Fifty years of Index: Our founders' vision and the work still to be done

50 years ago this week, four extraordinary people signed our charitable deeds founding Index on Censorship – the poet Stephen Spender, the royal biographer Elizabeth Longford, the philosopher and author Stuart Hampshire, and wartime codebreaker and historian Peter Calvocoressi.

Their vision was clear – we were to be a voice for the persecuted, providing a home for dissident writers, scholars and artists and to shine a light on the actions of repressive regimes. Work still needs to be done, writes our CEO Ruth Smeeth

Using litigation tactics to intimidate investigative journalists into silence

Twenty-four organisations express their solidarity with the Swedish business and finance publication Realtid, its editor, and the two journalists being sued for defamation in London. Read our joint statement.