Columbia World Freedom of Expression seeks to contribute to the event of an built-in and progressive jurisprudence and understanding on freedom of expression and data all over the world. It maintains an intensive database of worldwide case regulation. That is its e-newsletter coping with latest developments within the discipline.
It’s been a tough yr. Marking a drastic decline within the safety of basic rights, for the primary time in twenty years, autocracies have outnumbered democracies. We now have seen this unfold in additional repressive legal guidelines, suppression of protests, silencing of audio system – in courts or by violence – and surging digital threats throughout the globe.
Assembly the difficult second, CGFoE continued to develop. We’ve expanded our authorized assets, strengthened our professional community, and held pressing dialogues. As we speak, the World Database hosts 2,560 circumstances from over 130 international locations; in 2025, greater than half 1,000,000 customers consulted CGFoE’s web site, leading to 1.2 million views and 4.3 million consumer interactions – an ever-rising engagement with our platform.
But what really defines CGFoE is the collective energy of its mission to advance the free stream of knowledge and concepts worldwide – and the people who mission brings collectively: attorneys, students, journalists, advocates. In different phrases: you, pricey readers. As we revisit the previous months, we invite you to affix us. As soon as once more, the CGFoE Workforce reviewed 2025’s circumstances, revealed within the Database, to pick a number of the most impactful choices that increase or contract expression. Our high picks and reflections are under.
As we glance forward, one factor turns into distinctly clear: it takes a shared effort to defend freedom of expression globally. In a video excerpt from a latest interview, Yaman Akdeniz of Istanbul Bilgi College and İFÖD (the Freedom of Expression Affiliation) captured that collective resolve. “We now have to proceed the battle,” Akdeniz mentioned from Türkiye, one of the embattled locations totally free expression. “Whether or not you’re a lawyer, journalist, activist, tutorial, or pupil, now we have to maintain resisting.”
Going into 2026, CGFoE stays as dedicated as ever.
TOP 2025 CASES
Increasing Expression
United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC)Fátima v. GuatemalaJuly 11, 2025
The choice is a part of a landmark set of rulings together with Susana v. Nicaragua, Norma v. Ecuador, and Lucía v. Nicaragua.
“By recognizing entry to evidence-based sexual and reproductive info as a prerequisite for autonomy and decision-making, the UNHRC gives a novel and strong interpretation of freedom of expression below Article 19 of the ICCPR, putting entry to info on the core of human dignity and free speech. This jurisprudence units a brand new paradigm for decoding and making use of Article 19 for all 175 Member States and for worldwide human rights regulation.” Lautaro Furfaro, Senior Authorized Researcher
“The 4 circumstances articulate a gender-sensitive understanding of freedom of expression throughout the common human rights safety system. By strategic litigation led by They Are Women, Not Moms motion, the circumstances make seen how the denial of sexual and reproductive info operates as a structural situation that facilitates sexual violence, pressured being pregnant, and imposed motherhood on ladies.” Estefanía Mullally, Program Coordinator
Be taught extra by studying CGFoE’s latest interview with Catalina Martínez Coral, who performed a central position in main the strategic litigation behind the 4 circumstances.
European Court docket of Human Rights (ECtHR)Novaya Gazeta v. RussiaFebruary 11, 2025
“Because the Russian military continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine, the authorities are waging one other battle at house: towards journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and peculiar residents who condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The ECtHR’s ruling factors to the gravity of censorship within the nation, the place no impartial media can function and the place prosecution meets any point out of Russia’s battle crimes, requires peace, nevertheless feeble, or the mere use of the phrase ‘battle’.” Anastasiia Vorozhtsova, Editor
“This choice has established an ideal analysis of the eroding impact that limiting freedom of expression can have on democracies, whereas underscoring the significance of plural and various voices on issues like armed conflicts and requires peace. The listing of human rights violations this choice outlined won’t have a decisive and quick impact on Russia, however serves as a shameful and painful reminder to different societies that freedom of expression is a necessary assure towards tyranny.” Juan Manuel Ospina Sánchez, Senior Authorized Editor
United StatesAmerican Affiliation of College Professors (AAUP) v. RubioSeptember 30, 2025
“The Court docket’s daring choice, in a case filed by the Knight First Modification Institute, reaffirmed that non-citizens lawfully current in the US get pleasure from the identical First Modification rights. The opinion condemned the weaponization of immigration enforcement as “scandalous and unconstitutional” and ICE ways as mechanisms “to terrorize Individuals into quiescence,” clarified the President is not allowed to make use of the regulation for retribution, underscored that dissent is crucial to democracy, and known as on residents to assist safeguard constitutional freedoms towards govt overreach.” Hawley Johnson, Affiliate Director
“By invalidating an immigration enforcement regime designed to relax pupil activism, this choice safeguards tutorial freedom and political expression for noncitizens, together with college students and immigrants in heightened positions of vulnerability. Its influence extends past the US, sending a vital sign towards the worldwide replication of insurance policies that suppress dissent by concern.” Anderson Javiel Dirocie De León, Senior Authorized & Coverage Guide
CONTRACTING EXPRESSION
Argentina
Karina Milei’s Request for Prior Restraints (No. 1)September 1, 2025
“Restraining the discharge of the recordings earlier than anybody might even hear them shouldn’t be solely anti-democratic. It quantities to censorship and will have a chilling impact. By specializing in potential hurt to a robust public official as an alternative of the general public’s proper to know, the choice dangers discouraging journalists from doing their jobs and holding these in energy accountable.” Marija Šajkaš, Senior Communications Supervisor
“The ruling imposed an unconstitutional prior restraint by prohibiting dissemination of allegedly illegal audio recordings with out understanding the precise content material of the information or establishing irreparable hurt. The order suppressed info of serious public curiosity – linked to an alleged bribery scandal involving the Secretary Common of the Presidency and sister of the President. The restriction additional fell exterior the scope of exceptions below Inter-American and UN requirements, marking a setback for freedom of expression in Argentina.” Hawley Johnson, Affiliate Director
To dive deeper into the case, discover CGFoE’s interview with Roberto Gargarella, one among Latin America’s foremost constitutional students.
