Amazon Enshittifies Prime Streaming With Higher Costs To Avoid Ads

Media & Culture

from the enshittification-as-a-service dept Back in early 2024, Amazon announced that Prime Video customers (who already pay $140 per year) would be charged $3 extra every month just to avoid ads that didn’t previously exist. It was just the latest example of “enshittification” in a streaming sector all out of original ideas, desperate to provide Wall Street with impossible skyward quarterly growth — regardless of consumer annoyance or brand harm. And it just got worse. Just recently, Amazon informed subscribers that the $3 extra fee to avoid ads would now be $5 a month. Again, on top of the $140 people are…

A stack of books frequently banned. Photo by: OnTheRun/Alamy In November 2025, a school library in Greater Manchester underwent a purge. Inspired by the headteacher’s dislike of one particular title, books were pulled off the shelves, in a case unlike any previously seen in the UK. Within weeks, more than 130 books had been targeted – nearly 200 if each issue of the numerous graphic novels is counted. The books included a graphic novel of George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four, young adult books like Dean Atta’s Black Flamingo and Alice Oseman’s chart-topping Heartstopper graphic novel series. Black Flamingo has since been reinstated, but the fate of many books on the list is unclear. The school leadership pointed the finger at the librarian. She was threatened with disciplinary action, labeled as a safeguarding risk and at one point she was under risk of police involvement. She resigned from her job under severe stress. The librarian, who we have called Emily, spoke to Index in an exclusive interview, and Index has seen extensive documents to support her claims. Emily described this period as the worst in her life. She is too scared to use her real name, or allow the school to be named. She fears that the school will try to take legal action against her and does not want to become a public figure, where she worries she may be targeted. Considering the abuse levelled at librarians in the USA for defending their collections, she may have a point. It began with Laura Bates’ nonfiction title Men Who Hate Women, which is a book about the growing network of incels and misogynists. Emily had ordered the book for older students as a result of safeguarding training on incel culture. The school goes up to year 11, and the library has a special section for students who are about to leave school – this is where the book was housed. Emily included Men Who Hate Women on a slide deck of recommended reading (which she says she checked with her line manager). The headteacher saw the slides, and demanded the book be removed from the library, due to the exposure of misogynistic beliefs. Ironically, Emily says no students had actually checked out Men Who Hate Women. “I was disappointed and upset, but it was just one book,” Emily told Index. She complied, and moved it to the staff library, which isn’t accessible to students. The headteacher was not only of the opinion that the book was too disturbing for young people, but that it could be disturbing for adults too. The school launched an investigation. Emily says she was at her desk when she was asked to step outside by the designated safeguarding lead (DSL). The head of HR was also waiting. Emily says she was taken into a meeting. Emily is autistic, and she described how she “always assumes that surely people will see the common sense in things”. During the discussion with HR and the safeguarding lead she defended the importance of books like Little Bang by Kelly McCaughrain, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal (a prize for writing for children), which deals with teen pregnancy and abortion in Northern Ireland. “I went home that night feeling very uncomfortable and kind of knowing in the pit of my stomach that things were about to get very bad, but I had no idea quite how bad,” Emily said. The next morning when she arrived at school, her “librarian senses were tingling”. She knew something was wrong. She knew the placement of the books in the library and could see gaps where they had once been. Books had been pulled from the shelves. “There were comic books missing, graphic novels,” Emily said. She was soon told that the library would be closing as a temporary safeguarding measure. “We have the exact same group of children who come in every single day, and a lot of them are LGBTQ+, a lot of them are neurodivergent, and they come into the library because it’s their safe place,” Emily said. That safe place had been removed. Emily says she was asked to conduct an audit of the books in the library. There were three criteria for removal: books that were not written for children, books with themes that could be upsetting to