Attacks on artists and musicians in authoritarian countries increased in 2014, according to a Danish human rights group that monitors freedom of expression.
The group Freemuse recorded 237 instances of repression against artists and musicians last year. Three artists were killed, while more than 80 were imprisoned or detained.
China was the worst offender of artists’ freedoms with 38 cases of persecution, followed by Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
"Some artists give voice to peoples’ frustrations and aspirations and are therefore targeted or even silenced," said Ole Reitov, executive director of Freemuse, in a press release. "Governments around the world must guarantee that artists can express themselves without fear of reprisal."
China has long persecuted dissident artists such as Ai Weiwei who criticize the Communist Party’s policies through the visual arts and music. Ai was held in detention for 81 days in 2011, but authorities did not file any official charges. Freemuse is currently campaigning for the release of nine imprisoned singers who are members of the Tibetan minority, a group that accuses the government in Beijing of discrimination.
Two members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot infamously served two years in Russian labor camps for singing an anti-Kremlin song in a Moscow church and have been continually harassed since their release last year. In Iran, women are banned from singing solos in front of men who are not relatives.
Freemuse acknowledged that some forms of repression could not be statistically measured, such as self-censorship by artists to avoid retribution and blanket bans on music in areas controlled by jihadist groups.
The Freemuse report’s release comes just days after a Danish attacker killed a filmmaker at a free speech debate last weekend in Copenhagen. The attacker, who had ties to Muslim extremists, also killed a Jewish man outside a synagogue in the city before he was shot dead by police.