As over 40 people, many of them journalists, are detained on terrorism charges across Turkey, Kaya Genç examines the latest attempt to silence the Kurdish press
One year on from the crackdown on the opposition in Belarus, Irina Bogdanova, sister of political prisoner Andrei Sannikov, calls for international action against Europe’s last dictatorship
Technology has revolutionised reporting on North Korea. David McNeill reveals how a clandestine network is getting the word out despite restrictions
In one of his last public acts, dissident, playwright and president Václav Havel signed this statement calling for free speech in Belarus, along with Ai Weiwei, Sir Tom Stoppard and many more
Václav Havel, dissident, playwright, first president of the Czech Republic, and author of Charter 77 died today.
Samuel Beckett wrote a play for Václav Havel when he was in jail. On being freed, Havel returned the favour. Jo Glanville reflects on a great dramatic double-act
Activists and opposition politicians arrested as Russians speak out against the prime minister’s party. Elena Vlasenko reports
UK’s Europe Minister David Liddington visits Human Rights House Viasna alongside Index on Censorship; Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore emphasizes NGO involvement
Plus: Conference urges ministers to “suspend Belarus from the OSCE”
Elena Vlasenko reports from Saturday’s momentous Moscow protest
As the controversy surrounding high profile defamation case of RTE and Father Kevin Reynolds continues, Michael Foley explores the involvement of the Irish government.
Activists are on hunger strike to protest against manipulation of TV images.
Thomas Escritt reports
PLUS: Read Mike Harris on “Hungary – How Not To Regulate The Press“
In its punitive treatment of accused leaker Bradley Manning, the US government has missed an opportunity to live up to its values of freedom, says Heather Brooke
Egyptian security forces reportedly raided the offices of at least seventeen local and international NGOs yesterday. Authorities confiscated files, computers and records from the human rights and pro-democracy organisations. The raided organisations all allegedly receive foreign funding, and are now under investigation for violating Egyptian law. Staff of the organisations were confined to their officers during the [...]
This piece by Vaclav Havel was published in Index on Censorship in 1984 after he was released from prison in March 1983, having served almost four years on charges of “subversive activities against the Socialist state” of Czechoslovakia. The “subversive activities” were his signature on the Charter 77 manifesto (he was one of the three original [...]
How are ordinary, decent people to react to the imposition of a repressive regime, how much should they risk in showing their opposition to it? These questions were raised by Ludvik Vaculik in a feuilleton he wrote in December 1978, which brought an indignant reply from Václav Havel, as well as a dozen other dissidents. [...]
Pavel Theiner: Havel and the legacy of Jan Palach
As the Czech Republic and the wider world bids Václav Havel goodbye, Pavel Theiner, whose father George worked tirelessly to shine a light on the work of Czech dissidents throughout his editorship at Index on Censorship, looks back on a remarkable man
In 1979, Vaclav Havel wrote to fellow Czech dissident Ludvik Vaculik, responding to his comments about the role of ordinary people in combatting authoritarianism. Havel was arrested shortly after it was published in Index on Censorship
