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 knowledge all over the world. It maintains an intensive database of worldwide case legislation. That is its e-newsletter coping with current developments within the subject.
“Tech corporations discovered methods to insidiously manipulate. I at all times say they hacked our biology,” Nobel Peace Prize winner and CEO of Rappler Maria Ressa informed CGFoE in a current interview. “Utilizing the worst of our feelings – concern, anger, hate – they pushed us to alter the way in which we see the world.”
In an age of disinformation, algorithmic manipulation, and curated “personalised realities” that fracture societies, how free are we in forming our ideas?
It’s towards the issues similar to these voiced by Ressa – together with neurotechnology developments resulting in “thoughts studying” – that scholarly conversations on the fitting to freedom of thought take form. But a paradox persists: That includes prominently within the standard, historic, and political discourse, the fitting stays obscure within the authorized realm.
“The correct to freedom of thought sits inside all worldwide human rights devices and an entire heap of home payments of rights or constitutions, however is infamously recognized to be ignored,” stated authorized scholar Bethany Shiner this previous Could on the launch of The Cambridge Handbook of the Proper to Freedom of Thought. “Nobody is aware of what [the right] is, what it protects, what its limits are, the way it operates, and what its software is.”
Addressing this hole in authorized expression on the fitting, The Cambridge Handbook, co-edited by Bethany Shiner and Patrick O’Callaghan, makes a landmark contribution to comparative authorized scholarship. It spans 5 authorized techniques in Asia (Japan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, India), 5 in Europe (Türkiye, Germany, France, the UK, and the ECHR), 5 in Africa (Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius, South Africa, and the ACHPR), and 6 within the Americas (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the US, Canada, and the ACHR).
Becoming a member of this essential international dialogue, CGFoE will host a digital dialog on the fitting to freedom of thought subsequent Tuesday, September 9, 2025. CGFoE’s Affiliate Director Hawley Johnson, Senior Authorized Researcher Lautaro Furfaro, and Editor Caroline James will welcome The Cambridge Handbook’s co-editors, chosen contributors, and different consultants, together with present and former UN Particular Rapporteurs on Freedom of Faith or Perception Nazila Ghanea and Ahmed Shaheed.
Tune in from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM ET on Zoom or by way of our YouTube livestream.
“Freedom of thought is the water that nourishes the tree of different human rights, democracy, and growth,” The Cambridge Handbook contributor Sfiso Benard Nxumalo argues in his chapter on the African human rights system.
How can freedom of thought be safeguarded as an impartial proper, distinct from associated rights similar to freedom of expression or freedom of faith?
Don’t miss our upcoming dialogue on the fitting to freedom of thought subsequent Tuesday, September 9, 2025. Nxumalo will be part of CGFoE as a speaker, together with The Cambridge Handbook’s co-editors and different chosen contributors and consultants. Register right here.
SerbiaJovanović – Ćuta v. Digital Media Community doo Beograd (24SEDAM)Determination Date: April 9, 2025The Belgrade Courtroom of Enchantment upheld the Larger Courtroom’s judgment, figuring out that the web portal 24SEDAM harmed the status and honor of the plaintiff, Mr. Jovanović – Ćuta, by republishing an op-ed written by the then Prime Minister of Serbia and initially printed on the Authorities’s official web site. The Portal reported on statements made by the Prime Minister of Serbia through which she referred to as the plaintiff “a failed investor in small hydropower vegetation and a jackass.” She additionally propagated false and unsubstantiated allegations concerning the plaintiff, particularly that he was receiving overseas funding with a view to trigger hurt to the State and its establishments. The Courtroom based mostly its choice totally on the truth that the web portal reproduced statements able to inflicting reputational hurt whereas relying solely on their prior publication on the Authorities’s official web site and authorship by the Prime Minister – with out conducting impartial verification according to journalistic due diligence or assessing whether or not their dissemination served a official public curiosity. The Courtroom famous that though the plaintiff is an opposition member of parliament who, as a public officeholder, is anticipated to tolerate a better diploma of criticism, the article republished by the portal contained nothing however a sensationalist and defamatory narrative and, as such, didn’t contribute to a political or normal curiosity debate and was due to this fact deemed illegal. Accordingly, the Courtroom ordered the accountable editor and the writer of the portal to pay the plaintiff non-pecuniary damages, equal to approx. $400 USD, for the violation of his honor and status.
