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Jemimah Steinfeld

@jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social

540 followers 300 following 240 posts

CEO @indexoncensorship.org and journalist. Chat mostly human rights, free speech, politics, climate & China. Sometimes in Guardian, BBC, Independent, Prospect, Times, CNN etc. Author of book on sex & youth in China.

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · Jun 28

It’s been five years since the passage of the NSL in Hong Kong. Some hoped it might have been symbolic & rarely used. It was not. Dissent has mostly vanished. Thousands are in prison. We owe it to them to fight for the freedoms that they too fought for.

www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/06/deat...

Death by a thousand cuts in Hong Kong - Index on Censorship

It’s been five years since the National Security Law was passed: how much has freedom of expression deteriorated in China’s special administrative region since then?

www.indexoncensorship.org

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Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Peter Frankopan @peterfrankopan.bsky.social · 13h

Belarus rarely makes Western headlines — but it should this week.
A quiet move by the Trump administration has just handed Alexander Lukashenka, and indirectly Vladimir Putin, an unexpected gift.
🧵👇

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Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · 8d

What’s the point of party conferences if not to be open to scrutiny? Reports that journalists have been barred from the Labour Conference with no reasonable explanation given are deeply concerning. Critical voices must be heard. Transparency is non-negotiable.

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 8d

Another day of digital darkness in Afghanistan. This is desperate and devastating. Global leaders need to condemn this at top volume.

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 8d

“Yet for all their claims of free speech absolutism, it now seems clear comedy’s champions of liberty are all too happy to censor themselves for the right price.”

Excoriating but fair. Huge inconsistency here on the part of the currently in Saudi comedians.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: ‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’

Usual supporters of free speech are under fire for signing on to Riyadh festival despite the government’s human rights abuses

www.theguardian.com

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 8d

Afghan girls and women use the internet for everyday communication, alongside education, both having been extremely curtailed since the Taliban came back. With a soaring mental health crisis, the internet is therefore a lifeline for them. This isn't just an inconvenience. This is about survival.

NetBlocks @netblocks.org · 8d

⚠️ Update: It has now been 24 hours since #Afghanistan imposed a national internet blackout, cutting off residents from the rest of the world; the ongoing measure marks the Taliban's return to conservative values it espoused a quarter of a century ago limiting basic freedoms

Graph from NetBlocks showing the network connectivity in Afghanistan, from September 25, 2025, to September 30, 2025. The y-axis represents normalized connectivity, ranging from 0% to 100%, and the x-axis represents the dates. The green line representing Afghanistan's connectivity remains stable at around 100% throughout most of the time period, with a sharp drop on the afternoon of September 29. The minimum and current connectivity levels are indicated as 0% and 1%, respectively. The chart has a dark background with a red horizontal arrow labeled 'SHUTDOWN' indicates the period of disruption.

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 14d

Best Friends Forever statue has been removed as fast as it went up. Shame! Autocrats have no sense of humour.

www.npr.org/2025/09/24/n...

A statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands in D.C. is removed as fast as it appeared

The statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands mid-frolic wasn't the first anti-Trump artwork on the National Mall in recent months. But it was the first to be removed, despite having a permit.

www.npr.org

Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 19d

NEW: The Pentagon told journalists it will require them to pledge they won’t gather any information — even unclassified — that hasn’t been expressly authorized for release, and will revoke the press credentials of those who do not obey. @washingtonpost.com

Pentagon demands journalists pledge to not obtain unauthorized material

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is imposing strict new rules that would severely limit the ability of journalists to report on the Pentagon.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 20d

It could also be self-defeating. The USA has dominated the world’s cultural space for decades in part because of a large degree of creative freedom. Look to highly censored settings and it’s the opposite. Great art is normally created in spite of censorship not because of it.

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 20d

It’s hard to state enough just how serious the Jimmy Kimmel episode is. This isn’t your standard cancel culture story, which typically comes from the bottom. This is censorship from the top, from fear of Trump. This is exactly what the First Amendment is meant to protect against.

Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · 23d

Free speech isn’t just the right to speak - it’s the right for others to speak too. #TommyRobinson invoking “free speech” on Saturday in London while marching against entire communities isn’t about freedom. It's about control. Defending free speech means opposing that too.

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 25d

This is escalating with terrifying speed - a disturbing site has emerged to punish people who haven’t said the “right” thing about Charlie Kirk. People are being encouraged to snitch on others & some employers appear to be taking punitive action.

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/13/b...

People are getting fired for allegedly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. It looks like a coordinated effort | CNN Business

Dozens of social media posts and messages about the murder of Charlie Kirk, including some that celebrated his death, are being spotlighted by conservative activists, Republican elected officials and ...

edition.cnn.com

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Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 25d

People missing an important point about folks getting fired for whatever they said about Charlie Kirk: Americans are being conditioned to be snitches on their fellow citizens who don’t toe a party line on what is “allowed” to be expressed. And employers are going along. It’s the new secret police

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Mike Gow 高英智 @mikeygow.bsky.social · 26d

The essayist Wang Xiaobo (王小波) was a “sent-down youth” during China’s Cultural Revolution.

