Widespread self-censorship and fear of causing offence is suppressing creativity and ideas in the United Kingdom, according to a conference report published by Index on Censorship, ‘Taking the Offensive’. There are multiple pressures on artistic freedom of expression and censorship has become a major issue for the arts sector in …

United Kingdom: Index on Censorship publishes issue on music censorship   Index on Censorship, Britain’s leading organisation promoting freedom of expression, released a magazine issue on music censorship entitled ‘Smashed hits 2.0’ on 8 September 2010. ‘Smashed Hits 2.0’ investigates music and free expression with writing and interviews. The issue is …

 UPDATE ON 2 SEPTEMBER 2015: United Kingdom grants visa for Ramy Essam after all   The Egyptian singer and Freemuse Award winner Ramy Essam has been refused a visit visa to the United Kingdom. He was supposed to take part in the Festival 800 in Lincoln on Saturday 5 September 2015 …

‘Ranagri’ is a new project from four musicians in London who have recently come together to create some exciting new sounds. They just finished the track ‘The Rhythm Takes You Back’ a few days ago, and in an e-mail they told Freemuse that they have dedicated this track to Music …

(United Kingdom)   Maya Medich and Lemez Lovas are authors of the Freemuse report about music censorship in Belarus which was published in November 2006, entitled ‘Hidden Truths’. This video is a five-minutes excerpt of their one-hour presentation launching the report, explaining the mechanisms of censorship in Belarus. The presentation …

Jason Carter performs mainly as a solo guitarist, and has toured the world extensively for British Council. He has strong artistic links with the Middle East and was the co-founder of the ‘Bahrain International Guitar Festival’. In this interview he speaks about his personal experiences of music censorship in the …

A cat mural by street artist Joachim in Chichester, England was removed after complaints it was “inappropriate” and “attracting antisocial behaviour”.

How music was “restricted” during the Falkland and Golf War Speech by Ph.D. Martin Cloonan, at the 1st Freemuse World conference in 1998  What I would like to do is to give you a taste of censorship in Britain. Britain is quite often seen as a place where censorship doesn’t …

  Freemuse Award winners 2010: Ferhat Tunç, with the award statuette created by Swedish glass designer Göran Wärff, and Mahsa Vahdat.   Mahsa Vahdat and Ferhat Tunç, the joint winners of the Freemuse Award 2010, gave a short and impressive performance at the Index Awards ceremony in London’s Royal Institute …

  Freemuse Award winners 2010: Ferhat Tunç, with the award statuette created by Swedish glass designer Göran Wärff, and Mahsa Vahdat.   Mahsa Vahdat and Ferhat Tunç, the joint winners of the Freemuse Award 2010, gave a short and impressive performance at the Index Awards ceremony in London’s Royal Institute …