HungaryTibi Atya v. Kulcsár Edina and CsutiDecision Date: October 22, 2024The Hungarian Constitutional Courtroom confirmed two decrease courts’ choices and located Tibi Atya, a blogger, responsible of prison libel. The blogger had used coarse and obscene language in posts about two media personalities, Kulcsár Edina and Csuti, who subsequently approached the courts as non-public prosecutors. The Constitutional Courtroom accepted that the decrease courts had appropriately discovered that the blogger’s statements weren’t about issues of public curiosity and the media personalities weren’t public figures. It held that the statements had been gratuitous, obscene and abusive and so infringed the media personalities’ human dignity.
László Toroczkai v. MetaDecision Date: March 27, 2024The Hungarian Curia upheld the judgment of a decrease courtroom, discovering that Meta was entitled to take away a politician’s Fb account for breach of its Group Requirements. László Toroczkai, the chief of the Our Homeland Motion political celebration, had written 4 posts on Fb which Meta discovered violated its hate-speech restrictions and led to Meta eradicating his Fb after which Instagram accounts. The Curia upheld the choice of the Courtroom of Enchantment which discovered that Meta was entitled to take away the Fb account however not the Instagram account because the content material was solely posted on Fb.
SloveniaNational Public Broadcasting Group Radio-Tv Slovenia v. SloveniaDecision Date: February 5, 2004The Constitutional Courtroom of the Republic of Slovenia dominated that the arbitrary discount of the general public radio and tv broadcaster’s funding, as prescribed by the challenged provisions of the Media Act and the related secondary laws, violates the constitutional proper to freedom of expression by undermining the general public broadcaster’s monetary and programmatic independence and not using a substantiated justification. The case arose when the general public broadcaster challenged amendments to the Media Act that diverted 3% of its funding to different media packages, arguing this interfered with its means to function independently, violating its constitutional protections. Regardless of objections from the Authorities, some members of parliament, and the general public broadcaster, the modification was adopted with out evaluating its affect on the broadcaster’s operations. The Courtroom dominated that the legislature did not justify the funding discount or assess its affect on the broadcaster’s constitutional function, rendering the choice arbitrary. The Courtroom emphasised that safeguarding the broadcaster’s monetary independence is crucial to guard freedom of expression and make sure the public’s proper to data.
● EU: CASE and ECPMF Launch Anti-SLAPP Monitor. The Coalition In opposition to SLAPPs in Europe and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom have launched the European Anti-SLAPP Monitor. The platform will doc how the EU and Council of Europe Member States, together with Kosovo, transpose and implement nationally the European devices on Strategic Lawsuits In opposition to Public Participation (SLAPPs): EU Anti-SLAPP Directive 2024/1069 and the Council of Europe Advice CM/Rec(2024)2. The software will monitor the nations’ progress – be it via new legal guidelines or legislative amendments – in six classes: “No Info,” “Not Began,” “Began,” “Delayed,” “Partially Applied,” and “Applied.” To date, solely Malta has reached the standing of partial implementation, however its laws, whereas overlaying cross-border SLAPPs, doesn’t shield towards home ones.
● Serbia: Girls’s Sexuality Is Being Weaponized to Silence Dissent, by Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević. The Balkan Investigative Reporting Community covers a case of image-based sexual abuse focusing on a 22-year-old feminine pupil in Serbia. Having been detained at a protest together with her digital units seized, Nikolina Sinđelić publicly alleged that the commander of a particular unit, Marko Kriček, had bodily assaulted her and threatened her with rape. Quickly after, intimate images of Sinđelić as a minor appeared on-line and had been picked up by a pro-government TV channel. Despite the fact that Serbia’s Legal Code prohibits “public distribution of personal photos,” no investigation has been opened towards the channel. Journalist Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević argues that non-consensual distribution of intimate photos as a software of silencing dissent is a worldwide challenge, referring to the 2020 ECtHR’s ruling in Khadija Ismayilova v. Azerbaijan.