children and books that could be inappropriate or constitute a safeguarding risk. No definition of “inappropriate” was provided, Emily said. “I ended up removing biographies of World War II airmen, literally less than a week after Remembrance Day, because they weren’t children’s books,” she said. Many classics fell under one or more of these criteria. “God helped me, I cooperated because I thought ‘I’m already in a lot of trouble here,’” she said, explaining how she thought there would be the opportunity for discussion about the books. There were plenty of books she was compelled to remove that had already been in the library before Emily joined in 2023, including Heartstopper. “It took me all day to take about 15 to 20 books off the shelves, and it was killing me,” she remembers. And then things got worse. The designated safeguarding lead had reported her to the local authority as a safeguarding risk due to introducing books into the school library which were allegedly inappropriate for a school setting. There would be an investigation, and there was also a case for gross misconduct. “I was absolutely gobsmacked. When I’m shocked, I kind of shut down. So, I stopped speaking, but I remember I was stamping books or something, and I just kept on doing that because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Emily said. Emily signed off sick due to stress. In the meantime, she spoke to the School Library Association (SLA), the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and their School Libraries Group (SLG), to get their support behind the scenes. The SLG were utterly shocked and said it is completely unprecedented. When they tried to talk to the school, they got no response. Caroline Roche, chair of the SLG told Index that they had no doubts about Emily’s claims, and had seen the supporting evidence. Librarians all make different decisions about which books to stock, she said, and this should never be grounds for a safeguarding complaint. When it comes to books in school libraries “there aren’t any noes’”. What the school should have done, she said, is to have a discussion with Emily about specific books and should have a library policy in place. “This is over the top. It’s ruined her career.” When Emily contacted her union, which has helped her through the process, her local representative told her that their place of work was on lockdown due to threats from the far right. The full list of books which the school deemed might be inappropriate was shared with Emily. The spreadsheet contains almost 200 titles. It is called the “final List of alleged books with inappropriate content” (a copy of which is pasted below). It is unclear what has happened to the majority of these books now, and whether or not they have been returned to the library. One report from the school states: “It appears that several books have been removed based on assumptions about potential themes or their classification as adult texts by the DSL.” Some of the books were ordered by people other than Emily, and she says her line manager signed off on all purchases – the school claimed that was for budgetary reasons only. Emily couldn’t help but laugh when the first book she saw on the list was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The reason given on the spreadsheet was “mature romantic themes, sexual tension, and violence involving vampires and werewolves.” She realised how ridiculous the whole situation was, if they were pulling a book that she’d read aged 12. She held out hope it was a misunderstanding. There were many LGBTQ+ books on the list too, ones that were written for children and young adults. One of the books brought into particular focus was Queerly Autistic: The Ultimate Guide For LGBTQIA+ Teens On The Spectrum by Erin Ekins. The book has a recommended reading age of 12-18. “As an autistic child, you are very vulnerable to certain predatory behaviours that you may not understand, and that was one of the reasons why I thought it was so important to have this book,” Emily said. “They were making out like I was teaching children how to perform sex acts by having this book in the library.” Reni Edo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race was on the list too, with the reason for removal: “race, discrimination”. The school also paid close attention to the graphic novel The Crow by James O’Barr, which Emily bought after talking about it with some Year 11s (15-16 year olds), who were interested in Goth subculture and keen to read it. She kept the book near her desk, away from younger readers, as a safeguarding measure. When students borrowed the book, she gave them content warnings, as she did for all books with challenging themes. “There are some scenes in it that are graphic, because a woman is raped and killed. That’s the basis of the story. There’s rape in The Handmaid’s Tale, and Tess of the d’Urbervilles and An Inspector Calls and all kinds of books that we had in the library,” she added. The SLG were given the list by Emily and added comments, before sending it back to the school as part of Emily’s argument that the books were not inappropriate. Next to The Crow the SLG wrote: “One of the best-selling independent black-and-white graphic novels of all time.” Some of the other reasons for removal given include racism and political themes for Michelle Obama’s autobiography Becoming and “romantic drama about enduring love and memory loss” for The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Other reasons for removal include political intrigue, espionage and even betrayal. Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music was removed for: “Adult audience content – may include sexual material, violence, abuse, substance misuse, or psychologically distressing themes.” The SLG said none of this is true. In one of the documents seen by Index, the school admits that the categorisations of the books were written using AI, writing: “Although the categorisation was generated using AI, I consider this classification to be broadly accurate.” Louis Coiffait-Gunn, CEO of CILIP, told Index that he was deeply concerned about a few school leaders using these methods to work out what is acceptable or not, citing the sinister use of AI, “rather than relying on a trained professional whose entire career is about working out what are the right books for different children and making sure that they’re provided.” He described how every child in this school is entitled under the UN Charter of Human Rights to access information appropriate for their age, as long as it’s not illegal, and that what has happened in Emily’s case sets a worrying precedent. “You’ve only got to look over at America and to think about who our next prime minister might be to see the risks for our children,” he said. Emily decided to resign, which also halted the disciplinary action. “I’ve done that job for over a decade, and it was my dream job, and I was brilliant at it,” Emily said. The Local Authority meeting about the safeguarding complaint went ahead after Emily’s resignation. The LADO meeting as it is known focused solely on the allegations of “introducing inappropriate material into the school library”. The meeting was originally scheduled for December 2025, but was cancelled at the last minute, because the Greater Manchester Police had been invited and they didn’t show. It was later agreed the police weren’t actually needed. When the LADO made their decision in January 2026, they substantiated the allegation, believing that Emily had not caused direct harm but that she had failed to follow safeguarding procedures. Emily had to put in a subject access request to find out why. In the hearing, the senior vice-principal outlined how the allegation was raised “after discovering multiple books in the school library containing inappropriate content. These books had been loaned to children and did not align with the school’s curriculum”. There was no mention of the vast quantity of books removed, with only a few titles focused on. “The fact it’s gone through safeguarding means Emily will never be able to work in a school again,” Roche from the SLG said. During their investigations, the school referred to their statutory obligations under the government’s Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance documents and said that materials in the school should align to them. There is in fact no statutory guidance for school libraries because there is no obligation in law to have either a school library or a school librarian. Following Index’s investigation into school library censorship in 2024, many librarians and supporting bodies have spoken to Index about the confusion this causes, with support for librarians and their books left to the whim of their schools’ senior teams. “We need the Department for Education to think about how to make the most of school librarians,” Coiffait-Gunn said. “Why is it that prisoners and general citizens are entitled to prison and public libraries, but our children are not entitled to school libraries?” Mass book removals like this are more common in the USA, where conservative right-wing lobbying groups like Moms for Liberty are well organised and put pressure on schools. There is also coordination with political groups. Roche said threats of safeguarding accusations being levelled at librarians for stocking books will mean “we will be too scared to support our vulnerable teenagers. Too scared to stock certain books”. When Emily first started at the school, books like Heartstopper and Black Flamingo were in the library, but there wasn’t much in the way of an LGBTQ+ offering. On an open evening, she put those two books on a table. She says