The Erased font

This is a call to turn all eyes on the danger of censorship and imprisoned journalists worldwide. Most of the time, the stories of these journalists remain invisible - because what is not published cannot be read. To bring awareness to this issue we would like to ask you to join us and stand up for journalists. We would like you to join The Erased. 

The Erased uses a unique font that links every single one of the 363 currently imprisoned journalists to a censored word, and subsequently erases these words from publications on participating (news) websites worldwide. This shows the importance of free, independent journalism and the danger of censorship. It takes away our right to know. 

We ask all media outlets and organisations around the world to use The Erased font for a number of hours on World Press Freedom Day, May 3rd may 2023. It’s now more important than ever, to come together as an industry and make a statement. 

Anyone can implement the font, and at the moment it can already be applied in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic & Dutch.

But the font is not everything. The way the font is designed, each Erased word symbolises a currently imprisoned journalist. When implementing the font, a banner will appear at the bottom of the page, allowing a user to toggle the font on and off. This banner is also clickable and leads to a website explaining the concept. On The Erased website, we highlight in-depth interviews with several journalists who have been censored while writing about an Erased word. This way we visualise and contextualise what happens when we lose press freedom. These journalists showcase great resilience and their stories are representative for all journalists around the world facing any kind of censorship. These journalists were silenced while doing what mattered most and their Erased stories will finally be told.