio la kufa halisikii dawa” – which loosely translates to “a dying ear hears no medicine”. Samia surrounded herself with chawa [bootlickers] and rounded up dissidents. She didn’t care about free and fair elections and forged on to the polls even as the main opposition party boycotted the election. She forged on as opposition leader Tundu Lissu was jailed, and another opposition candidate was thrown out of the race by a questionable court decision. She forged on, as protesters across the country took to the streets. She forged on, ballots stuffed and all, winning the presidency at a whopping 98%.
The 2025 general election was the bloodiest in the country’s history. The Tanzanian police and security forces turned on protesters, bystanders and passersby, shooting them in cold blood. The election day violence was haunting, but the atrocities that ensued in the days that followed are even more heart-wrenching. I heard, in Mbeya and Mwanza, the police went into houses, lined up young men, boys, really, and shot them one by one. They shot people inside their homes. They piled up bodies in morgues and allegedly buried them in mass graves. Many people did not get to mourn and bury their loved ones. They rounded up suspects, raped and tortured them without due process. All the while, people were locked inside their homes with no access to the internet or to credible local news [the local media wasn’t free, and the government shut down the internet].
Tanzanians want justice, and this poll was an opportunity to voice their grievances.
Still, as a Tanzanian, Samia’s win is scarier than it is comforting. Topping this list in January 2026 is dangerous, especially when Trump and more powerful tyrants can send their military to invade your country for having a fellow tyrant president, just so they can take your natural resources. #Imperialism. It reminds me of a line in a poem I wrote – “a neighbour can send troops to kill you and claim it’s for your own freedom”.
9 Dec 2025 | Afghanistan, Campaigns, El Salvador, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, News, Russia, Tanzania, Turkey, Tyrant of the Year, United States
At the end of every year, Index on Censorship launches a campaign to focus attention on human rights defenders, dissidents, artists and journalists who have been in the news headlines because their freedom of expression has been suppressed during the past twelve months. As well as this we focus on the authoritarian leaders who have been silencing their opponents.
This year we see the return of an old favourite.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO of Index on Censorship, said, "After a couple of years’ rest, Tyrant of the Year is back. We’re reviving our most popular end-of-year campaign at a moment when leaders from around the world seem ever more determined to silence criticism. In the spirit of the satirists we so often champion in the pages of Index, we’re leaning in and poking fun at these leaders. After all, thin-skinned officials loathe mockery because, as Mark Twain said, “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand". But let’s be clear: Tyrant of the Year isn’t about downplaying the real harm caused by the actions that put them on the list. The reality is stark: the world is getting worse for free expression, and some countries now featured were unthinkable additions only a few years ago."
She added: "A note on the list too: it highlights those who have escalated attacks on free expression this year, not necessarily the world’s absolute worst offenders (that grim crown is hard to pry from the likes of Xi Jinping, Nicolás Maduro, Isaias Afwerki, Aliaksandr Lukashenka or Kim Jong Un). We’ve chosen people whose actions in 2025 have delivered fresh shocks, sudden crackdowns or moved a region further away from pluralism and respect for free speech."
The polls are now open for the title of 2025 Tyrant of the Year and we are focusing on 10 leaders from around the globe who have done more during the past 12 months than others to win this dubious accolade. Previous winners of the Tyrant of the Year have been Andrés Manuel López Obrador from Mexico and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.
The ten contenders for Tyrant of the Year 2025 are (in alphabetical order by country). Click on the links to find out whay they have made our shortlist:
- Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, Afghanistan
- Nayib Armando Bukele, El Salvador
- John Lee, Hong Kong
- Narendra Modi, India
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran
- Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
- Vladimir Putin, Russia
- Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
- Donald Trump, USA
The vote for Tyrant of the Year 2025 is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly.
13 Jan 2023 | Mexico, News
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for – the announcement of the annual Tyrant of the Year competition winner. While competition was tough, one leader surged ahead, by a mile in fact. Our Tyrant of the Year for 2022 is Andrés Manuel López Obrador from Mexico. López Obrador presides over a country which has the dubious honour of being the country in which more journalists were killed last year than any other. It is also the country ranked as the most dangerous place to be an environmental defender, according to Global Witness. The number of kidnappings, assaults and arrests under his watch has been huge. Mexico's climate of impunity makes it possible. López Obrador has also cosied up to the military and Donald Trump and lashed out at women, NGOs and the New York Times. Forbes called López Obrador “a human rights disaster”.
Index policy and campaigns officer Nik Williams, who nominated Obrador for the award, said, "The high number of votes for López Obrador is testament to the structural threats to free expression in Mexico that has made it the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, outside of a warzone. For the good of journalists, their families and colleagues, as well as the broader Mexican society, we hope Obrador takes the steps necessary to protect media freedom. Only then will this be the first and last time he is voted Tyrant of the Year."
We covered Mexico a lot in the years under his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto. We noted with alarm the escalation of violence against journalists in particular. When López Obrador came to power in 2018, he did so with promises to pull the country out of a dastardly spiral of crime, corruption and inequality. People were cynical about these pledges at the time and it’s a shame to see their cynicism was correct. Mexico remains very much on the Index radar as a result and we will continue to cover the country in our magazine and online.
Read about all the shortlisted leaders here.
1 Dec 2022 | Belarus, Campaigns, China, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Mexico, News, Nicaragua, North Korea, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia
At the end of every year, Index on Censorship launches a campaign to focus attention on human rights defenders, dissidents, artists and journalists who have been in the news headlines because their freedom of expression has been suppressed during the past twelve months. As well as this we focus on the authoritarian leaders who have been silencing their opponents.
Last year, we asked for your help in identifying 2021's Tyrant of the Year and you responded in your thousands. The 2021 winner, way ahead of a crowded field, was Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by China’s Xi Jinping and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad .
The polls are now open for the title of 2022 Tyrant of the Year and we are focusing on 12 leaders from around the globe who have done more during the past 12 months than other despots to win this dubious accolade.
Click on those in our rogues' gallery below to find out why the Index on Censorship team believe each one should be named Tyrant of the Year and then click on the form at the bottom of those pages to cast your vote. The closing date is Monday 9 January 2023.
VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED. SEE WHO YOU VOTED AS TYRANT OF THE YEAR 2022 HERE.
