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 all over the world. It maintains an intensive database of worldwide case legislation. That is its e-newsletter coping with current developments within the area.
For this month’s Portraits of FoE (Freedom of Expression) Defenders, we’re that includes one of many world’s most distinguished journalists and press freedom advocates: Maria Ressa. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, Ressa has been standing as much as threats towards democracy – and urging others to do the identical.
Earlier this August, CGFoE’s Program Coordinator Estefanía Mullally and Editor Anastasiia Vorozhtsova sat down with Maria Ressa to debate the state of world freedom of expression, the hazards of social media and generative AI, the challenges of being a lady journalist, and what it takes to confront authoritarianism as we speak.
The interview is each a warning and a name to motion. Learn the excerpt beneath and discover the total model on our web site.
Maria Ressa is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist, Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, and Professor of Skilled Follow at Columbia College. Picture: Ian DiSalvo
CGFoE: As Western media face unprecedented obstacles, what can they be taught from extra embattled components of the world?
Maria Ressa: How you can arise, get up, and combat again. It’s a easy factor, proper?
Within the Nineteen Nineties, after I coated one of many Russian elections, I believed, “I hope our nation doesn’t go right here.” Now the complete world is following the development of Russia. Anne Applebaum calls it “Autocracy, Inc.” We’ve all the time known as it “Kleptocracy. Inc.” As a result of that is energy and cash. Now that is world. The connections on-line are world, too. And but the understanding of how they work is so muted.
Let’s check out 2023. After the discharge of ChatGPT, about 23 billion {dollars} was invested. That turned an arms race. LLMs are imperfect and have an error charge as excessive as 79% and at finest, possibly 16%. The chatbot we inbuilt Rappler, which is anchored within the content material we personal, has an error charge beneath 2%. You may really anchor it in info, however they don’t have the inducement.
In 2023, with all that funding, startups started crawling information websites. Rappler doesn’t permit the scraping of our content material. However they steal content material on the scale of tons of of 1000’s per minute. Will journalism survive? I might say this 12 months will decide that. If no guardrails are put in place, small- and medium-scale information organizations won’t be able to outlive this time interval. It’s an data Armageddon.
What can the West be taught from extra embattled components of the world? I can summarize it into 4 issues. There’s media seize – however earlier than that, you have already got social media data operations – adopted by tutorial seize – we all know this – adopted by NGO seize – tutorial and NGO seize occur at about the identical time – after which there may be state seize.
Journalism, relying on how diseased the general public data ecosystem is, can combat again. However I say, again and again: With out info, you may’t have reality; with out reality, you may’t have belief. With out these three, you haven’t any shared actuality. You may’t start to resolve any drawback, not to mention existential ones. You can not have democracy. Details are the inspiration of a democracy. You can not have the rule of legislation with out info.
To learn the complete interview, go to our web site.
Neighborhood Court docket of Justice of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS)ASUTIC v. SenegalDecision Date: Might 14, 2025The Neighborhood Court docket of Justice of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS/Court docket) discovered that the Republic of Senegal violated the suitable to freedom of expression and the suitable of entry to data below Article 9 of the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by imposing arbitrary web and social media shutdowns. The case arose from the Senegalese authorities’s full web shutdowns throughout protests following the conviction of opposition chief Ousmane Sonko, citing the necessity to curb the unfold of “hateful and subversive messages.” The Court docket reasoned that entry to the web and associated companies is an integral element of freedom of expression and the suitable to data, and that any restriction should meet the necessities of legality, authentic objective, necessity, and proportionality. It discovered that Senegal’s legal guidelines didn’t particularly authorize shutdowns, that the federal government failed to offer proof of concrete threats warranting such a sweeping measure, and that much less restrictive options, corresponding to eradicating dangerous content material or prosecuting offenders, had been out there. The Court docket concluded the shutdowns had been arbitrary, disproportionate, and incompatible with worldwide human rights requirements. Consequently, the Court docket awarded 250,000 CFA francs (approx. 444 USD) every to ASUTIC and Applicant Ndiaga Gueye for violation of freedom of expression and proper of entry to data, and an extra 250,000 CFA francs (approx. 444 USD) to Gueye for violation of his proper to work.
