Index on Censorship magazine podcasts

Six months after the handover of Hong Kong from British rule, Index on Censorship published a special edition: Hong Kong Goes Back. In it various people predicted what the future might hold. Jonathan Mirsky, then East Asia editor of The Times, wrote on how freedom of expression began to crumble in Hong Kong in anticipation of the handover. He described how news channels reported on China in a “vapid or grovelling” manner, democratic politicians spoke of their colleagues no longer wanting to be associated with them and organisations were expected to plan celebrations for the handover. Mirsky predicted a dismal future where loyalty to Beijing would be an overriding expectation.

Twenty-five years later his predictions have sadly been realised. The situation is grave, perhaps even worse than Mirksy's fears. Just how grave? Are there any freedoms left? And what can we, over in the UK, do to help?

A panel of people who all once called Hong Kong home will share their thoughts and experiences. On the panel will be Benedict Rogers, the CEO of Hong Kong Watch, Hong Kong journalist Kris Cheng, Mark Clifford, President of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, Evan Fowler, a writer and researcher on Hong Kong and China, and activist and author Nathan Law. The discussion will be chaired by Index on Censorship's current magazine editor, Jemimah Steinfeld, who has lived in China.

This event is organised in partnership with the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.

Palestianian novelist Abbad Yahya speaks about the difficult choices for those living in the West Bank and the effects of censorship

Index's editorial assistant Benjamin Lynch talks to comedian and author Andrew Doyle about his new book, "Free Speech and Why It Matters". They discuss incitement and his thoughts on why President Donald Trump shouldn't have been removed from Twitter, as well as the state of free speech on the left and right.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's associate editor Mark Frary talks to Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in prison in Iran for the past five years. He talks about the end of her house arrest, what has got her through solitary confinement and the attitude of the British government to her case and other Britons imprisoned in the country.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index’s Benjamin Lynch talks to author, historian and modern China expert Jeff Wasserstrom about why China censors, the Chinese Communist Party's growing influence and what their censorship policies mean for the rest of the world.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's Mark Frary talks to actor and barrister Shereener Browne. Browne talks about the drill music scene and her fight to stop censorship of the genre by the government and Metropolitan Police. She talks about how the black community has been singled out by the authorities and how banning the music, which often has violent lyrics, does not solve the problem of gang violence.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's Mark Frary talks to Rahima Mahmut, Uighur singer and UK project director of the World Uyghur Congress. She discusses why the world is afraid of China's power and the plight of the Uighur people. She also talks of the importance of cultural memories, including song and poetry, and her concerns for the future.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's Mark Frary talks to Dr Tunc Aybak, programme leader of the international politics degree at Middlesex University, about the trials of Alexei Navalny in Russia, Putin's Palace and the golden toilet brush revolution. He discusses political technology and the state of the media in the country.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's Benjamin Lynch talks to youth activist Thay Graciano, co-founder of Skaped, about the importance of young activism and people self-censoring themselves on US college campuses, as well as the problems caused by Jair Bolsonaro in her birth country of Brazil. She also talks of working with arts organisations in Belarus.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's associate editor Mark Frary talks to groundbreaking electro-pop artist LAYKE, who has worked with Snoop Dogg and is an activist fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights. We discuss racial equality in a Black Lives Matter world, the task facing Joe Biden, growing up in Texas and her pansexuality.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's associate editor Mark Frary talks to Kirstin McCudden, managing editor of the US Press Freedom Tracker ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. McCudden talks about attacks on the press during the Black Lives Matter protests, the storming of the US Capitol and Donald Trump's legacy.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's head of content Jemimah Steinfeld talks to freelance journalist and Index contributor Issa Sikiti da Silva ahead of the upcoming Ugandan presidential elections which are expected to return President Yoweri Museveni to power once again. Issa talks about the role of social media and the future of the free press in the region.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's associate editor Mark Frary talks to singer, poet and writer Amyra about her collaboration with the Tongue Fu collective on the album Boat Building.

Amyra talks about Black Lives Matter and her anger over the lack of resources for women, especially women of colour. She talks about how she wants her work to be empowering to others and why she wrote the children's book Freedom, We Sing.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

Index's head of content Jemimah Steinfeld talks to Tom Grundy, the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hong Kong Free Press.

Grundy talks about how Hong Kong has changed since the publication was founded, media freedom in the shadow of China's National Security Law and the challenges that his journalists work under to get the news out with many critics of the Chinese Communist Party being jailed.

Index on Censorship's What the Fuck!? podcast invites politicians, activists, journalists and celebrities to talk about the worst things going on in the world, why you should care and why you should swear.

In this episode, Index’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to musician, poet and activist Penny Rimbaud, who founded anarchistic punk band Crass in the 1970s.

He talks about why the battle isn’t against Donald Trump but against all US presidencies and why the British are the most repressed in the world. He says the Sex Pistols and the Clash were only playing at being angry.

He also says everyone should change their name, as he did, and why his poetic namesake is the inspiration behind his new album, Arthur Rimbaud in Verdun, now out on One Little Independent Records.

The high-concept album is based on a fiction constructed by Penny which places the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (who died in 1891) at the historic and tragic battle of Verdun in 1916. It is influenced by the sounds of John Coltrane and the visuals of Jackson Pollock.

In the latest episode of Index on Censorship’s What the Fuck!? podcast, associate editor Mark Frary talks to actor Natalia Tena, known for playing Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter movies as well as Lana Pierce in the YouTube science fiction series Origin and Osha in Game of Thrones.

Tena talks about how she became aware of female genital cutting, a practice that affects more than 200 million girls and women around the world, after reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book Infidel:My Life.

She talks about why she has been walking the Santiago de Camino to fundraise for The Orchid Project and her favourite swear words in English and Spanish.

In this episode, Index on Censorship’s associate editor Mark Frary talks to photographer and artist Alison Jackson, who is renowned for her explorations into how photography and the cult of the celebrity have transformed our relationship to what is ‘real’.

She talks about her latest work, a sculpture of President Donald Trump in a compromising position with Miss Universe, the US elections and why the President needs the oxygen of publicity.  Alison discusses the very real challenges of artistic censorship and her favourite way of expressing her anger.

In the winter 2019 podcast, The Big Noise, we focus on the tactics male macho leaders around the world use to quash criticism, debate and therefore freedom of expression. Orna Herr and Jemimah Steinfeld discuss the latest edition of the magazine, revealing their highlights of the issue and concerns over the collision between social media apps and world leaders trying to spread disinformation. Guests include Richard Hine, who runs a popular Donald Trump parody account on Twitter and explains how the US president manipulates the media, Italian journalist Leonardo Bianchi who describes the mistrust of the partisan Italian media, Brazilian journalist Patricia Campos Mello who reveals the extent of sexist abuse suffered by female journalists in Brazil, and Viktoria Sërdult, a contributor the latest edition of the magazine who discusses the Hungarian government’s anti-LGBT agenda.