a parent complained to the school that he “didn’t want his son exposed to gender bending”. “The school defended me and defended those books and their right to be in there, and then two years later, completely forgot about it and changed their mind and said they’re inappropriate,” she said. Index believes this story is of huge public interest. It is an unprecedented attack on the freedom to read and intellectual freedom, where important safeguarding measures have been misused to threaten and target a school librarian. This librarian is no longer able to do her job. Without this story being surfaced and changes being made, the risk is that it will happen again. This Greater Manchester school’s library was decimated and the young people who seek answers in books have been terribly let down. Without proper library policies and the reassurance they will be supported, school librarians will no doubt hear about cases like Emily’s and self-censor through fear. Meanwhile young people will not find fulfilling safe spaces in their schools and look for information elsewhere – most likely, on the unregulated internet. Index approached the school for comment and they have not responded. This is the list of books described by the school as the “final List of alleged books with inappropriate content” 1 She Gets the Girl Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick 2 Heartstopper vol 4 & 5 Alice Oseman 3 The Black Flamingo Dean Atta 4 The Art of Being Normal Lisa Williamson 5 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 6 The Outrage William Hussey 7 Inferno Dan Brown 8 The Lost Symbol Dan Brown 9 Angels and Demons Dan Brown 10 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 11 Deception Point Dan Brown 12 The Bourne Imperative Eric Van Lustbader & Robert Ludlum 13 The Bourne Retribution Eric Van Lustbader & Robert Ludlum 14 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 15 Five Survive Holly Jackson 16 Bad Bones Graham Marks 17 Dark Winter Andy McNab 18 We Were Liars E. Lockhart 19 Twilight Stephenie Meyer 20 Till Death Busayo Matuluko 21 Needy Little Things Channelle Desamours 22 If You Find Me Emily Murdoch 23 Nobody’s Girl Sarra Manning 24 Dark Inside Jeyn Roberts 25 Dune: The Graphic Novel Frank Herbert & Brian Herbert 26 Soul Music Terry Pratchett 27 American Gods Neil Gaiman 28 Good Omens Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman 29 The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 30 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 31 1984 Graphic Novel Matyáš Namai & George Orwell 32 White Teeth Zadie Smith 33 Batman: Year One Frank Miller 34 Little Bang Kelly McCaughrain 35 One Sarah Crossan 36 I Have No Secrets Penny Joelson 37 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 38 Underworld Cathy MacPhail 39 All Better Now Neal Shusterman 40 What’s the T? Juno Dawson 41 Men Who Hate Women: the extremism no-one is talking about Laura Bates 42 Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them Scarlett Curtis 43 Rebel Bodies Sarah Graham 44 Can We Ever Kill? Robert Crawford 45 Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race Reni Eddo-Lodge 46 The Trans Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing Dr Katy Lees 47 We Should All Be Feminists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 48 The Book of Non-Binary Joy Ben Pechey 49 The Good Ally Nova Reid 50 Becoming Michelle Obama 51 Taking Up Space Chelsea Kwakye & Ore Ogunbiyi 52 Queerly Autistic Erin Ekins 53 The Woman in Me Britney Spears 54 Backstory David Mitchell 55 Second Innings Andrew Flintoff 56 Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography Lesley-Ann Jones 57 Madly, Deeply Alan Rickman 58 Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing Matthew Perry 59 War and Peace: My Story Ricky Hatton 60 If I Did It O. J. Simpson 61 Through My Eyes Cheryl Cole 62 Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? Steven Tyler 63 Will Will Smith & Mark Manson 64 Pageboy Elliot Page 65 Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston 66 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng 67 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover 68 It Starts With Us Colleen Hoover 69 Hopeless Colleen Hoover 70 Heart Bones Colleen Hoover 71 Reminders of Him Colleen Hoover 72 Call Me By Your Name André Aciman 73 Interview With a Vampire Anne Rice 74 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 75 If It Bleeds Stephen King 76 The Witch’s Trinity Erika Mailman 77 He Said/She Said Erin Kelly 78 The Lost Bookshop Evie Woods 79 A Dance with Dragons: Part 2 After the Feast George R. R. Martin 80 A Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and Snow George R. R. Martin 81 A Storm of Swords: Part 2 Blood and Gold George R. R. Martin 82 A Clash of Kings George R. R. Martin 83 A Dance with Dragons George