Burkina Faso has chosen the tool of the tyrant
With the world absorbed in too much news some important stories in the world of freedom of expression can be lost. As we mark World Press Freedom Day it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what is...
View ArticleNew magazine Atar fills information void in Sudan
Atar, a digital magazine distributed via email and WhatsApp, first came to my attention late last October. I was in a dimly lit New York cafe, warmed by the company of a group of Sudanese diaspora;...
View ArticleContents – The long reach: How authoritarian countries are silencing critics...
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...
View ArticleSouth Africa votes amid corruption and rampant abuse of power
Two years ago, South Africa was named the most unequal country in the world in a World Bank report. This in a country where apartheid was dismantled 30 years ago. As the country goes to the polls on 29...
View ArticleRwanda polls: The Kagame “landslide” that would embarrass other dictators
Rwanda’s Paul Kagame has won 99.15% of the vote in this week’s presidential poll, a margin of victory so high that even Belarusian dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka has baulked at claiming such a high...
View ArticleKenya: Young reporters and NGOs targeted as part of clampdown on Gen Z protests
Kenyan journalist Hanifa Adan faced harassment and attempts to censor her when she covered deadly protests and started fundraising for people injured during the unrest that have left more than 50...
View ArticleRussia, disinformation and two Olympic boxers
Boxer Imane Khelif broke down in tears last week following her victory over Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori in the welterweight quarter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics guaranteed her a medal. It was an...
View ArticleViolent repression and torture in Zimbabwe on eve of major development...
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a deepening human rights crisis ahead of hosting a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) summit on Saturday when its leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has deployed army...
View ArticleContents – The final cut: How cinema is being used to change the global...
Contents The Summer 2024 issue of Index looks at how cinema is used as a tool to help shape the global political narrative by investigating who controls what we see on the screen and why they want us...
View ArticleTelling fact from fiction
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This well-known philosophical question most likely stems from the work of 18th century philosopher George Berkeley,...
View ArticleContents – Inconvenient truths: How scientists are being silenced around the...
Contents Ever since Galileo Galilei faced the Roman inquisition in the 17th century for proving that the Earth went round the sun, scientists have risked being ruthlessly silenced. People are...
View ArticleMozambique faces protest crackdown following disputed presidential election
Mozambique has resorted to an internet shutdown, denying people their right to participatory democracy amid widespread post-election protests that have seen security forces kill at least 20 people....
View ArticleWho will protect freedom of expression now?
Apologies for another newsletter hitting your inbox that opens on the US election results, but it feels remiss not to talk about something that could have large implications for global free expression....
View ArticleIndex on Censorship announces 2024 Freedom of Expression award winners
Index on Censorship has announced the winners of its 2024 Freedom of Expression Awards. This year’s honourees are Aleksandra Skochilenko (Russia), Diala Ayesh (Palestinian Territories), Kuchu Times...
View ArticleA big week to remember
Index held its annual awards on Wednesday, the biggest night in its organisational calendar. This year another crop of amazing individuals enter the Index fold and we pledge to do as much as possible...
View ArticleBoualem Sansal faces life imprisonment if found guilty of national security...
In 2012, the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal wrote an article for Index about his controversial visit to Israel, where he was inspired by an encounter with the writer David Grossman to launch the...
View ArticleContents – Unsung heroes: How musicians are raising their voices against...
Contents Music has been described as a “cultural universal” – a practice found in all known human cultures and societies. While anthropologists still scratch their heads over exactly where the concept...
View ArticleBobi Wine still standing up to oppression in Uganda, politically and musically
This article first appeared in Volume 53, Issue 4 of our print edition of Index on Censorship, titled Unsung Heroes: How musicians are raising their voices against oppression. Read more about the...
View ArticleThe extraordinary decency of Athol Fugard
Gavin Hood directed the 2006 Best Foreign Language Academy Award winning film Tsotsi, based on the acclaimed novel by South Africa’s greatest playwright, the late Athol Fugard. Hood only met Fugard...
View ArticlePresident Museveni’s crackdown on Ugandan TikTokers
In recent months, several young men and women in Uganda have been arrested and charged for views they expressed on TikTok. In the East African country, the freedom of expression landscape has...
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