Activists from Botswana, Turkmenistan, Bahrain and Turkey on the shortlist. Join our innovative campaign to help artists 

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Friday, 6 March 2020


** Nominees announced for Index's campaigning awards
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Campaigners for LGBT recognition in the heart of Africa, a group supporting long-term detainees in Turkmenistan, an exiled critic of the Bahraini government whose family have been imprisoned back at home and a lawyer who provides pro-bono legal support to Turkish journalists, activists and academics have made the shortlist for Index on Censorship’s 2020 Freedom of Expression Awards ([link removed]) .

The winner will be announced at an event at The May Fair Hotel in London on 30 April. Campaigning is one of the four categories that will be recognised at the awards, alongside digital activism, journalism ([link removed]) and the arts ([link removed]) .

Meet this year’s nominees in the campaigning category shortlist ([link removed]) .
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Each year, Index on Censorship awards an arts fellowship to one person or one organisation who is doing amazing work against the odds, pushing back against censorship in their own country. This is where we need your help. This year Index is looking for 50 people who want to fight back against the increasing attempt to censor art around the world. Please donate just £10 ([link removed]) to help create a scholarship fund for our 2020 Index Arts Fellow.


** Human Rights Watch Film Festival: London, 12 to 20 March
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The Human Rights Watch Film Festival ([link removed]) comes to London this month and Index on Censorship is proud to be one of the event's partners. On the schedule is a documentary on Vietnam's "Lady Gaga" Mai Khoi (pictured) who we interviewed in 2018 ([link removed]) .

Among the other documentaries featured is Leftover Women by filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia, about the stigma felt by single, professional women in China. Tickets available here ([link removed])


** Have you been slapped with a Slapp?
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Alongside academic, digital, and artistic freedoms, media freedom is one of Index on Censorship’s primary areas of focus. This research project seeks to identify the scale and nature of the phenomenon of vexatious legal threats/actions against journalists in Europe, otherwise known as Slapps (strategic lawsuits against public participation).

Vexatious actions, which may include letters threatening libel and defamation, come from private parties (often corporations or wealthy individuals) with the intent to silence journalists and media outlets and prevent them from investigating or publishing their work. Read what Index's Jessica Ni Mhainin wrote about Slapps in Press Gazette ([link removed]) .

In order to conduct this research, we are asking journalists and media outlets who might be able to provide insight into how common this phenomenon is to fill out our survey ([link removed]) by 31 March 2020.
Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.

We rely on donations from readers and supporters. By donating ([link removed]) to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.
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