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Aug 30, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Nik Williams |Martin Bright |Rizik Al-Abi |Ella Edwards
Many things can be true at the same time. Telegram is used by dissidents, including those in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, to get information out of severely restrained information environments. It is used to share child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), trade in drugs, weapons and other illicit materials, and coordinate riots and the transmission of weaponised disinformation.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Martin Bright |Rizik Al-Abi |Ella Edwards |Katie Dancey-Downs
Why do we tolerate X? Elon Musk’s poisoned well is fast filling up with far-right propaganda, disinformation, hate speech and now, it would seem, adverts for machine guns and grenade launchers from Iran-backed terrorists in Yemen. This is the reality of the free speech utopia the world’s richest man promised us when he took over Twitter. And yet we continue to populate it with content. I do, Index does and many of you reading this will continue to do so.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Rizik Al-Abi |Ella Edwards |Katie Dancey-Downs
Media freedom has been slowly dying in Syria since the Arab Spring, suffocated by a lack of regular funding and poor governance. The rise of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and Hafez al-Assad’s coup in 1970 led to state dominance over all its institutions, resulting in a media monopoly that supports the regime. State television and several official daily newspapers have controlled the media landscape for over 41 years.
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Ella Edwards |Katie Dancey-Downs |Clemence Manyukwe
Reframing the US government’s relationship with the media and placing free speech and democracy in the firing line is at the heart of Project 2025, the 922-page policy plan supported by over 400 conservatives and led by the Heritage Foundation thinktank.
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Jul 22, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Martin Bright |Rizik Al-Abi |Ella Edwards |Katie Dancey-Downs
The Babyn Yar massacre is one of the bloodiest atrocities in Ukraine’s dark history. In late September 1941, 33,771 Jewish residents of Kyiv were herded by the Nazis into a ravine (“Babi Yar” in Russian, “Babyn Yar” in Ukrainian) on the outskirts of the city. Over a two-day period, the victims were shot and buried in mass graves as part of what became known as “the Holocaust of Bullets”.
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Jul 5, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Jemimah Steinfeld |Martin Bright |Ella Edwards |Mark Stimpson
“The challenge in terms of free speech is quite profound, actually.” These were the words of the UK’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, in an interview with Index back in 2013. At the time Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service and in the interview discusses the challenges of balancing free speech rights on social media, very much debates we are still having today. It was not a cameo for Starmer and Index.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Daisy Ruddock |Martin Bright |Ella Edwards |Mark Stimpson
Following the controversy of the 2022 World Cup when organising body FIFA faced major criticism over the decision to hold one of the biggest sporting events on the planet in Qatar, a state with a terrible record on human rights, governing body UEFA have attempted to steer clear of any politics whatsoever at this summer’s European Championships.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Martin Bright |Ella Edwards |Mark Stimpson |Jana Paliashchuk
Index on Censorship has had a close relationship with Julian Assange since he picked up our new media award in 2008 for his work with Wikileaks due to our shared concern for freedom of expression. We were therefore pleased to hear the news that he was finally able to be reunited with his family in Australia after five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison and seven years in hiding at the Ecuadorian embassy (pictured above).
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Jun 28, 2024 | 
indexoncensorship.org | Ella Edwards |Mark Stimpson |Jana Paliashchuk
While the outcome of the 2024 election is yet to be finalised, results at the time of writing show that Eurosceptic conservatives are on course to win an extra 14 seats (taking them to 83), while right-wing nationalists will gain nine seats (to 58). Overall, the right, including centre-right politicians of the European People’s Party grouping, has done well, largely at the expense of the liberal and green party groupings.