● Türkiye: MFRR Companions Condemn Broadcast Blackout Focusing on TELE1. In a joint assertion, 5 members of the Media Freedom Speedy Response (MFRR) coalition denounced the Turkish broadcast regulator RTÜK’s choice to impose a five-day blackout and heavy fines on TELE1 for criticism of the authorities. This previous July, RTÜK focused TELE1 with a ban, alleging that, commenting on the ruling celebration’s accountability for the 2016 coup, TELE1’s editor-in-chief had “incited hatred and enmity among the many public.” Initially, an Ankara courtroom suspended the ban, however on August 27, the suspension was overturned, permitting the blackout to be enforced between August 31 and September 5. “RTÜK issued at the least 46 sanctions within the first half of 2025 alone, 42 of them focusing on essential retailers, with complete fines amounting to almost 100 million Turkish liras (~2 million Euros),” the assertion pressured.
● Montenegro: Cease Assaults On Human Rights Defenders. Montenegro-based Centre for Civic Training calls on the ruling Democratic Montenegro celebration to stop publicly smearing distinguished human rights defender Tea Gorjanc Prelević. Via nameless statements accusing Gorjanc Prelević of political bias, “opposing vetting within the police and safety companies,” “deceptive the general public,” and being “prepared for soiled work,” Democratic Montenegro has led a multi-day assault towards Gorjanc Prelević, who, based on the Centre, appeals to legislation and the fitting to criticize the authorities. “The place a celebration assumes the function of choose, the rule of legislation ceases,” says the civil society assertion in help of Gorjanc Prelević. “Censorship, verdicts with out trial, and the suppression of criticism pave the way in which to authoritarianism and evoke totalitarian fashions.”
This part of the e-newsletter options educating supplies centered on international freedom of expression that are newly uploaded on Freedom of Expression With out Frontiers
Election Report: Evaluation of Overseas Manipulation and Interference within the 2025 Polish Presidential Election. The report assesses overseas interference within the 2025 Polish elections, figuring out persistent data threats. Ready by members of Overseas Info Manipulation and Interference Info Sharing and Evaluation Centre, Alliance4Europe, and Debunk.org, the examine builds on the work of 28 organizations and 90 practitioners. Within the data operations analyzed, the dominant narrative casts the EU and Ukraine in a damaging mild, accusing them of election interference and presenting far-right politicians as guardians of Poland’s sovereignty. The ways of manipulating public opinion contain creating pretend on-line personalities and exploiting vulnerabilities in coverage and moderation on X, TikTok, and Meta platforms.
● Op-Ed: From Hungary to Slovakia, Civil Society Is Underneath Siege, by Sanjay Sethi and Jennifer Laourou. On this piece for CreativesUnite, Sanjay Sethi and Jennifer Laourou of the Inventive Freedom Initiative look at how Hungary and Slovakia are undermining civil society via variations of “overseas agent” legal guidelines. As Slovakia goes down Hungary’s path with newly adopted “transparency” amendments, Sethi and Laourou urge the EU to behave.
● CJR Article: The Killing of Anas al-Sharif in Gaza Could Be a Warfare Crime. May Israel Be Prosecuted? by Joel Simon. Writing for Columbia Journalism Assessment within the aftermath of the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif – together with 5 different journalists on August 10, 5 extra every week later, and greater than 2 hundred in complete – in Gaza, Founding director of the Journalism Safety Initiative on the Craig Newmark Graduate Faculty of Journalism Joel Simon speaks to consultants in worldwide humanitarian legislation on the attainable approach to justice and corresponding challenges.
● Name for Purposes: Media Defence Asia Pacific Litigation Surgical procedure. Forward of the November 18-20 litigation surgical procedure in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Media Defence invitations purposes from Asia Pacific-based attorneys. Designed to assist members advance with a freedom of expression case they’re engaged on, the surgical procedure will function “expert-led periods, case-based discussions, and peer studying actions.” The deadline is September 19.
This article is reproduced with the permission of International Freedom of Expression. For an archive of earlier newsletters, see right here.