ENHRI v. NigeriaDecision Date: April 9, 2025The Neighborhood Court docket of Justice of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States held that blasphemy legal guidelines in Nigeria violated the elemental proper to freedom of expression assured below Article 9(2) of the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Expression Now Human Rights Initiative, a Nigerian non-governmental group, argued that the Federal Republic of Nigeria used felony legislation on blasphemy to arrest and impose the dying penalty on its residents and that it failed to stop extra-judicial killings of residents accused of blasphemy. The Court docket discovered that Part 210 failed the take a look at of legality because of its imprecise wording. The Court docket concluded that the dying penalty “for abusing or insulting a spiritual determine is an extreme measure” and subsequently discovered that Part 382(b) was not proportionate and vital. The Court docket directed the federal government to repeal or amend Sections 210, 382(b), and different comparable ones to carry them into conformity with worldwide human rights legislation. Nonetheless, the Court docket decided that the proof submitted by ENHRI was inadequate to show that the State failed to stop extrajudicial killings of people accused of blasphemy.
NigeriaYahaya Sharif-Aminu v. Legal professional GeneralDecision Date: August 17, 2022The Nigerian Court docket of Attraction upheld the constitutional validity of a State Sharia Legislation offence of blasphemy. A singer had been convicted by a Sharia Court docket of blasphemy towards Prophet Muhammad, by means of a track shared on WhatsApp, and sentenced to dying by hanging. The Excessive Court docket quashed the conviction on procedural points and ordered a retrial. The Court docket of Attraction held that Part 10 of the Nigerian Structure solely prohibits adopting a State faith however doesn’t invalidate Sharia-based legal guidelines for Muslims, reasoning that the Structure itself incorporates Sharia Courts, and located that retrial was vital within the curiosity of justice and public order. One choose dissented and would have discovered the Sharia Legislation offence unconstitutional and would have acquitted the singer.
KenyaKatiba Institute v. Director of Public ProsecutionsDecision Date: March 18, 2024The Excessive Court docket of Kenya declared the offence of subversive actions unconstitutional. The case arose after a number of non-governmental organisations, together with the Katiba Institute, challenged the prosecution of a Kenyan lawyer, who had been charged with the offence in relation to posts on X (previously Twitter) which allegedly may incite violence and threaten public order and safety. The Katiba Institute argued that the availability within the Penal Code was imprecise, overbroad, and inconsistent with the Structure. The Court docket noticed that freedom of expression is the “cornerstone of any democratic state” and that limitations on this proper should be “cheap and justifiable in an open and democratic society”. It discovered the availability imprecise, indefinite, and overbroad, missing readability on objective and intent, and concluded that it was not “offered by legislation” and failed to fulfill constitutional requirements, The Court docket famous the colonial origins of the availability.
● SEP 9: Ebook Dialogue – The Cambridge Handbook of the Proper to Freedom of Thought. Don’t miss our upcoming occasion on the lately launched Cambridge Handbook of the Proper to Freedom of Thought, edited by Patrick O’Callaghan, College Faculty Cork, and Bethany Shiner, Middlesex College, London. To debate the guide’s groundbreaking contribution within the evaluation of the suitable to freedom of thought throughout nationwide and regional authorized frameworks, CGFoE will carry collectively the editors, chosen contributors, and consultants on the Inter-American, European, and African human rights methods. September 9, 2025. 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET. On-line. Register right here.
● SEP 17-18: fifth International Summit on Disinformation. Organized by the Inter-American Press Affiliation, Fundación para el Periodismo from Bolivia, and Proyecto Desconfío from Argentina, the summit will welcome journalists, researchers, civil society representatives, media professionals, and policymakers united within the combat towards disinformation worldwide. September 17-18, 2025. On-line. Trilingual: with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Join through this kind.
● Morocco: Activist Arrested over ‘Insulting God.’ The Basis for Particular person Rights and Expression experiences on the arrest of Moroccan feminist and LGBTQI+ rights activist Ibtissam Lachgar, who’s being accused of “offending Islam” based mostly on an X submit. Lachgar, co-founder of the secular feminist group Various Motion for Particular person Liberties, was detained in early August after posting a photograph of herself in a T-shirt saying “Allah is Lesbian.” On expenses of blasphemy below Article 267-5 of Morocco’s penal code, Lachgar faces as much as 5 years in jail and 500,000 dirhams in fines. On August 27, her request for provisional freedom because of well being issues – Lachgar is battling most cancers – was rejected. In line with Related Press, Morocco’s Federation of Girls’s Rights Associations says the case deserves “robust condemnation” and violates freedom of expression.
