(Whose aims are supported by Global Journalism Review)

The thirtieth anniversary issue of the journal Index on Censorship tells a remarkable story of diligent coverage of denials of press freedom and, indeed, any denial of free expression. Ursula Owen, the editor in chief, describes the origins of Index in a preface to reports from distinguished writers and protesters around the world.

She describes how the British poet, Stephen Spender, founded Index in 1972, in response to a plea from the Soviet dissidents Pavel Litvinov and Larisa Bogoraz Daniel. The idea was that there should be "the noise of publicity outside every detention centre and a published record of every tyrannical denial of free expression."

Ursula Owen says: "There were those who though that, with the Cold War over, Index's job was largely done. The world being what it is, that was unthinkable. Only the geography of censorship has changed, and sometimes not even that. What is more, as we embark on the new millennium, ideologies discredited, borders altered, new and troubling questions have surfaced, some of them challenging the primacy of free expression itself - questions around religious extremism, relative values and cultural difference, the rewriting of history, hate speech, pornography, violence on television, freedom on the internet -and, above all, around security and fear..."

All journalists need Index, and I recommend a subscription. Details from Contact@indexoncensorship.org and web site at www.indexoncensorship.org -------James Brennan