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Articles by Maria Sorensen
Art and anarchy in troubled times
In June 2024, a curatorial collective I was part of had an exhibition on censorship called UnSaid in an art space in Zurich. Among the featured works were drawings by the Ukrainian artist David Chichkan.
Art and anarchy in troubled times
In June 2024, a curatorial collective I was part of had an exhibition on censorship called UnSaid in an art space in Zurich. Among the featured works were drawings by the Ukrainian artist David Chichkan.
The monster unleashed: How Hungary's illiberal vision is seducing the western world
Hungary has been on our radar for a long time. The prime minister Viktor Orbán is not an autocrat like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, but he has been slowly eroding his society’s democratic institutions and helping his Fidesz party allies take them over. It’s meant not only that power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires, but that the public space for freedom of expression and pluralistic thought has been narrowed.
Freedom of speech needs freedom of thought
This article first appeared in Volume 54, Issue 3 of our print edition of Index on Censorship, titled Truth, trust and tricksters: Free expression in the age of AI, published on 30 September 2025. Read more about the issue here. In his book What is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea the historian Fara Dabhoiwala aims to show how free speech, once viewed as both hazardous and unnatural, was reinvented as an unalloyed good, with enormous consequences for our society today.
LETTER: Audette, Hoekman, Arco working to improve Anoka-Hennepin Schools
To the Editor: I would like to take a moment to highlight the outstanding contributions of school board members Matt Audette, Linda Hoekman, and Zach Arco, whose dedication and hard work continue to have a positive impact in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. kAm%96D6 3@2C5 >6>36CD 4@?D:DE6?E=J >2<6 E@F89 564:D:@?D H:E9 E96 36DE :?E6C6DED @7 @FC DEF56?ED :? >:?5] %96:C =6256CD9:A 92D C6DF=E65 :? D6G6C2= <6J G:4E@C:6D E92E 2C6 >2<:?8 2 C62= 5:776C6?46 :?
Love in the time of dissent
This week marked another Valentine’s Day and the world was abuzz with expressions of love and affection. Yet, amidst the sea of roses and chocolates, there lies a stark reality for many: the agony of separation from loved ones. For dissidents around the globe, this pain is not merely a matter of distance; it is the consequence of standing against tyranny - for speaking truth to power.
China's feminists walk a tightrope
It was in 2015, during my internship at one of China’s most prominent digital media publications, that I had my first close encounter with censorship. Every so often the editor-in-chief would repost a message to our online chat group coming from someone whose username was “The Person is Present” (“人在呢”). They were from the Cyberspace Administration, which is the national internet regulator and censor of China.
Joke’s on Lukashenka speaking rubbish Belarusian. Or is it?
An American tells a Russian that the United States is so free he can stand in front of the White House and yell, “To hell with Ronald Reagan.’’ The Russian replies: “That’s nothing. We also have freedom of speech! I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, ‘To hell with Ronald Reagan,’ too.’’ Most would not associate Belarus, known in Western media for its authoritarian regime, with comedy. And it’s true that the current situation is indeed more tragic than comical.
Cancel Putin, not culture - Index on Censorship
In the dark times Will there be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht, motto to Svendborg Poems 1939 For someone who has by now lived most of my adult life in the West but grew up in Belarus – a country that borders both Ukraine and Russia – these have certainly been dark and turbulent times. The horror of what people in Ukraine are going through is heart-breaking. It is also confusing if my own country of birth is viewed as an aggressor or a victim.
Does Russia's war have popular support? Navalny says not
As Putin continues his bloody invasion of Ukraine, the rest of the world continues to look for signs of an uprising in Russia that might provide a possible exit strategy without risking World War III. In a country that has cracked down on protest ever since Index was founded in 1972, it can be hard to tell the real scale of opposition to the war.
Whistleblowers -- Summer 2021 -- Index on Censorship magazine
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Thirty years on: the Salman Rushdie fatwa revisited
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] On 14 February 1989 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to execute author Salman Rushdie over the publication of The Satanic Verses, along with anyone else involved with the novel. Published in the UK in 1988 by Viking Penguin, the book was met with widespread protest by those who accused Rushdie of blasphemy and unbelief.
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