Friday, 30 April 2021

Urgent action is needed to defend our media

Photo: Matt Seymour/Unsplash

Index on Censorship and thirteen other organisations have launched the Annual Report of the Council of Europe Platform looking at attacks on the media. The number remains stubbornly high.

According to the report, a total of 201 media freedom alerts were published on the Platform in 2020, the highest annual total recorded in any year since the platform was launched in 2015. Online harassment, physical attacks, surveillance, and strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are among the themes covered in the report, which draws on the media freedom alerts that were submitted to the platform over the course of 2020.

Watch our spring magazine launch with acclaimed writer Ma Jian and The Guardian's foreign leader writer Tania Branigan

UK football social media blackout raises free speech issues

The Premier League and a coalition of football governing bodies from across the United Kingdom are set to commence a social media blackout from 30 April to 3 May to raise awareness of online racist abuse, but the initiative has raised questions over its end goal. Is this merely a nod to the issue of racism in the "beautiful game" or will it have lasting effects, asks Benjamin Lynch?

"The CCP will one day fall" - Ma Jian's words give us hope

"The Chinese government is more than an authoritarian government. It is a government built on the ideology and infrastructure of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This year marks the centenary of the CCP and in the latest edition of Index on Censorship magazine we’ve focused on the impact of the CCP both at home and abroad.

Of the many features in our special report, what is most touching, at least for me, are the beautiful words of Ma Jian, the acclaimed writer in exile. Ma Jian reflects on the impact of the CCP on his life and why he has to live in exile."

Read our CEO Ruth Smeeth in her latest blog on why his words are so important.

Support Index on Censorship's ongoing work

Our statement on the Maya Forstater tribunal

This week Index on Censorship took the unusual step of legally intervening in an employment appeal tribunal. Read about our intervention here.

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 to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.