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.

For this month’s Portraits of FoE (Freedom of Expression) Defenders, we are featuring one of the world’s most prominent journalists and press freedom advocates: Maria Ressa. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, Ressa has been standing up to threats against democracy – and urging others to do the same.

Earlier this August, CGFoE’s Program Coordinator Estefanía Mullally and Editor Anastasiia Vorozhtsova sat down with Maria Ressa to discuss the state of global freedom of expression, the dangers of social media and generative AI, the challenges of being a woman journalist, and what it takes to confront authoritarianism today.

The interview is both a warning and a call to action. Read the excerpt below and explore the full version on our website.

Maria Ressa is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist, Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University. Photo: Ian DiSalvo

CGFoE: As Western media face unprecedented obstacles, what can they learn from more embattled parts of the world?

Maria Ressa: How to stand up, wake up, and fight back. It’s a simple thing, right?

In the 1990s, when I covered one of the Russian elections, I thought, “I hope our country doesn’t go here.” Now the entire world is following the trend of Russia. Anne Applebaum calls it “Autocracy, Inc.” We’ve always called it “Kleptocracy. Inc.” Because this is power and money. Now this is global. The connections online are global, too. And yet the understanding of how they work is so muted.

Let’s take a look at 2023. After the release of ChatGPT, about 23 billion dollars was invested. That became an arms race. LLMs are imperfect and have an error rate as high as 79% and at best, maybe 16%. The chatbot we built in Rappler, which is anchored in the content we own, has an error rate below 2%. You can actually anchor it in facts, but they don’t have the incentive.

In 2023, with all that investment, startups began crawling news sites. Rappler doesn’t allow the scraping of our content. But they steal content at the scale of hundreds of thousands per minute. Will journalism survive? I would say this year will determine that. If no guardrails are put in place, small- and medium-scale news organizations will not be able to survive this time period. It’s an information Armageddon.

What can the West learn from more embattled parts of the world? I can summarize it into four things. There’s media capture – but before that, you already have social media information operations – followed by academic capture – we know this – followed by NGO capture – academic and NGO capture happen at about the same time – and then there is state capture.

Journalism, depending on how diseased the public information ecosystem is, can fight back. But I say, over and over: Without facts, you can’t have truth; without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, you have no shared reality. You can’t begin to solve any problem, let alone existential ones. You cannot have democracy. Facts are the foundation of a democracy. You cannot have the rule of law without facts.

To read the entire interview, visit our website.

Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
ASUTIC v. Senegal
Decision Date: May 14, 2025
The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS/Court) found that the Republic of Senegal violated the right to freedom of expression and the right of access to information under Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by imposing arbitrary internet and social media shutdowns. The case arose from the Senegalese government’s complete internet shutdowns during protests following the conviction of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, citing the need to curb the spread of “hateful and subversive messages.” The Court reasoned that access to the internet and related services is an integral component of freedom of expression and the right to information, and that any restriction must meet the requirements of legality, legitimate purpose, necessity, and proportionality. It found that Senegal’s laws did not specifically authorize shutdowns, that the government failed to provide evidence of concrete threats warranting such a sweeping measure, and that less restrictive alternatives, such as removing harmful content or prosecuting offenders, were available. The Court concluded the shutdowns were arbitrary, disproportionate, and incompatible with international human rights standards. Consequently, the Court awarded 250,000 CFA francs (approx. 444 USD) each to ASUTIC and Applicant Ndiaga Gueye for violation of freedom of expression and right of access to information, and an additional 250,000 CFA francs (approx. 444  USD) to Gueye for violation of his right to work.

ENHRI v. Nigeria
Decision Date: April 9, 2025
The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States held that blasphemy laws in Nigeria violated the fundamental right to freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 9(2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Expression Now Human Rights Initiative, a Nigerian non-governmental organization, argued that the Federal Republic of Nigeria used criminal law on blasphemy to arrest and impose the death penalty on its citizens and that it failed to prevent extra-judicial killings of citizens accused of blasphemy. The Court found that Section 210 failed the test of legality due to its vague wording. The Court concluded that the death penalty “for abusing or insulting a religious figure is an excessive measure” and therefore found that Section 382(b) was not proportionate and necessary. The Court directed the government to repeal or amend Sections 210, 382(b), and other similar ones to bring them into conformity with international human rights law. However, the Court determined that the evidence submitted by ENHRI was insufficient to prove that the State failed to prevent extrajudicial killings of individuals accused of blasphemy.

Nigeria
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu v. Attorney General
Decision Date: August 17, 2022
The Nigerian Court of Appeal upheld the constitutional validity of a State Sharia Law offence of blasphemy. A singer had been convicted by a Sharia Court of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad, through a song shared on WhatsApp, and sentenced to death by hanging. The High Court quashed the conviction on procedural issues and ordered a retrial. The Court of Appeal held that Section 10 of the Nigerian Constitution only prohibits adopting a State religion but does not invalidate Sharia-based laws for Muslims, reasoning that the Constitution itself incorporates Sharia Courts, and found that retrial was necessary in the interest of justice and public order. One judge dissented and would have found the Sharia Law offence unconstitutional and would have acquitted the singer.

Kenya
Katiba Institute v. Director of Public Prosecutions
Decision Date: March 18, 2024
The High Court of Kenya declared the offence of subversive activities unconstitutional. The case arose after several non-governmental organisations, including the Katiba Institute, challenged the prosecution of a Kenyan lawyer, who had been charged with the offence in relation to posts on X (formerly Twitter) which allegedly could incite violence and threaten public order and security.  The Katiba Institute argued that the provision in the Penal Code was vague, overbroad, and inconsistent with the Constitution. The Court observed that freedom of expression is the “cornerstone of any democratic state” and that limitations on this right must be “reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society”. It found the provision vague, indefinite, and overbroad, lacking clarity on purpose and intent, and concluded that it was not “provided by law” and failed to meet constitutional standards, The Court noted the colonial origins of the provision.