A quick request: to make sure you maintain listening to from us, please add our new e-mail deal with globalfreespeech@chimp.mail.columbia.edu to your contacts. Thanks!
CGFoE 2025 HIGHLIGHTS
Notable Occasion
Hate Speech and the European Court docket of Human Rights E book LaunchOctober 2025
That includes Aryeh Neier, President Emeritus, Open Society Foundations, and Mishi Choudhary, Senior Vice President and Common Counsel, Virtru, this occasion, co-hosted by CGFoE and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, launched Hate Speech and the European Court docket of Human Rights, a brand new guide by Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou, Senior Analysis Fellow on the Way forward for Free Speech, Vanderbilt College. In what methods do political polarization, digital communication, and platforms gasoline hate speech, and the way do courts weigh in? Revisit the occasion on YouTube and browse the guide evaluation by Anderson Dirocie de León, CGFoE’s Senior Authorized & Coverage Guide, right here.
Notable Webinar
CGFoE organized a groundbreaking dialogue of The Cambridge Handbook of the Proper to Freedom of Thought, edited by Patrick O’Callaghan and Bethany Shiner. The audio system – amongst them Ahmed Shaheed, Former UN Particular Rapporteur on Freedom of Faith or Perception, and Nazila Ghanea, UN Particular Rapporteur on Freedom of Faith or Perception – lined regional views throughout the Inter-American, European, and African human rights programs and the rising relevance of the controversy on rising applied sciences, like neurotechnology and AI. The recording, additionally shared on ISOC Dwell, is accessible on YouTube. For extra insights from the panelists, go to our web site.
Interview Collection
Portraits of FoE Defenders
This interview collection, launched in 2025, highlights the voices of those that defend free expression – usually at nice private threat, and infrequently requested about their very own experiences. We communicate to journalists, attorneys, activists, and advocates whose work protects the rights of others whereas profoundly shaping their very own lives. The interview that has drawn essentially the most consideration options Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist and CEO of Rappler. “If no guardrails are put in place, small- and medium-scale information organizations won’t be able to outlive this time interval,” Ressa advised CGFoE this previous August. “It’s an info Armageddon.” Picture: Ian DiSalvo
CGFoE Educating
CGFoE Continues to Have interaction with Younger Students Across the Globe
A few of our newest initiatives embrace the flagship seminar, Freedom of Expression within the Digital Realm, taught at Ain Shams College, Cairo, and designed for pupil groups certified from the MENA Rounds of Oxford College’s Worth Media Regulation Moot Court docket Competitors. One other is Particular Courses Collection: Freedom of Expression within the European and African Regional Methods in collaboration with the College of Buenos Aires. This previous spring, CGFoE’s Affiliate Director Hawley Johnson and Senior Authorized Researcher Lautaro Furfaro visited the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights to guage the worldwide rounds of the 18th Annual Worth Media Regulation Moot Court docket Competitors. In an earlier dialog, Moot Coordinator Nevena Krivokapić Martinović described CGFoE’s position in supporting Worth Moot as “invaluable.”
Court docket Intervention
CGFoE Filed Amicus Curiae Transient in a Case Regarding Surveillance of a Journalist in Chile
In August 2025, CGFoE submitted an amicus curiae temporary earlier than the Seventh Court docket of Assure in Santiago, Chile, in a case involving the unlawful surveillance of journalist Mauricio Weibel Barahona, who was focused because of his reporting on navy corruption. In its submission, CGFoE urged the Court docket to reaffirm that illegal surveillance of journalists constitutes a severe type of censorship, violating the general public’s proper to know. The temporary confused Chile’s obligations below worldwide human rights regulation and known as for a robust judicial response to guard press freedom and guarantee public entry to info indispensable to democracy. Learn our submission (in Spanish) right here.
Workforce Highlight
CGFoE’s Anderson Dirocie Behind Historic Dominican Court docket Win
Anderson Javiel Dirocie De León, Senior Authorized & Coverage Guide at CGFoE, helped obtain a latest landmark ruling advancing equality and human rights within the Dominican Republic. This November, the nation’s Constitutional Court docket struck down provisions that criminalized consensual same-sex intimacy amongst police and navy personnel. “This choice dismantles a discriminatory and abusive regime that harmed numerous LGBTI members of the safety forces,” mentioned Anderson Dirocie. “By recognizing sexual orientation as a protected constitutional class, the Court docket has taken a necessary step towards equality, dignity, and democratic inclusion.” Extra on the case and Dirocie’s position coming quickly – keep tuned.
Joyful Holidays!
We will likely be again with our common e-newsletter on January 9, 2026.
