WSI was created[2] by poet Stephen Spender, Oxford philosopher Stuart Hampshire, the publisher and editor of The Observer David Astor, and the writer and expert on the Soviet Union Edward Crankshaw.

The original impetus for the creation of Index on Censorship came from an Open Letter addressed "To World Public Opinion" by two Soviet dissenters, Pavel Litvinov and Larisa Bogoraz.

[citation needed] Spender and his colleagues, Stuart Hampshire, David Astor, Edward Crankshaw and founding editor Michael Scammell decided, like Amnesty International, to cast their net wider.

[2] Meanwhile, in 1971, Amnesty International began to publish English translations of each new issue of A Chronicle of Current Events, which documented human rights abuses in the USSR and included a regular "Samizdat Update".

[6] It supports free expression, publishing distinguished writers from around the world, exposing suppressed stories, initiating debate, and providing an international record of censorship.

"Accordingly, the magazine has sought to shed light on other challenges facing free expression, including religious extremism, the rise of nationalism, and internet censorship.

Issues are usually organised by theme, and contain a country-by-country list of recent cases involving censorship, restrictions on freedom of the press and other free speech violations.

Over the half century it has been in existence, Index on Censorship has presented works by some of the world's most distinguished writers and thinkers, including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Milan Kundera, Václav Havel, Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Arthur Miller, Noam Chomsky, and Umberto Eco.

[7] Issues under the editorship of Jemimah Steinfeld featured investigations into how the UK's royal family censor their archives, the plight of Afghan journalists and the rise of Narendra Modi.

Tom Stoppard's play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1977) is set in a Soviet mental institution and was inspired by the personal account of former detainee Victor Fainberg and Clayton Yeo's expose of the use of psychiatric abuse in the USSR, published in Index on Censorship (Issue 2, 1975).

Six months later, Index published the Hunger Strike Declaration from four student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Liu Xiaobo, Zhou Duo, Hou Dejian and Gao Xin.

After much debate surrounding the report's ten key recommendations, the UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw pledged to make English defamation laws fairer.

"[12] These campaigns and others were illustrative of then CEO John Kampfner's strategy, supported by then chair Jonathan Dimbleby, to boost Index's public advocacy profile in the UK and abroad beginning in 2008.

Index also commissioned a new play by Actors for Human Rights, Seven Years With Hard Labour, weaving together four accounts from former Burmese political prisoners now living in the UK.

[18] Index on Censorship annually presents awards to journalists, artists, campaigners and digital activists from around the world who make a significant contribution to free expression over the previous year.

[24] 2015 winners: Journalism: Rafael Marques de Morais and Safa Al Ahmad; Campaigning: Amran Abdundi;[25] Digital:Tamas Bodoky; Arts: Mouad "El Haqued" Belghouat.

[26] 2009 winners: Journalism: The Sunday Leader – Sri Lanka; Film: Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, The Devil Came on Horseback; New Media: Psiphon; Books: Ma Jian, Beijing Coma; Law: Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

[26] 2008 winners: Journalism: Arat Dink and Agos magazine; Mohamed Al-Daradji and Ahlaam; New Media: Julian Assange and WikiLeaks; Books: Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder; Law: U Gambira[27] and the Monks of Burma.

2007 winners: Journalism: Kareem Amer; Film: Yoav Shamir,[28] Defamation; Whistleblower: Chen Guangcheng; Books: Samir Kassir; Law: Siphiwe Hlophe.

[32] 2005 winners: Journalism: Sumi Khan; Books: Soldiers, Light by Daniel Bergner; Film: Final Solution, Rakesh Sharma; Campaigning: Center of Constitutional Rights; Whistleblowing: Grigoris Lazos.

[26] 2003 winners: Journalism: Fergal Keane; Whistleblowing: Tony Kevin; Censor of the Year: Jonathan Moyo; Circumvention of Censorship: Al Jazeera; Defence of Free Expression: Hashem Aghajari.

[26] 2002 winners: Defence of Free Expression: Anna Politkovskaya; Circumvention of Censorship: Şanar Yurdatapan;[33] Whistleblowing: Jiang Weiping; Censor of the Year: Silvio Berlusconi.

[26] In November 2004, Index on Censorship attracted further controversy over another indexonline.org blog post by Jayasekera that, to many readers, seemed to condone or justify the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh.

[34] The blog described Van Gogh was a "free-speech fundamentalist" on a "martyrdom operation[,] roar[ing] his Muslim critics into silence with obscenities" in an "abuse of his right to free speech".

"[35]Ursula Owen, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, while agreeing that the blog post's "tone was not right" contradicted Cohen's account of his conversation with Jayasekera in a letter to The Observer.