Friday, 26 September 2025
[link removed]


** Jimmy Kimmel: No laughing matter
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to take the temperature of a nation in terms of free speech just look at how it treats its comedians. Countries with robust human rights records can take a joke, the reverse is the case for dictatorships. Comedy “masquerades as folly, but it can take down an empire” wrote ([link removed]) Shalom Auslander in a recent issue of our magazine to explain why joke tellers are so often targets. Which of course brings us to Donald Trump and Jimmy Kimmel. The story gripped us all and exposed both Trump’s thin-skin and the role corporations play today in censorship. Bassem Youssef, an Egyptian-American satirist who had to stop his show in Egypt following significant pressure, responded to the suspension of Kimmel with a quip on X ([link removed]) : “My Fellow American Citizens. Welcome to my world.”

Fortunately, the USA is not el-Sisi’s Egypt – yet. Kimmel is now back on air after a public outcry and cancellations ([link removed]) of subscriptions to Disney’s streaming services. Turns out, the dollar speaks both ways. Meanwhile, a statue ([link removed]) of Trump holding hands with Jeffrey Epstein appeared in Washington this week. The bronze-painted installation, titled Best Friends Forever, depicted the two men smiling at each other. The statue made its point, though not for long. The team behind the statue, called The Secret Handshake, had apparently been granted a permit to have it remain there until Sunday evening. It didn’t last a day.

The UK is struggling with humour too. Last month, Banksy’s mural ([link removed]) of a protester being beaten by a judge was wiped from the Royal Courts of Justice almost before the paint dried. Officials cited the building’s listed status, but the speed was telling. In a separate incident a protester holding a Private Eye cartoon was arrested ([link removed]) at a Palestine solidarity march in July, satire clearly lost on the police.

It’s worse elsewhere. In Iran, Zeinab Mousavi, one of the first Iranian women to do stand-up comedy, is a frequent target of the authorities. Last month she was charged ([link removed]) with making statements that were “contrary to public morality”. In China, a joke about the military led to a comedian being arrested, and the company behind him being fined millions ([link removed]) . It was a similar story in India, after a popular comedian, Kunal Kamra, was accused of insulting a local politician. Kamra is just the latest comedian to be targeted, as highlighted by Index ([link removed]) .

Reflecting on Kimmel, Russian journalist and dissident Andrei Soldatov offered a warning ([link removed]) . Shortly after Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, armed operatives raided the offices of NTV, the network that aired Kukly, a puppet show taking aim at Putin. NTV owner Vladimir Gusinsky was jailed and Kukly disappeared shortly after. Soldatov said at the time many Russian journalists and intellectuals rationalised the attack. A few spoke out though. “You can’t make friends with a crocodile” they said. US executives would be wise to remember this.


Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
------------------------------------------------------------

From China to the USA: The week in free expression ([link removed])

A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])

Bulgaria: Press freedom undermined by political polarisation & delayed reforms ([link removed])

Index and others call for urgent action to push forward domestic and EU-mandated reforms ([link removed])

Will artificial intelligence be the death of journalism? ([link removed])

AI tools can make reporters lives easier but also challenges their very existence ([link removed])

Haiti’s violence is so extreme, it’s difficult to face up to it. But we must. ([link removed])

Journalists in the Caribbean country face peril on all fronts ([link removed])

[link removed]


** Truth, trust and tricksters in the age of AI
------------------------------------------------------------

As AI rapidly transforms society, how do we operate in the mirror world of AI and identify the truth tellers from the tricksters?

Join us for a panel discussion with Kenneth Cukier (deputy executive editor, The Economist), Timandra Harkness (writer, broadcaster and presenter) and

Dr Eduardo Alonso (professor of Artificial Intelligence/director of the AI Research Centre (CitAI) City St George's).
REGISTER ([link removed])


** From China to the USA: The week in free expression ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> CHINA: ([link removed]) Australian horror movie edited to make a gay couple straight ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> USA: ([link removed]) Trump signs order designating Antifa a domestic terrorist organisation ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> UK: ([link removed]) BBC releases short film calling for Gaza access ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> CHINA: ([link removed]) Chinese Journalist Zhang Zhan jailed for “provoking trouble” ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> USA: ([link removed]) Ex-FBI director James Comey indicted on two charges ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> YEMEN: ([link removed]) Israeli strike kills 31 journalists, deadliest global attack in 16 years ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** >> UK: ([link removed]) Salmon farmer accused of blocking UK investigations ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** Flashback
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Celebrating the women taking on authoritarian regimes ([link removed])

by Katie Dancey-Downs ([link removed])

This week, British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was released from prison in Egypt after six years of unjust imprisonment. For those six years, his family worked tirelessly to secure his release. Earlier this summer, his mother Laila Soueif was on brink of death on hunger strike in protest at her son’s continued detention.

Today, we look back on our tribute to the incredible women taking on authoritarian regimes including Soueif and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, president-elect of Belarus who has secured the release of many political prisoners in Belarus, including her husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski in June this year. Read the story here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
------------------------------------------------------------

The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as the USA, Bulgaria, Syria and the UK has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Jimmy Kimmel Live) Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Alamy; (Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Laila Soueif) Mohamed Elbaqer

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

View in browser ([link removed])

Copyright (C) 2025 Index on Censorship. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up for Index on Censorship's weekly newsletter.

Our mailing address is:
Index on Censorship
3rd Floor
86-90 Paul Street
London, EC2A 4NE
United Kingdom
Want to change how you receive these emails?

You can update your preferences ([link removed]) or unsubscribe ([link removed])