● SEP 9: Book Discussion – The Cambridge Handbook of the Right to Freedom of Thought. Do not miss our upcoming event on the recently released Cambridge Handbook of the Right to Freedom of Thought, edited by Patrick O’Callaghan, University College Cork, and Bethany Shiner, Middlesex University, London. To discuss the book’s groundbreaking contribution in the analysis of the right to freedom of thought across national and regional legal frameworks, CGFoE will bring together the editors, selected contributors, and experts on the Inter-American, European, and African human rights systems. September 9, 2025. 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET. Online. Register here.

● SEP 17-18: 5th Global Summit on Disinformation. Organized by the Inter-American Press Association, 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 in the fight against disinformation worldwide. September 17-18, 2025. Online. Trilingual: with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Sign up via this form.

● Morocco: Activist Arrested over ‘Insulting God.’ The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression reports on the arrest of Moroccan feminist and LGBTQI+ rights activist Ibtissam Lachgar, who is being accused of “offending Islam” based on an X post. Lachgar, co-founder of the secular feminist organization Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties, was detained in early August after posting a photo of herself in a T-shirt saying “Allah is Lesbian.” On charges of blasphemy under Article 267-5 of Morocco’s penal code, Lachgar faces up to five years in prison and 500,000 dirhams in fines. On August 27, her request for provisional freedom due to health concerns – Lachgar is battling cancer – was rejected. According to Associated Press, Morocco’s Federation of Women’s Rights Associations says the case deserves “strong condemnation” and violates freedom of expression.

● Tanzania: Expert Opinion on the Blocking of X. The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) Foundation published an expert opinion on the restrictions of access to online information in Tanzania due to the ongoing blocking of X. Access to the social media platform has been restricted since May 2025; OONI detected the employment of different censorship techniques simultaneously, showing a “defense in depth” approach – a shift to more complex and difficult-to-bypass methods. “This recurring censorship of X is part of a broader pattern of digital repression [in Tanzania], which includes the blocking of LGBTQI websites, human rights platforms, online dating services, and circumvention tools such as Proton VPN,” OONI’s expert opinion stresses.

● South Africa: Conditional Approval of Canal+ Takeover of MultiChoice; Concerns of Threats to Media Pluralism in Africa. As the merger between Africa’s two largest media outlets looms, the International Press Institute (IPI) is concerned “over potential editorial interference and the silencing of critical reporting.” Last month, South Africa’s Competition Tribunal conditionally approved the proposed takeover of South African TV broadcaster MultiChoice, a leading entertainment platform, by French media outlet Canal+, owned by company Vivendi, whose controlling shareholder is ​​French billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Speaking to IPI, Simon Allison, co-founder of The Continent, a South Africa-based magazine, emphasized Bolloré’s track record “of airing extreme right-wing and racist views on the media platforms he controls in France.” Both IPI and Allison predict struggles for the continent’s independent journalism if the acquisition is finalized.

● ACHPR: Resolution on the Need to Undertake a Study on the Review of the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa. During its 84th Ordinary Session held last month, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) adopted a resolution that initiates a “one-year continental study on developments in the areas of freedom of expression and access to information in the digital era.” The study will aim to revise and update the 2013 Model Law on Access to Information for Africa, which led to the adoption of access to information laws by 29 African states. The ACHPR appointed the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa to carry out the review and report at the Commission’s next Ordinary Session.

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

● Legal Protections for Female Journalists in Nigeria: Resource Guide, by Monday Arunsi and Ayomide Eweje. This legal guide, compiled by Nigeria-based Media Rights Agenda (MRA), responds to distinct and disproportionately high risks for women practicing journalism due to gender-specific threats, like sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Joining the effort to safeguard the right to report freely, safely, and without fear in Nigeria, the guide provides an overview of national laws, regional frameworks, and international standards that protect women journalists. “This work is a testament to the power of legal tools in confronting structural inequality and advancing justice,” says Edetaen Ojo, MRA’s Executive Director.

● Onslaught Intensifies: Mid-Term Assessment of Media Freedom Under The Tinubu Administration. The report, also released by Nigeria-based Media Rights Agenda (MRA), evaluates the first two years of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency through the lens of media freedom in Nigeria. As threats to freedom of expression multiply – ranging from repressive laws and arrests of journalists to surveillance and censorship – the report documents media freedom violations by type of attack and perpetrator, non-compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, and misuse of the Cybercrime Act. Drawing from empirical evidence, legal and policy trends, and case studies, the report concludes by offering recommendations.

● Call for Proposals: RightsCon 2026. RightsCon 2026, which will take place in Lusaka, Zambia, and online on May 5-8, 2026, invites session proposals in 18 thematic categories, including “Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies,” “Freedom of the Media,” and “Internet Shutdowns and Disruptions.” The organizers encourage submissions that intersect with “gender, disability status, environmental sustainability, indigenous, or youth and children’s rights.” The deadline is September 12, 2025.

● New Book: Legal Resistance Under Authoritarianism: The Struggle for the Rule of Law in Hong Kong, by Yan-ho Lai. Published by Amsterdam University Press, the book interrogates the decline of the rule of law in Hong Kong. Yan-ho Lai, research fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Asian Law, relies on extensive fieldwork and argues that while the 2020 National Security Law was a critical point, threats to Hong Kong’s rule of law began with the 1997 sovereignty handover. Get your copy with a 40% discount code AUP40 by September 30, 2025.