Columbia Global Freedom of Expression seeks to contribute to the development of an integrated and progressive jurisprudence and understanding on freedom of expression and information around the world.  It maintains an extensive database of international case law. This is its newsletter dealing with recent developments  in the field.

Community Highlights & Recent News

● Local Media for Democracy Project. The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) and its partners – the European Federation of Journalists, International Media Support, and Journalismfund.eu – have launched the Local Media for Democracy Project that aims to tackle so-called “news deserts” in Europe by helping revive regional and community media across the EU. The project has two focuses: research and media funding. Within the scope of the former, the CMPF is defining and mapping out the EU’s news deserts – those already existing and emerging. The Center’s preliminary report titled “News Deserts in Europe: Assessing Risks for Local and Community Media in the 27 EU Member States” includes a literature review and research methodology, “providing a solid theoretical ground to identify the presence, or the potentiality, of a desertification process.” The CMPF will publish the wider study by the end of January / beginning of February 2024. 

●  EU: Digital Services Act Infringement Proceedings Against X (Twitter).ARTICLE 19 reports the EU initiated the first infringement proceedings under the Digital Services Act (DSA), starting an investigation into platform X (formerly known as Twitter) on December 18, 2023. The European Commission brought infringement proceedings that “reportedly focus on the dissemination of illegal content, the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platforms, advertising transparency, data access to researchers, and deceptive design of the user interface.” While ARTICLE 19 supports the DSA’s enforcement – especially in the light of worrying developments concerning disinformation and hate speech on X, the organization’s statement emphasizes it is imperative the investigation consistently considers freedom of expression. ARTICLE 19 also calls on the EU to incorporate civil society and independent experts into the DSA enforcement process by welcoming cooperation and creating expert groups.

● New Report – Human Rights in Georgia, 2023.The Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) published its annual report on the present state of human rights in Georgia. The report highlights the work of independent media outlets and journalists continued to be subjected to harassment and pressure in 2023. Some of the concerning developments are the media accreditation and security rules, newly adopted by the Parliament, and changes to the Broadcasting Law – both invite arbitrary decision outcomes. Legal abuse of journalists and civil society persisted throughout the year, and SLAPPs are on the rise. As for the freedom of artistic expression, the GDI references reported “personnel purges” in the arts sector but points out that “multiple court decisions declared the dismissal of employees from various cultural institutions as illegal.” Download the full report (in Georgian) here.

Happy Holidays and we will be back in the New Year!

Decisions this Week

Turkey
The Case of Şerafettin Can Atalay
Decision Date: October 25, 2023
The Turkish Constitutional Court held that a member of parliament’s right to be elected and to engage in political activity had been violated by the continuation of criminal proceedings against him. The MP had been convicted of attempting to overthrow the Government of the Republic of Turkey or to prevent it from performing its duties and had been elected as an MP while his appeal against the conviction was pending. As a result of his election, the MP sought a stay of prosecution on the grounds that he now enjoyed immunity as an elected official. The Court held that the constitutional provision limiting the protection of legislative immunity when the integrity of the country was threatened was not sufficiently clear and so the application of that limitation constituted an infringement of the MP’s rights.

On December 21, 2023, the Constitutional Court reviewed a second individual application by Atalay due to non-implementation of the aforementioned judgement, and held that Atalay’s right to be elected and to engage in political activity, his right to personal liberty and security, and his right to individual application were violated due to the non-implementation.

ECOWAS
The Incorporated Trustees of Expression Now Human Rights Initiative v. Federal Republic of Nigeria
Decision Date: October 23, 2023
The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held that provisions of Nigeria’s Broadcasting Code violated the right to freedom of expression protected by the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. An NGO had approached the Court, seeking a declaration that the Code’s provisions on offensive and hate speech prohibited speech that was protected, were vague and imposed sanctions that were excessive. The Court held that the provisions were a violation of the African Charter and ordered Nigeria to bring those provisions into alignment with their international obligations.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Members and Militants of Unión Patriótica v. Colombia
Decision Date: July 27, 2022
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held that Colombia was internationally responsible for serious human rights violations, including the Convention’s right to freedom of expression and political rights, committed over two decades ago against more than 6,000 members and militants of the Unión Patriótica (U.P.) political party. Unión Patriótica was a Colombian political party created in 1985 that suffered systematic violence and political persecution for over twenty years. The case was brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights by both Colombia and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with the support of a group of Colombian NGOs. Colombia partially admitted its international responsibility for the facts but limited its scope only to the violation of the Convention’s duty to “prevent”. The IACtHR held that these acts were a form of systematic extermination against the Unión Patriótica political party, and its members and militants, with the participation of state agents, and with the tolerance and acquiescence of the authorities. The IACtHR found that the patterns of violence and systematic stigmatization against the victims were aimed at excluding the members of Unión Patriótica from the democratic field in Colombia, violating their political rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. In light of this, the IACtHR also held that Colombia violated its duties to respect, and to prevent, under the American Convention concerning the rights to recognition as a person before the law, to life, to due process, to personal integrity, to personal liberty, to freedom of movement and residence, and to the rights of the child.

Teaching Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers

This section of the newsletter features teaching materials focused on global freedom of expression which are newly uploaded on Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers.

Press Freedom in Senegal: National, Regional, and Global Frameworks – Resource Toolkit.
In collaboration with Jonction, a Senegalese digital rights group, and the Media Foundation for West Africa, the International Press Institute (IPI) developed a toolkit that outlines the legal frameworks guaranteeing press freedom, the right to access information, and journalists’ safety in Senegal. The toolkit examines 1) relevant international treaties and standards (UDHR, ICCPR, Universal Periodic Review, and others); 2) regional press freedom commitments (African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption,  The Windhoek Declaration among others); 3) human rights situation in Senegal; 4) regional and sub-regional courts; 5) Senegal’s national frameworks, legislation, and regulatory bodies impacting press freedom; and finally, 6) local resources that offer support to journalists. Ahead of the February 2024 elections in Senegal, “IPI hopes that the stakeholders working to protect and defend media freedom in [the country] and beyond can benefit from this toolkit as a resource to improve the operating environment for journalists in Senegal.” The toolkit is available in English and French.

Post Scriptum

●  Counterspeech: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Countering Dangerous Speech, edited by Stefanie Ullmann and Marcus Tomalin. The upcoming book, published by Routledge, argues that as a tool against harmful speech, counterspeech has more power than blocking and censoring. The book blends expert perspectives from various disciplines, bringing contributions on counterspeech from legal, ethical, linguistic, anthropological, practical, and sociological angles. Ultimately, the book asks, “[H]ow [can] we use modern technological advances to make counterspeech a more instantaneous and efficient option to respond to harmful language online [?]” Jacob Mchangama, CEO of The Future of Free Speech (FFS), and Natalie Alkiviadou, Senior Research Fellow at the FFS, contribute to the volume with the chapter “Reimagining the Current Regulatory Framework to Online Hate Speech: Why Making Way for Alternative Methods is Paramount for Free Speech.” The book is available for pre-order.

This newsletter is reproduced with the permission of Global Freedom of Expression.  For an archive of previous newsletters, see here.