British NGO Index on Censorship Just Named Mexico’s President Amlo “Tyrant of the Year 2022”

AMLO may seem like a curious choice for “Tyrant of the Year,” especially given the fierce competition for the title. But once you see who leads and finances the NGO in question, it all makes a bit more sense.

Index on Censorship is a London-based NGO that has been around since the Cold War and bashfully describes itself as “the global voice of free expression.” It publishes a quarterly magazine of the same name that features articles on free speech and the restrictions imposed on it by certain governments around the world. At the end of each year, it conducts a curious exercise: it asks its readers to vote for whom they believe was “Tyrant of the Year.” For 2022, despite apparently “tough” competition, “one leader surged ahead, by a mile,” the NGO says. That leader was Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka AMLO).