Columbia International Freedom of Expression seeks to contribute to the event of an built-in and progressive jurisprudence and understanding on freedom of expression and data around the globe. It maintains an intensive database of worldwide case regulation. That is its e-newsletter coping with latest developments within the area.
CGFoE’s Editor Anastasiia Vorozhtsova just lately visited The Different Russia, an exhibition organized by Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most distinguished human rights group, now exiled. Narrating 35 years of Memorial’s work, the exhibition chronicles a sustained effort to protect historic fact and resist autocracy.
“[The Russian authorities] right now are scaring individuals into silence,” Elena Zhemkova, Managing Director of Zukunft [Future] Memorial, instructed Anastasiia. “And one of many options of this intimidation marketing campaign is its lack of logic: repression has no boundaries.”
Based within the Eighties to doc Soviet-era human rights violations, Memorial later started exposing Russia’s present-day ones. In 2021, the Supreme Court docket ordered Memorial’s liquidation: formally, for its failure to adjust to the “international agent” legal guidelines; however in court docket, the prosecutor argued that Memorial created a false picture of the Soviet Union as “a terrorist state.”
In her weblog, Russia’s Memorial in Exile: Giving Individuals the Alternative to be Courageous, Anastasiia displays on the present state of the proper to historic fact in Russia. “Lately, remembering the Soviet previous means seeing up to date Russia with readability,” she writes. “Soviet-era repression—its scale, its arbitrariness, its lack of logic—pressured individuals to dwell in dread. Remembering the names and fates of its victims turned, then and now, one other form of act: that of resistance.”
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A prisoner’s letter, censored, Suzdal, 1924. Supply: Memorial’s exhibition The Different Russia in Hamburg, Germany, January 2026.
Drawing of a prisoner’s barracks by Ivan Sukhanov, Kemerovo, 1935/36. Drawing of the GULAG was potential solely in secret. Many photos have been destroyed throughout searches. Sukhanov’s drawings are among the many only a few that survived. Supply: Memorial’s exhibition The Different Russia in Hamburg, Germany, January 2026.
Court docket of Justice of the European UnionAmazon EU Sàrl v. European CommissionDecision Date: November 19, 2025The Normal Court docket of the Court docket of Justice of the European Union dismissed an motion by Amazon EU Sàrl and upheld the European Fee’s choice designating the Amazon Retailer as a “very massive on-line platform” below the Digital Companies Act (DSA). The case arose from Amazon’s problem that the DSA’s designation standards and subsequent obligations violated its elementary rights below the EU Constitution. The Court docket discovered that whereas the DSA’s obligations interfered with Amazon’s freedom to conduct a enterprise, this interference was justified, proportionate, and essential to mitigate systemic dangers posed by platforms with huge attain. It additional held that the obligations didn’t infringe the rights to property, equal therapy, freedom of expression, or personal life, as they have been prescribed by regulation, revered the essence of these rights, and served the overriding public curiosity of shopper safety and a protected on-line surroundings.
United KingdomRex v. Hamit CoskunDecision Date: October 10, 2025The Southwark Crown Court docket (England and Wales) overturned the conviction of a person who burnt a replica of the Koran exterior the Turkish Consulate in London. The Court docket reaffirmed key ideas of English regulation that there is no such thing as a offence of blasphemy in England and Wales, and that that freedom of expression contains the proper to specific views that “offend, shock or disturb.” The Court docket held that his conduct was neither “disorderly” nor “prone to trigger harassment, alarm or misery” below part 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. The Court docket additional decided that the person’s conduct fell inside the scope of political speech, noting that he acted alone exterior an embassy, a longtime venue for protests, protested for just a few minutes, and was empty-handed, all of which made it unlikely to trigger harassment or misery to others.
TürkiyeYaman Akdeniz Utility (3)Resolution Date: July 2, 2025The Constitutional Court docket of Türkiye held that the state’s refusal to supply an instructional with requested statistical info, regardless of a ultimate court docket order, violated his freedom of expression below Article 26 of the Structure. An instructional and civil society actor had sought information on the variety of prosecutions and investigations approved below particular articles of the Turkish Penal Code. The Court docket reasoned that the administration possessed the information, the mandatory infrastructure, and a statutory responsibility to supply it, and its refusal to adjust to a binding judicial choice served no respectable goal. It held that denying entry to such info, which was essential for public oversight and tutorial work, didn’t meet a urgent social want in a democratic society. The Court docket consequently ordered the disclosure of the knowledge and awarded compensation to the applicant.
CGFoE thanks Dr. Yaman Akdeniz of the Freedom of Expression Affiliation (IFÖD) for alerting the Workforce in regards to the ruling. In case you missed it: Dr. Akdeniz just lately spoke to CGFoE in regards to the dire state of freedom of expression in Türkiye and his steady efforts to counter censorship. Learn the interview right here.
At CGFoE, we’re all the time searching for new judicial choices to incorporate in our database. If you’re conscious of a case that will be a powerful match and have entry to the related authorized paperwork, we invite you to get in contact with us at globalfreespeech@columbia.edu. The CGFoE Workforce will evaluate all submissions.
