Big Think: How Censorship Turns Ordinary Men into Martyrs

The fastest way to make a book a bestseller? Ban it. Free speech activist Jacob Mchangama explains how oftentimes, attempts to silence ideas actually amplify them. Historian Jacob Mchangama explains how suppressing voices often has the opposite effect. From the crucifixion of Jesus fueling Christianity to Barbra Streisand accidentally amplifying photos of her Malibu mansion, […]

Freethinker: “Islam And Free Speech, 20 Years on from Jyllands-Posten: Interview with Jacob Mchangama

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of several cartoons of the supposed Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (see also our latest image of the week). I spoke with Danish free speech activist and author of Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media (2022) Jacob Mchangama about that controversy […]

France 24: France’s ‘Schizophrenic’ Approach to Freedom of Expression Helps Erode It, Researcher Says

From the show A Propos France has marked 10 years since an Islamist attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that shocked the country and led to fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion. FRANCE 24’s Sharon Gaffney speaks to Jacob Mchangama, founder of “The Future of Free Speech” think tank and research professor […]

CEP Online Roundtable: Responding To Blasphemy

On January 24, 2024, CEP hosted an online roundtable with leading experts on political violence and free speech to discuss the complex question of how democracies should respond to blasphemy terrorism. In December, Denmark’s parliament passed a controversial law which prohibits the “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts, although the bill has been widely referred to […]