Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression. It produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship (founded as the Writers and Scholars Educational Trust), which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. The current CEO is Jemimah Steinfeld.
WSI was created by poet Stephen Spender, Oxford philosopher Stuart Hampshire, the publisher and editor of The Observer David Astor, and the writer and expert on the Soviet Union Edward Crankshaw. The founding editor of Index on Censorship was the critic and translator Michael Scammell (1972–1981), who still serves as a patron of the organisation.
Founding history
An Appeal from the USSR
The original impetus for the creation of Index on Censorship came from an Open Letter addressed "To World Public Opinion" by two Soviet dissenters, Pavel Litvinov and Larisa Bogoraz. In the words of the samizdat periodical A Chronicle of Current Events, they described "the atmosphere of illegality" surrounding the January 1968 trial of Ginzburg and Galanskov and called for "public condemnation of this disgraceful trial, for the punishment of those responsible, the release of the accused from detention and a retrial which would fully conform with the legal regulations and be held in the presence of international observers." (One of the accused Alexander Ginzburg resumed his dissident activities on release from the camps, until expelled from the USSR in 1979; another, the writer Yuri Galanskov, died in a camp in November 1972.)
The Times (London) published a translation of the Open Letter and in reply the English poet Stephen Spender composed a brief telegram:
<blockquote>“We, a group of friends representing no organisation, support your statement, admire your courage, think of you and will help in any way possible.”</blockquote>
Among the other 15 British and US signatories were the poet W. H. Auden,
Originally, as suggested by Scammell, the magazine was to be called Index, a reference to the lists or indices of banned works that are central to the history of censorship: the Roman Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books); the Soviet Union's Censor's Index; and apartheid South Africa's Jacobsens Index of Objectionable Literature. It supports free expression, publishing distinguished writers from around the world, exposing suppressed stories, initiating debate, and providing an international record of censorship. The quarterly editions of the magazine usually focus on a country or region or a recurring theme in the global free expression debate. Index on Censorship also publishes short works of fiction and poetry by notable new writers. Index Index, a round-up of abuses of freedom of expression worldwide, was published in the magazine until December 2008.
While the original inspiration to create Index came from Soviet dissidents, from its outset the magazine covered censorship in right-wing dictatorships then ruling Greece and Portugal, the military regimes of Latin America, and the Soviet Union and its satellites.
Issues under the editorship of Jemimah Steinfeld featured investigations into how the UK's royal family censor their archives, the plight of Afghan journalists and the rise of Narendra Modi. The editor before, Rachael Jolley, looked at taboos, the legacy of the Magna Carta and Shakespeare's legacy in protest. There have been special issues on China, reporting from the Middle East, and on internet censorship. The Russia issue (January 2008) won an Amnesty International Media Award 2008 for features by Russian journalists Fatima Tlisova and Sergei Bachinin, and veteran Russian free speech campaigner Alexei Simonov, founder of the Glasnost Defence Foundation.
Since January 2010 it has been published by SAGE Publications, an independent for-profit academic publisher. Between 2005 and 2009, the magazine was published and distributed by Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis group.
In addition to print and annual subscriptions, Index on Censorship is available on Exact Editions, an application for the iPhone/iPad and Android.<!-- no commercial advertising -->
It is also a partner with Eurozine, a network of more than 60 European cultural journals. It was first performed with the London Symphony Orchestra. Stoppard became a member of the advisory board of Index on Censorship in 1978 and remains connected to the publication as a Patron of Index.
Index on Censorship published the World Statement by the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie in support of "the right of all people to express their ideas and beliefs and to discuss them with their critics on the basis of mutual tolerance, free from censorship, intimidation and violence. Six months later, Index published the Hunger Strike Declaration from four student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Liu Xiaobo, Zhou Duo, Hou Dejian and Gao Xin.
Index Index, a round-up of abuses of freedom of expression worldwide, continued to be published in each edition of the magazine until December 2008, when this function was transferred to the website. The offences against free expression documented in that first issue's Index Index listing included censorship in Greece and Spain, then dictatorships, and Brazil, which had just banned the film Zabriskie Point on the grounds that it "insulted a friendly power" – the United States, where it had been made and freely shown.
Index on Censorship paid special attention to the situation in then Czechoslovakia between the Soviet invasion of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989, devoting an entire issue to the country eight years after the Prague Spring (Issue 3/1976). It included several pieces by Václav Havel, including a first translation of his one act play Conversation, and a letter to Czech officials on police censorship of his December 1975 production of The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. at the Free Word Centre to mark the launch of Index's special issue looking back at the changes of 1989 (Issue 4, 2009).
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Campaigns
Index has been the driving force in the UK in the campaign to "StopSLAPPs", strategic lawsuits against public participation. As a result of their campaigning, in 2024 a private members bill was tabled.
Free Speech is not For Sale, a joint campaign report by Index on Censorship and English PEN highlighted the problem of so-called libel tourism and the English law of defamation's chilling effect on free speech. After much debate surrounding the report's ten key recommendations, the UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw pledged to make English defamation laws fairer.
"A free press can't operate or be effective unless it can offer readers comment as well as news. What concerns me is that the current arrangements are being used by big corporations to restrict fair comment, not always by journalists but also by academics." He added: "The very high levels of remuneration for defamation lawyers in Britain seem to be incentivising libel tourism."