R. R. Martin 84 A Storm of Swords George R. R. Martin 85 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 86 A Poetry Book for Sad, Messed-Up Teenagers Gracie Adams 87 We Sold Our Souls Grady Hendrix 88 The Casual Vacancy J. K. Rowling 89 The Crow James O’Barr 90 When the World Tips Over Jandy Nelson 91 I’m Glad My Mom Died Jennette McCurdy 92 Sing You Home Jodi Picoult 93 Handle with Care Jodi Picoult 94 One Day in December Josie Silver 95 Game Over Adele Parks 96 Tell Me Something Adele Parks 97 Love Lies Adele Parks 98 Conjure Women Afia Atakora 99 The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides 100  Stalker Lisa Stone 101 The Cottage Lisa Stone 102 Things We Left Behind Lucy Score 103 The Holiday Swap Maggie Knox 104 Stone Mattress Margaret Atwood 105 Madame Frankenstein Megan Levens & Jamie S. Rich 106 Cleat Cute Meryl Wilsner 107 Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling 108 I’m Not Scared Niccolò Ammaniti 109 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 110 Great Goddesses Nikita Gill 111 Coffin Road Peter May 112 Morganville Vampires (series) Rachel Caine 113 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 114 The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene 115 Alchemised SenLinYu 116 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen 117 Not a Happy Family Shari Lapena 118 The Witness Simon Kernick 119 Driving Forwards Sophie L. Morgan 120 Looking for Adventure Steve Backshall 121 The Girl Who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson 122 Bored Gay Werewolf Tony Santorella 123 Detransition, Baby Torrey Peters 124 Black Butler Vol. 1 Yana Toboso 125 Black Butler Vol. 2 Yana Toboso 126 Black Butler Vol. 3 Yana Toboso 127 Boruto Vol. 3 Ukyō Kodachi & Mikio Ikemoto 128 Chainsaw Man series Tatsuki Fujimoto 129 Death Note Vol. 1 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 130 Death Note Vol. 10 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 131 Death Note Vol. 11 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 132 Death Note Vol. 12 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 133 Death Note Vol. 13 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 134 Death Note Vol. 3 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 135 Death Note Vol. 4 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 136 Death Note Vol. 5 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 137 Death Note Vol. 7 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 138 Death Note Vol. 8 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 139 Death Note Vol. 9 Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata 140 Demon Slayer (Manga) series Koyoharu Gotouge 141 Demon Slayer Vol. 10 Koyoharu Gotouge 142 Demon Slayer Vol. 11 Koyoharu Gotouge 143 Demon Slayer Vol. 12 Koyoharu Gotouge 144 Demon Slayer Vol. 13 Koyoharu Gotouge 145 Demon Slayer Vol. 14 Koyoharu Gotouge 146 Demon Slayer Vol. 15 Koyoharu Gotouge 147 Demon Slayer Vol. 16 Koyoharu Gotouge 148 Demon Slayer Vol. 2 Koyoharu Gotouge 149 Demon Slayer Vol. 22 Koyoharu Gotouge 150 Demon Slayer Vol. 23 Koyoharu Gotouge 151 Demon Slayer Vol. 3 Koyoharu Gotouge 152 Demon Slayer Vol. 4 Koyoharu Gotouge 153 Demon Slayer Vol. 5 Koyoharu Gotouge 154 Demon Slayer Vol. 6 Koyoharu Gotouge 155 Demon Slayer Vol. 7 Koyoharu Gotouge 156 Fairy Tail Vol. 1 Hiro Mashima 157 Fairy Tail Vol. 10 Hiro Mashima 158 Fairy Tail Vol. 11 Hiro Mashima 159 Fairy Tail Vol. 2 Hiro Mashima 160 Fairy Tail Vol. 3 Hiro Mashima 161 Fairy Tail Vol. 4 Hiro Mashima 162 Fairy Tail Vol. 5 Hiro Mashima 163 Fairy Tail Vol. 6 Hiro Mashima 164 Fairy Tail Vol. 7 Hiro Mashima 165 Fairy Tail Vol. 8 Hiro Mashima 166 Fairy Tail Vol. 9 Hiro Mashima 167 Given (manga) series Natsuki Kizu 168 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1 Gege Akutami 169 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 2 Gege Akutami 170 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 3 Gege Akutami 171 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 5 Gege Akutami 172 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 6 Gege Akutami 173 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 7 Gege Akutami 174 Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 8 Gege Akutami 175 Lenore: Noogies Roman Dirge 176 Lenore: Pink Bellies Roman Dirge 177 Lenore: Purple Nurples Roman Dirge 178 Lenore: Swirlies Roman Dirge 179 Lenore: Wedgies Roman Dirge 180 The Cat with a Really Big Head  Roman Dirge 181 One-Punch Man Vol. 10 ONE & Yusuke Murata 182 One-Punch Man Vol. 3 ONE & Yusuke Murata 183 Tokyo Ghoul: Re Vol. 7 Sui Ishida 184 Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 6 Sui Ishida 185 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 1 Sui Ishida 186 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 10 Sui Ishida 187 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 14 Sui Ishida 188 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 16 Sui Ishida 189 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 4 Sui Ishida 190 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 5 Sui Ishida 191 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 6 Sui Ishida 192 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 8 Sui Ishida 193 Tokyo Ghoul: Vol. 9 Sui Ishida   READ MORE