One of his most famous works is called “The Pleasure of Thinking” (思维的乐趣) - a meditation on the contest for freedom of thought under authoritarianism.

There are some important lessons for us in this work

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 26d

Imagine fearing a film so much that you kill people to keep it out. That’s North Korea for you.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

North Korea executing more people for watching foreign films and TV, UN finds

The report is based on more than 300 interviews with escapees from Kim Jong Un's secretive regime.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 27d

*Why did I get autocorrected to desserts? It’s not an expression from the pudding. Just deserts it is

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 27d

We don’t know why Charlie Kirk was killed but we do know that the responses have been awful, from people like Trump threatening those on left to Kirk's political opponents thinking it's just desserts. These reactions will only increase polarisation. My take www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/09/char...

Charlie Kirk's murder: Use words to counter speech you don't like, not bullets - Index on Censorship

People may disagree with the views of the right-wing influencer and Trump ally but his death must be condemned

www.indexoncensorship.org

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Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · 28d

We're shocked by news of Charlie Kirk's murder. University campuses should be places of learning & lively debate. Different views should be argued, not met with violence. To kill someone because of their beliefs is an egregious attack on free speech, the cornerstone of democracy.

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Reposted by Jemimah Steinfeld

Patrick Galey @patrickgaley.bsky.social · 29d

Climate change is like gravity - you may not believe in it but you are still bound by its laws.

We are constantly being told to Meet People Where They Are when where they are is 16th Century Pisa burning Galileo
www.thetimes.com/article/a339...

Revealed: Global warming exaggerated, say soaring number of Britons

Research for The Times has uncovered a huge rise in scepticism over climate change as voters turn against net zero policies

www.thetimes.com

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 29d

Turkey today where the main opposition is locked away and getting arrested is becoming "the easiest thing", said @gonultol.bsky.social. “You just have to like a tweet or a Facebook post criticising Erdogan."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The 'tough guy’ president accused of silencing his opponents

Erdogan's critics claim that he has become a latter-day Sultan in Turkey, dismantling human rights, cracking down on dissent and weaponising the courts

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · Sep 8

The details of this new report from @thecfhk.bsky.social should shock anyone and especially those who still (somehow) cling to the idea that Hong Kong remotely respects human rights. The treatment of political prisoners there is breathtakingly grim.

thecfhk.org/research/we-...

'We Were Made to Suffer': Systemic Abuse and Political Control Inside Hong Kong's Prisons - The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation

Drawing on in-depth interviews with former prisoners, corroborated by additional interviews and open-source records, this report reveals a prison system that has normalized abuse and neglect, suppress...

thecfhk.org

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · Sep 6

Iran has murdered another Woman, Life, Freedom protester in its textbook way of no transparency or due process. And according to this piece “from July 23 to August 22, at least 160 people were executed in Iran, averaging one every five hours.” One person every 5 hrs. www.iranintl.com/en/202509062...

Iran executes man convicted in connection with 2022 protests

Iran’s judiciary said early Saturday it executed Mehran Bahramian, a protester detained during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in central Iran, despite torture allegations and pleas from rights...

www.iranintl.com

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · Sep 5

Some Afghan women this week were left trapped under the rubble because of a prohibition on contact between unrelated men and women. I continue to be sickened by the cruelty of the Taliban and frankly it’s good I’m not yet inured cos that’s when complacency sets in. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/w...

After Afghan Quake, Many Male Rescuers Helped Men but Not Women

www.nytimes.com

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Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · Sep 4

Concerning news that the Conservatives led by Kemi Badenoch have banned @bylinetimes.bsky.social from attending their annual conference - ironically amid the party's claim to uphold free speech:
bylinetimes.com/2025/09/04/k...

Kemi Badenoch's 'Free Speech' Conservatives Ban Byline Times From Party Conference

The ban on covering the party's annual gathering came despite Badenoch's repeated commitment to "fight" for free speech and a free press

bylinetimes.com

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Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · Sep 4

Today, #MaksimZnak spends another birthday behind bars, unjustly imprisoned in #Belarus. Part of Index's Letters from Lukashenka's Prisoners campaign, we are honoured to share a poem written by Znak. We call for his immediate and unconditional release: www.indexoncensorship.org/campaigns/le...

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Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · Sep 4

The UK must act fast to save Jimmy Lai's life. Since 2014, 12 older male diabetic prisoners like him have died in Hong Kong prisons, most after late transfers. For yrs @caoilfhionn.bsky.social & her team have asked to meet Keir Starmer. No reply. Time is running out www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Jimmy Lai’s life is in danger

Keir Starmer has ignored requests to meet Lai’s barrister and his son, first made when he was leader of the opposition

www.thetimes.com

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