These campaigns and others were illustrative of then CEO John Kampfner's strategy, supported by then chair Jonathan Dimbleby, to boost Index's public advocacy profile in the UK and abroad beginning in 2008. Until then the organisation did not regard itself as "a campaigning organisation in the mould of Article 19 or Amnesty International", as former news editor Sarah Smith noted in 2001, preferring to use its "understanding of what is newsworthy and politically significant to maintain pressure on oppressive regimes through extensive coverage".
Arts and international programmes
Index on Censorship also runs a programme of UK based and international projects that put the organisation's philosophy into practice. In 2009 and 2010 Index on Censorship worked in Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq, Tunisia and many other countries, in support of journalists, broadcasters, artists and writers who work against a backdrop of intimidation, repression, and censorship.
The organisation's arts' programmes investigate the impact of current and recent social and political change on arts practitioners, assessing the degree and depth of self-censorship. It uses the arts to engage young people directly into the freedom of expression debate. It works with marginalised communities in UK, creating new platforms, on line and actual for creative expression. and a programme involving artists from refugee and migrant communities in UK, linking with artists from their country of origin, Imagine art after, exhibited at Tate Britain in 2007.
Index has also worked with Burmese exiled artists and publishers on creating a programme in support of the collective efforts of Burma's creative community. Index also commissioned a new play by Actors for Human Rights, Seven Years With Hard Labour, weaving together four accounts from former Burmese political prisoners now living in the UK. Index also co-published a book of poetry by homeless people in London and St. Petersburg.
CEO
The current Chief Executive of Index on Censorship is Jemimah Steinfeld. She took on this role in May 2024, replacing Ruth Anderson, who left the organisation to follow a political path. The Chief Executive of Index on Censorship from 2014 through to 2020 was Jodie Ginsberg, who is now the CEO of the CPJ.
Freedom of Expression Awards
Index on Censorship annually presents awards to journalists, artists, campaigners and digital activists from around the world who make a significant contribution to free expression over the previous year. Sponsors have included The Guardian, Google, SAGE Publications and the London law firm Doughty Street Chambers.
The 2020 awards were held online in April 2020 during the 2019–20 COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 winners: Journalism: Samira Sabou; Campaigning: Abdelrahman 'Moka' Tarek; Arts: Tatyana Zelenskaya; Trustee Award: Arif Ahmed.
2018 winners: Journalism: Wendy Funes; Campaigning: Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms; Digital: Habari RDC; Arts: The Museum of Dissidence.
2017 winners: Journalism: Maldives Independent; Campaigning: Ildar Dadin; Digital: Turkey Blocks; Arts: Rebel Pepper.
2016 winners: Journalism: Zaina Erhaim; Campaigning: Bolo Bhi; Digital: GreatFire; Arts: Murad Subay.
2015 winners: Journalism: Rafael Marques de Morais and Safa Al Ahmad; Campaigning: Amran Abdundi; Digital:Tamas Bodoky; Arts: Mouad "El Haqued" Belghouat.
2014 winners: Journalism: Azadliq; Advocacy: Shahzad Ahmad; Digital: Shu Choudhary; Arts: Mayam Mahmoud. and the Monks of Burma.
2007 winners: Journalism: Kareem Amer; Film: Yoav Shamir, Defamation; Whistleblower: Chen Guangcheng; Books: Samir Kassir; Law: Siphiwe Hlophe.
2006 winners: Journalism: Sihem Bensedrine; Film: Bahman Ghobadi, Turtles Can Fly; Whistleblower: Huang Jingao; Books: Jean Hatzfeld, Into the Quick Life: The Rwandan Genocide – the Survivors Speak and A Time for Machetes: the Killers Speak; Law: Beatrice Mtetwa.
2005 winners: Journalism: Sumi Khan; Books: Soldiers, Light by Daniel Bergner; Film: Final Solution, Rakesh Sharma; Campaigning: Center of Constitutional Rights; Whistleblowing: Grigoris Lazos. Whistleblowing: Jiang Weiping; Censor of the Year: Silvio Berlusconi. The blog described Van Gogh was a "free-speech fundamentalist" on a "martyrdom operation[,] roar[ing] his Muslim critics into silence with obscenities" in an "abuse of his right to free speech". Describing Van Gogh's film Submission as "furiously provocative", Jayasekera concluded by describing his death:
<blockquote>"A sensational climax to a lifetime's public performance, stabbed and shot by a bearded fundamentalist, a message from the killer pinned by a dagger to his chest, Theo Van Gogh became a martyr to free expression. His passing was marked by a magnificent barrage of noise as Amsterdam hit the streets to celebrate him in the way the man himself would have truly appreciated. And what timing! Just as his long-awaited biographical film of Pim Fortuyn's life is ready to screen. Bravo, Theo! Bravo!"</blockquote>
Ursula Owen, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, while agreeing that the blog post's "tone was not right" contradicted Cohen's account of his conversation with Jayasekera in a letter to The Observer.
Danish cartoons
In December 2009, the magazine published an interview with Jytte Klausen about a refusal of Yale University Press to include the Mohammed Cartoons in Klausen's book The Cartoons that Shook the World. The magazine declined to include the cartoons alongside the interview.