Poet will stay behind bars, having been sentenced to 3 years in prison and 10 000 Egyptian pounds (480 euros) fine in the Military Court in Cairo.

A fifth lawsuit has been filed against musician Ferhat Tunç, this time for “insulting the then Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım” on Twitter in 2016.

Russian theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov has been released from house arrest after 20 months of detention and announced his return to work.

The report is an analysis of 673 cases of violations of artistic freedom that occurred in different cultural spheres in 80 countries throughout 2018.

Russian authorities have cancelled a youth theatre play for promoting “hatred against men and non-traditional family relations”.

The Tagansky Court in Moscow, Russia upheld the ban of the rapper Husky´s clip Judas as legal.

Swedish metal band Watain’s concert in Singapore was cancelled following concerns about its "history of denigrating religions and promoting violence".

Artist Zehra Doğan has been released from a Turkish prison and poet Abdirahman Abees has been found not guilty and released from custody in Somalia.

Poet Abdirahman Abees has been released from custody in Somaliland after a court found he "exercised his freedom of expression" with his poetry readings.

Freemuse is pleased to learn that artist, activist and journalist Zehra Doğan has been released from a Turkish prison.