The year 2024 was a yet another difficult year for artists around the world, according to the State of Artistic Freedom Report published last week by Freemuse.
Freemuse, an international organisation founded in 1998 with headquarters in Copenhagen, monitors artistic freedom and publishes annual reports on its state. Artistic freedom falls under the broad remit of freedom of expression and is a fundamental human right, protected in several international and European conventions.
“Artistic freedom is increasingly under threat around the world,” commented Norwegian film director and human rights defender Sverre Pedersen, Executive Director of Freemuse. “We cannot accept that artists and cultural institutions are pressured by politicians simply because they disagree with the content or form of the work.”
“Free artistic expression is essential for fostering critical thinking and an informed public. In its core, it’s an investment in democracy,” he added. “Culture must be free, built on personal passion and voluntary engagement.”
The new report highlights artistic suppression across Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, as well as intensifying crackdowns in countries like Iran, Türkiye, and China, where political tensions and censorship continue to erode artistic freedom.
Around the world, artists have faced arrest, violence, and institutional pressure, while cultural programming is increasingly influenced by political agendas. In many cases, the threat of retaliation has led to widespread self-censorship. The expanded use of “foreign agent” laws to silence dissenting voices has become a global trend.
"Even in democratic societies, self-censorship became widespread, as many feared reprisals for speaking out, particularly on sensitive topics like the war in Gaza,” said Sara Whyatt, Research Director at Freemuse. The report also highlights the impact of national elections and protest movements. In 2024, a record number of elections took place worldwide, many marked by unrest and suppression of artistic freedom.
The previous report lacked comprehensive data because available statistics was uncertain. Is it the same with the new report?
“Freemuse is working systematically to rebuild it capacity and expertise internally and in our network,” replied Sverre Pedersen, “but also to improve how this work is carried out.”
In previous reports Freemuse tried to give a global picture of violations of artistic freedom, knowing that it could only present the tip of the iceberg because of lack of partners in those countries. Many countries also lack a free press or artists organisations, he explained.
“While we are constantly working to expand our network, we found it problematic that the press or politicians used our statistics as if it showed the ‘whole picture’. In our opinion, the trends and threats are the most important things to report.”
The last cartoon published by Egyptian cartoonist Ashraf Omar before his abduction, mocking Egypt’s electricity crisis and the construction of a monorail in Cairo. Credit: Freemuse/ cartoonistsrights.org).
The new report focuses on a number of countries and regions. In which countries have the situation become worse with more threats to artistic freedom?
“Unfortunately, we see a negative development for artistic freedom in most countries in the world,” he replied. “We see increased self-censorship in almost all countries. The same applies to harassment and threats via social media. It may seem as if online trolls have no limits to what they can write when they sit behind the keyboard.”
“The increase in threats and insults against female, LGBTQ+ and minority artists is unfortunately also something we see all over the world. However, the use of foreign agent laws to suppress freedom of expression is a phenomenon that is particularly increasing in countries with close ties to Russia, but this instrument is also being used in other parts of the world.”
Among the regions described in the report is Eastern Europe. What about Western Europe - besides the issue of censorship in Germany related to Palestine and the war in Gaza?
Protestors stage a symbolic funeral for the Kunsthall in Bratislava, credit: Freemuse/Eliška Šufliarska.
“In Western Europe we see three major trends. Firstly, we see a marked increase in self-censorship. This is quite understandable in a time of great uncertainty where many are afraid to express controversial opinions in their art.”
“Secondly, the conditions we describe in the chapter on Germany are a phenomenon that artists in most countries in Europe have experienced to a greater or lesser extent. At a workshop Freemuse held with artists and human rights defenders from 14 nationalities, several of them had experienced losing assignments/jobs as a result of having expressed support for political demands to end the war in Gaza.”
Thirdly, there is unfortunately an increasing use of abuse of legislation, including anti-terror legislation, which restricts the space for expression and freedom of movement of artists.”
The report also mentions rays of hope in some countries where elections took place (e.g. Poland) or where regimes (Syria) were overthrown last year. Are there already signs of improvement?
“In Poland there are clear signs of improvements. In Syria it is still too early to say. It’s clear that many of the restrictions under the Assad regime are no longer in place, but with an unstable situation and a lot of insecurity of how the new regime will act, many artists are careful. They will still wait and see if the promises will become reality.”
Members of Crane Performers band in Uganda were detained, Freemuse/Crane Performers Ltd, Instagram
As usual, the report ends with a number of recommendations. Are they the same as last time or have some been amended to reflect new threats to artistic freedom?
“Some of the recommendations are the same as last year,“ Sverre Pederson concluded. “When governments and their ‘gate keepers’ haven't followed the recommendations, we have to remind them about them. But some of the recommendations are new and related to the challenges we identified in the report.”
