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These two post-soviet states are on the new Committee‘s to Protect Journalists (CPJ) list of ten countries in the world where free media is most heavily censored. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the runners-up.

international artists with artists based in the UK, from the Middle East, Burma and Belarus, will reflect on what happens to the creative vocabulary when the political landscape changes.

In conjunction with the Free Word Centre’s exhibition ‘Politics and the Olympics’, Index on Censorship will host an event around the question, ‘Should sport be above politics and human rights?’

In Azerbaijan five independent reporters, including award-winning journalist Idrak Abbasov, were brutally assaulted just weeks before the Eurovision Song Contest.

Between responsibility and reality: How can we guarantee free expression online? As the internet becomes a central feature of everyday life, opinion is still divided on how to make it work for the common good.

At least 13 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus, two weeks after the release of the former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau.

In 2011, more than 60,000 people sought help in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after exhausting all judicial remedies before national courts. Now some EU member states propose reforms of this institution because of a huge number of applications. Dozens of European organizations see these efforts as a threat and call to refrain from further reforms of the ECHR.

According to human rights and free speech organisation Article 19, the year 2011 has seen both positive and negative developments regarding freedom of expression and freedom of information in the region of East and Horn of Africa. Unfortunately, restrictive legislation in all East and Horn African countries continued to operate last year, with no signs of the acts that violated international and regional standards on freedom of expression being repealed.

The research and information centre Memorial from Russia won the 2012 Index on Censorship Award. Azerbaijani journalist Idrak Abbasov won the journalism award, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights accepted the Advocacy Award, Freedom Fone by Kubatana won the Innovation Award, Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat accepted the Arts Award.