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Independent journalists and media in Serbia are facing increasing attacks. Photo: Konrad Zelazowski/Alamy Against the backdrop of ongoing challenges to media pluralism and increasing attacks and pressure on independent journalists – particularly in the wake of nationwide protests following the Novi Sad tragedy on 1 November 2024 – as highlighted by the recently launched 2025 Europe Press Freedom report of the CoE Platform partners, and the 2025  MFRR Monitoring Report, the mission will assess the current media freedom and safety of journalists’ situation in the country. The visit follows-up on a solidarity mission of media freedom groups in April 2025 to discuss possible measures to improve the safety of journalists. The delegation aims to meet with journalists, public officials, as well as representatives of civil society, international organisations, and foreign representations in Belgrade.  Key topics on the agenda include violence against journalists during protests, SLAPPs, impunity for the killing of journalists, media capture, the independence of the media regulator and public service media, investigations into spyware cases, and digital threats against journalists.  The partners will share their initial findings at a press conference on 27 March 2026 at 14:00, at the memorial of murdered journalist Slavko Ćuruvija (Svetogorska 35, Belgrade).  The delegation will include representatives from the following organisations: ARTICLE 19 Europe, Association of European Journalists (AEJ), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), European Broadcasting Union, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), European Federation of Journalists (EFJ),  Index on Censorship, International Press Institute (IPI), Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).  Srbija: Misija za slobodu medija ispitaće dugotrajne izazove i zalagati se za reforme U periodu od 26. do 27. marta 2026. godine, partnerske organizacije u okviru Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) i Platforme Saveta Evrope za zaštitu novinarstva i bezbednost novinara sprovešće misiju u Srbiji. U kontekstu stalnih izazova po medijski pluralizam i sve učestalijih napada i pritisaka na nezavisne novinare – naročito nakon masovnih protesta širom zemlje posle tragedije u Novom Sadu 1. novembra 2024. godine – kako je istaknuto u nedavno objavljenom Izveštaju o slobodi medija u Evropi za 2025. godinu partnera Platforme Saveta Evrope, kao i u MFRR Monitoring izveštaju za 2025. godinu, misija će proceniti trenutno stanje slobode medija i bezbednosti novinara u zemlji. Poseta predstavlja nastavak misije solidarnosti organizacija za slobodu medija iz aprila 2025. godine, tokom koje su razmatrane moguće mere za unapređenje bezbednosti novinara. Delegacija ima za cilj da se sastane sa novinarima, javnim zvaničnicima, kao i predstavnicima civilnog društva, međunarodnih organizacija i stranih predstavništava u Beogradu. Ključne teme na dnevnom redu uključuju nasilje nad novinarima tokom protesta, SLAPP tužbe, nekažnjivost za ubistva novinara, zarobljavanje medija, nezavisnost regulatora i javnih medijskih servisa, istrage o slučajevima špijunskog softvera, kao i digitalne pretnje novinarima. Partneri će podeliti svoje početne nalaze na konferenciji za novinare 27. marta 2026. godine u 14:00 časova, kod spomen-obeležja ubijenom novinaru Slavku Ćuruviji (Svetogorska 35, Beograd). Delegaciju će činiti predstavnici sledećih organizacija: ARTICLE 19 Evropa, Udruženje evropskih novinara (AEJ), Komitet za zaštitu novinara (CPJ), Evropska radiodifuzna unija, Evropski centar za slobodu štampe i medija (ECPMF), Evropska federacija novinara (EFJ), Indeks o cenzuri, Međunarodni institut za štampu (IPI), Opservatorija za Balkan, Kavkaz i Transevropu (OBCT) i Reporteri bez granica (RSF). READ MORE

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Cryptocurrency & Free Speech Finance

What to Expect From This Week’s House Committee on Tokenization

In brief House lawmakers will examine tokenization as key market players push ahead with early efforts to bring securities on-chain. The hearing will feature Wall Street, market infrastructure, and crypto industry witnesses. Observers expect the hearing to offer an early read on Congress’s approach as harder legal issues remain open. The House Financial Services Committee will examine tokenization on Wednesday as exchanges, market operators, and regulators push ahead with early efforts to bring stocks, bonds, and other securities products onto blockchain-based rails.Committee materials show a narrower focus for Wednesday’s hearing, however. One bill would require a joint SEC-CFTC study of…

