Index on Censorship

1 week ago | indexoncensorship.org | Jemimah Steinfeld

When photojournalist Linda Tirado was covering a Minneapolis protest in May 2020 – days after George Floyd was killed – she was shot in the face with a plastic bullet. Tirado has since spoken about the traumatic brain injury she suffered on that day, which has changed her life. Rubber bullets. Plastic bullets. These are not harmless deterrents – they are weapons. And once again they’re being used against journalists in the USA.

2 weeks ago | indexoncensorship.org | Jemimah Steinfeld

Members of Civil Society hold a protest demonstration at Peshawar press club in June 2025 demanding justice for Sana Yousaf, the 17-year-old who was murdered in her own home in Islamabad. Photo by Pakistan Press International (PPI) / Alamy Live News When news broke on Monday of 17-year-old Sana Yousaf’s murder, it was first described as a potential “honour-based killing”.

3 weeks ago | indexoncensorship.org | Sarah Dawood

The European Convention on Human Rights was set up in the aftermath of World War Two to protect the rights of people in the Council of Europe’s 47 member states. Enshrined within it are fundamental obligations around free speech, including the right to free expression and the right to protest.

4 weeks ago | indexoncensorship.org | Zahra Joya

This article first appeared in Volume 54, Issue 1 of our print edition of Index on Censorship, titled The forgotten patients: Lost voices in the global healthcare system, published on 11 April 2025. Read more about the issue here. Over the past 15 years, Bibi Jan has already endured the unimaginable pain of losing four of her children due to malnutrition and inadequate medical facilities. She is now deeply anxious about the health of two of her three surviving children.

1 month ago | indexoncensorship.org | Jemimah Steinfeld

My predecessor Ruth Anderson used to joke that we weren’t working hard enough because we hadn’t been banned in Russia. Perhaps she was onto something. We’re still not banned there, as far as I know. Amnesty International though appears to have met the mark – or rather crossed a Kremlin red line. This week, Russian authorities labelled Amnesty an “undesirable organisation”, accusing it of being a “centre for the preparation of global Russophobic projects”.