Mimeta's January 2026 analysis reveals an unprecedented crisis in artistic freedom: 21 artists killed in Iran's month-long crackdown, TikTok's ownership transfer enabling infrastructure-level censorship affecting 170M+ users, and 44 documented cases across 27 countries. The Middle East accounts for 43% of cases, with religious justifications in 36%. Despite this escalation, resistance persists, Kenya overturned film bans, Lebanese artists performed under threats, and Australian boycotts sparked institutional crisis.
The Taliban detained two prominent theater artists in Herat Province on January 1, 2026, one day after authorities announced enforcement of a ban prohibiting media from broadcasting images of living beings. Gholam Farooq Sarkhosh and Firoz Ahmad Malaeka were summoned by the Taliban's Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and subsequently detained after they criticized the restriction during a meeting with media representatives.
REPORT: SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom documents systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, photographers, and artists in December 2025. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate recorded 99 violations across Palestinian territories, with 48 detention cases in the West Bank alone. Named arrests include writer Sari Arabi (Dec 25), Palestine TV reporter Ahmad Shawar and photographer Bashar Nazzal (Dec 4), and comedian Amer Zahr in Nazareth (Dec 27). Israeli police also raided Haifa's Nayruz Music Institute Christmas performance, arresting three participants.
Egyptian security agents arrested poet and activist Ahmed Douma without a warrant from his Cairo home on January 19, 2026, charging him with "disseminating false news" for posts about imprisoned activist Mohamed Adel. This marks at least the fifth case against Douma since his August 2023 presidential pardon, following nearly a decade in prison. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention previously deemed his detention arbitrary. Weeks before the arrest, he was prevented from boarding a flight to Lebanon.
Posted
Hong Kong street artist Chan King-fai was prosecuted three times between February 2023 and September 2025 for the same graffiti design combining Chinese characters for "freedom" with dollar signs. Despite claiming the art symbolized financial rather than political freedom, he faced 36 criminal damage charges discovered at different times. Meanwhile, overtly political graffiti and slogans have resulted in prison sentences of up to 14 months under Article 23 sedition laws, creating a stark contrast in how Hong Kong authorities prosecute street art.
Concerts, exhibitions and literary events across Central Asia are being cancelled after artists’ political statements or perceived alignment with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. From pro‑Kremlin musicians dropped in Tashkent to a Taiwanese exhibition halted in Almaty, cultural programming in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan is now defined by quiet pressures and sudden reversals.
In January 2026, Kenya’s Court of Appeal ruled that the 2018 ban on Wanuri Kahiu’s film Rafiki was unlawful and disproportionate. The judges found that depicting a same-sex relationship is not the same as promoting crime and said the film should, at most, receive an age-restricted rating. The ruling also struck down police powers to forcibly stop filming and to retain cut footage, narrowing state control over film production
The Tamil film Jana Nayagan, starring actor Thalapathy Vijay, remains without a release date after the Madras High Court on 27 January set aside an earlier order that would have granted it certification. The film was scheduled to open on 9 January 2026, but certification was withheld after a complaint raised concerns about Indian Army references and communal harmony. The controversy arrives as Vijay prepares to contest the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections with his new political party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam.
BACKGROUND: Trump's first year back in the White House has produced both dramatic institutional takeovers and sustained pressure that cumulatively narrows room for independent cultural work. In May 2025, the Kennedy Center restructured its bylaws to freeze out Congress-designated trustees. That same evening, the NEA terminated 560+ approved grants totaling $27 million. Yet resistance is mounting: 150+ organizations pledged support for artistic freedom, and the Fall of Freedom movement staged 600+ coordinated events in November 2025. The battle over culture defines 2026
In December 2025, Giorgos Gavriel opened Antisystemic Art in Paphos, reinterpreting Christian icons in provocative ways. The exhibition faced political and church criticism, gallery disruptions, and threats. Days later, a low‑power explosive was thrown at the artist’s home, raising concerns about safety and freedom of expression in Cyprus.