BBC World Service, Aldwych. Photo by: Newscast Online/Alamy Could there be a more urgent need for an independent source of news and information with international reach and a historic track record of support for political dissidents and exiles from authoritarian regimes? If the BBC World Service didn’t exist, this would be a very good time to invent it. So it is excellent news that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced an increase in funding of £33m over the next three years. The settlement was said to be a priority for outgoing Director-General, Tim Davie, but MPs and campaign groups had warned of uncertainty as the deadline of the end of the financial year approached. At the end of February, Index coordinated a letter from nine free expression and journalism organisations calling on Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper to make the funding available and ensure a sustainable funding model for the future. Now the BBC is calling on the government to take back full responsibility for funding the service, as it did until 2014. The news of the funding settlement comes less than two months after the BBC announced the launch of an emergency radio programme for Iran in response to the internet blackout. In a move reminiscent of the work of Radio Free Europe and the World Service during the Cold War, BBC News Persian has been made available on mediumwave and shortwave to provide a half-hour programme broadcast every evening to Iran. Funding for the programme had been found from existing sources. But when Fiona Crack, Interim Global Director of BBC News announced the launch of the service in January, before the start of the current conflict, she made it clear that the cash could only be guaranteed until the end of March. In making the announcement, the foreign secretary paid tribute to the work of the World Service in Iran: “In a world of rising disinformation, the BBC World Service provides hundreds of millions with journalism they can trust and rely on. We are seeing in real time how the BBC Persian service is playing a crucial role in ensuring impartial, accurate news is reaching the Iranian people.” The BBC has developed a strong recent tradition of emergency radio news services launched in response to conflicts and disasters. In February, the BBC launched a news service for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Emergency radio broadcasts were setup for Gaza and Sudan in 2023 and in Syria after the fall of Assad. In In April 2025, a BBC News Burmese satellite channel provided news in the aftermath of Myanmar earthquake. A report from the Public Accounts Committee warned of the wider consequences of cuts to the World Service. Speaking earlier this month. Conservative chair of the PAC, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: ” It risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states filling the void it leaves behind. At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, the UK cannot afford to lose such a crucial soft power instrument.” Those who have worked at the World Service understand the importance of this element of the BBC’s output and the unique culture it engenders. Writing in The Times this week, columnist Libby Purves remembered her time as a young producer at the World Service HQ at Bush House in the 1970s. She told the story of taking an Angolan friend to lunch who explained how much the World Service had meant during her country’s civil war, “but when I pointed out one of its newsreaders eating lasagne at the next table she dared not be introduced lest emotion overwhelm her”. I had a similar experience with a Ghanian friend in the early 90s, who insisted on having our photo taken together outside Bush House when he discovered I worked at the World Service. I was in a very lowly position in the organisation, but told me I should feel privileged. And he was right. I was working at BBC English at the time, which specialised in teaching English as a foreign language, and represented the very essence of soft power. At the time, Managing Director John Tusa had a vision for the World Service in the post-Cold War era, which included a “Marshall Plan for the Mind” to promote British commercial and cultural interests in the post-Communist world. As the son of a Czech exile Tusa understood how vital the World Service was. Born in Zlín, in former Czechoslovakia, he and his family fled to Britain in 1939 to escape the Nazis. We need that vision now. READ MORE

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