● Tanzania: Professional Opinion on the Blocking of X. The Open Observatory of Community Interference (OONI) Basis revealed an knowledgeable opinion on the restrictions of entry to on-line data in Tanzania because of the ongoing blocking of X. Entry to the social media platform has been restricted since Might 2025; OONI detected the employment of various censorship methods concurrently, exhibiting a “protection in depth” strategy – a shift to extra advanced and difficult-to-bypass strategies. “This recurring censorship of X is a part of a broader sample of digital repression [in Tanzania], which incorporates the blocking of LGBTQI web sites, human rights platforms, on-line courting companies, and circumvention instruments corresponding to Proton VPN,” OONI’s knowledgeable opinion stresses.
● South Africa: Conditional Approval of Canal+ Takeover of MultiChoice; Issues of Threats to Media Pluralism in Africa. Because the merger between Africa’s two largest media retailers looms, the Worldwide Press Institute (IPI) is involved “over potential editorial interference and the silencing of crucial reporting.” Final month, South Africa’s Competitors Tribunal conditionally accredited the proposed takeover of South African TV broadcaster MultiChoice, a number one leisure platform, by French media outlet Canal+, owned by firm Vivendi, whose controlling shareholder is French billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Talking to IPI, Simon Allison, co-founder of The Continent, a South Africa-based journal, emphasised Bolloré’s observe document “of airing excessive right-wing and racist views on the media platforms he controls in France.” Each IPI and Allison predict struggles for the continent’s impartial journalism if the acquisition is finalized.
● ACHPR: Decision on the Have to Undertake a Examine on the Assessment of the Mannequin Legislation on Entry to Data for Africa. Throughout its 84th Extraordinary Session held final month, the African Fee on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) adopted a decision that initiates a “one-year continental examine on developments within the areas of freedom of expression and entry to data within the digital period.” The examine will intention to revise and replace the 2013 Mannequin Legislation on Entry to Data for Africa, which led to the adoption of entry to data legal guidelines by 29 African states. The ACHPR appointed the Particular Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Entry to Data in Africa to hold out the evaluate and report on the Fee’s subsequent Extraordinary Session.
This part of the e-newsletter options educating supplies targeted on world freedom of expression that are newly uploaded on Freedom of Expression With out Frontiers
● Authorized Protections for Feminine Journalists in Nigeria: Useful resource Information, by Monday Arunsi and Ayomide Eweje. This authorized information, compiled by Nigeria-based Media Rights Agenda (MRA), responds to distinct and disproportionately excessive dangers for girls practising journalism because of gender-specific threats, like sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Becoming a member of the trouble to safeguard the suitable to report freely, safely, and with out concern in Nigeria, the information offers an outline of nationwide legal guidelines, regional frameworks, and worldwide requirements that defend ladies journalists. “This work is a testomony to the facility of authorized instruments in confronting structural inequality and advancing justice,” says Edetaen Ojo, MRA’s Government Director.
● Onslaught Intensifies: Mid-Time period Evaluation of Media Freedom Beneath The Tinubu Administration. The report, additionally launched by Nigeria-based Media Rights Agenda (MRA), evaluates the primary two years of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency by means of the lens of media freedom in Nigeria. As threats to freedom of expression multiply – starting from repressive legal guidelines and arrests of journalists to surveillance and censorship – the report paperwork media freedom violations by sort of assault and perpetrator, non-compliance with the Freedom of Data Act, and misuse of the Cybercrime Act. Drawing from empirical proof, authorized and coverage traits, and case research, the report concludes by providing suggestions.
● Name for Proposals: RightsCon 2026. RightsCon 2026, which is able to happen in Lusaka, Zambia, and on-line on Might 5-8, 2026, invitations session proposals in 18 thematic classes, together with “Synthetic Intelligence and Rising Applied sciences,” “Freedom of the Media,” and “Web Shutdowns and Disruptions.” The organizers encourage submissions that intersect with “gender, incapacity standing, environmental sustainability, indigenous, or youth and youngsters’s rights.” The deadline is September 12, 2025.
● New Ebook: Authorized Resistance Beneath Authoritarianism: The Wrestle for the Rule of Legislation in Hong Kong, by Yan-ho Lai. Revealed by Amsterdam College Press, the guide interrogates the decline of the rule of legislation in Hong Kong. Yan-ho Lai, analysis fellow at Georgetown’s Heart for Asian Legislation, depends on in depth fieldwork and argues that whereas the 2020 Nationwide Safety Legislation was a crucial level, threats to Hong Kong’s rule of legislation started with the 1997 sovereignty handover. Get your copy with a 40% low cost code AUP40 by September 30, 2025.
