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 …

 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 …

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 …

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

‘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 …

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 …

A 14-year-old boy in England was banned from performing a drag act at his school’s end-of-year talent show because it was deemed “age inappropriate”.

  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 …