● Türkiye: Social Media Platforms Flip to Censorship to Defend Business Pursuits. Citing Bianet, IFEX spotlights a brand new report, Digital Obedience Regime: Social Community Suppliers and the Phantasm of Transparency in Türkiye, by The Freedom of Expression Affiliation—İFÖD. The report’s authors, CGFoE knowledgeable Dr. Yaman Akdeniz and researcher Ozan Güven argue that, following amendments to the Web Legislation No. 5651 in 2020 and 2022, the key social networks—Fb, X, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn, amongst others—have put their business pursuits forward of customers’ freedom of expression and proper to entry info by complying with the censorship calls for of the Turkish authorities.
● Georgia: Proof of Abuse of Course of in Trial of Famend Journalist. TrialWatch launched its evaluation of the trial and conviction of Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, highlighting violations of her proper to a good trial. Because the Georgian individuals proceed to protest the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream celebration, Amaglobeli, co-founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti and 2025’s recipient of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was prosecuted for an altercation with a policeman and sentenced to 2 years in jail final August. TrialWatch emphasizes that the proof of abuse of course of exposes an intent to focus on a number one impartial journalist and intimidate Georgia’s different dissenting voices.
● United States: Ringing the Alarm Bells—Rising Authoritarian Practices and Erosion of Human Rights. Marking one 12 months into President Donald Trump’s second time period, Amnesty Worldwide sounds “twelve alarm bells,” grouping the administration’s a number of human rights violations into twelve authoritarian practices. The primary 5 concern freedom of the press and entry to info, freedom of expression and meeting, civil society and universities, political opponents and critics, judges, legal professionals, and the authorized system. Amnesty emphasizes the mutually reinforcing nature of those violations: the focusing on of the press results in fewer human rights abuses uncovered, and the suppression of protests forces individuals into self-censorship.
● Burundi: Sandra Muhoza Is the Solely Lady Journalist Arbitrarily Detained in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reporters With out Borders (RSF) condemns the four-year jail sentence that the Ngozi Excessive Court docket in northern Burundi handed right down to journalist Sandra Muhoza final week. The process, mired in irregularities, was based mostly on expenses of “undermining the integrity of the nationwide territory” and “racial aversion.” “This very harsh sentence imposed on a journalist who did nothing greater than share a message in a WhatsApp group for information professionals reveals the true intention of the judicial authorities: to proceed treating journalism as against the law,” mentioned Sadibou Marong of RSF, which referred the case to the African Fee on Human and Peoples’ Rights final 12 months.
This Week in Protests
In Iran, the state has responded to nationwide protests with deadly drive. Because the web shutdown stays in place, the Human Rights Activists Information Company cites 4,902 confirmed deaths, whereas 9,387 are nonetheless below evaluate; at the least 7,389 individuals have been severely injured; the overall variety of arrests has reached 26,541. In Uganda, the Monitor’s highlight final week, President Yoweri Museveni, 81, was declared the winner of a seventh time period because of the January 15 election; a crackdown on the civic house escalated; opposition chief Bobi Wine referred to as for peaceable protests.
Minneapolis: January 7—ongoing
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, protests towards President Trump’s anti-immigration insurance policies intensified within the aftermath of the deadly taking pictures of Renée Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on January 7. The demonstrations, a part of town’s grassroots mobilization towards ICE operations, have been met with drive.
Calls for: With roughly 2,000 federal brokers deployed to Minneapolis (and 1,500 active-duty troopers on standby in Alaska), the protesters have been calling for an finish to aggressive immigration enforcement operations and demanding accountability for the loss of life of Renée Good.
State response: Of their clashes with protesters, federal brokers have used tear gasoline and pepper spray, amongst different extreme drive techniques.
Significance: The protests have drawn nationwide consideration and authorized motion. Final Friday, a federal decide in Minnesota granted a preliminary injunction, proscribing federal brokers’ measures throughout protests. In an 83-page ruling, Decide Kate M. Menendez barred retaliation towards individuals “participating in peaceable and unobstructive protest exercise” and using pepper spray or different “crowd dispersal instruments” in response to protected speech. On January 21, in a win for the Trump administration, the eighth US Circuit Court docket of Appeals briefly lifted these restrictions.
FoE Violations: Having reviewed dozens of witness statements and video proof, Decide Kate M. Menendez discovered that “the file adequately illustrates that the defendants have made, and can proceed to make, a typical apply of conduct that chills observers’ and protesters’ First Modification rights.”
● Journalism, Media, and Know-how Developments and Predictions 2026, by Nic Newman. In a latest report, the Reuters Institute foresees an abundance of existential challenges the media will probably be confronting over the subsequent 12 months, with Generative AI and personality-led information rising as probably the most formidable ones.
● Breaking Factors—Digital Assaults on Human Rights Defenders within the Majority World. Documenting numerous types of digital assaults on human rights defenders globally, Digital Democracy Initiative underscores an alarming pattern: “on-line aggression is more and more leading to life-altering, offline penalties.”
This text is reproduced with the permission of International Freedom of Expression. For an archive of earlier newsletters, see right here.