South Africa: Minister Gayton McKenzie's unilateral cancellation of Gabrielle Goliath's Venice Biennale pavilion has triggered a constitutional crisis in South Africa's arts sector. The artist, unanimously selected by an independent panel, was removed after her "Elegy" series addressing Gaza was deemed "divisive." McKenzie claims sovereignty concerns and denies censorship, but critics say he violated the arm's-length principle protecting artistic freedom. Goliath has filed suit, and the sector awaits presidential intervention.
Lebanese stand up comedian Mario Moubarak became the target of a national backlash in late 2025 after a joke about Jesus from his Awk.word set “I Believe” was edited, stripped of context and republished online. Christian activist networks and religious institutions amplified the clip, triggering doxxing, death threats and a blasphemy complaint that led to his arrest at Beirut Airport and an ongoing criminal investigation
Posted
Cabaret Paulikevitch in Beirut became a flashpoint in 2025, when Lebanese dancer and artivist Alexandre Paulikevitch faced threats and incitement from both Christian and Islamist extremists over his baladi performance. Despite calls to ban the show and online campaigns depicting his work as “perversion”, the September 11 cabaret went ahead to a sold-out audience at Metro Al-Madina, turning the stage into a rare moment of public resistance for queer-coded dance and artistic freedom in Lebanon
Posted
Laylat al‑Iḥsās (“Night of Emotion”) in Tripoli on 30 August 2025 became a focal point of debate over concerts during the Gaza war. A day before the show, Hizb al‑Tahrir activists and self‑described “defenders of Gaza and religion” marched against the event, backed by a statement from the Association of Muslim Scholars in Lebanon. Despite pressure, the concert went ahead under heightened security and without reported incidents
Lebanon’s satirical TV series “Marhaba Dawle” has become a key test case for artistic freedom, after the Ministry of Interior sought to ban it, producer Firas Hatoum was interrogated by security forces, and Christian and Muslim institutions filed complaints over alleged insults to religion. The legal setbacks for the state, and rising moral panic, reveal how courts, security bodies and religious authorities are reshaping the space for televised satire.
In April 2025, Lebanese artist Hanane Hajj Ali performed her acclaimed play “Jogging – Theatre in Progress” at the Lebanese International University in Saida, to a calm audience and open discussion. Days later, the university condemned the show under moral and religious pretexts, following an online smear campaign that weaponised decontextualised video clips and threats. Artists and cultural workers mobilised in response, framing the case as a dangerous precedent for artistic freedom in Lebanon
Posted
Lebanon's General Security Censorship Bureau delayed the theatrical release of the acclaimed anthology film "Disorder" in July 2025, conditioning its screening license on removal of a 20-second scene depicting security force violence against protesters during the October 2019 uprising. Director Lucien Bourjeily, facing a binary choice between censorship or complete ban, reluctantly complied to protect the work of three other filmmakers. The incident underscores Lebanon's continued suppression of artistic documentation of state violence and exemplifies the extrajudicial nature of the country's film censorship system.
Awk.word, Lebanon’s first underground stand up comedy platform, uses humour to confront corruption, inequality and shrinking civic space. Its cancelled Saida anniversary show and the prosecutions of comedian Nour Hajjar, over jokes about the army and religion, reveal how security bodies and religious authorities increasingly police what can be said on stage, turning comedy into a key battleground for artistic freedom.
The brief detention of Syria Prisons Museum founder Amer Matar in September 2025 shows how fragile the space remains for documenting torture and disappearance in post‑Assad Syria. By targeting a virtual museum that uses 3D technology to reconstruct prisons, authorities signalled that immersive memory projects and digital archives of abuse remain under suspicion.
Uganda’s 2026 elections are unfolding under a deliberate information blackout. A nationwide internet shutdown, assaults on journalists, and orders for rights groups to halt work have gutted independent scrutiny of the vote. The combined pressure on media, NGOs and cultural actors exposes a deepening digital authoritarianism that directly threatens civic and artistic freedoms in Uganda.
