By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff On March 4, 2022, two days after the European Union banned the Russian state media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, Russia blocked access to Western media such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of America. The Russian government declared this was “only the beginning of retaliatory measures in an […]
By César Antonio Molina In 1975, the Helsinki Final Act was signed . Its main purpose was to ease Cold War tensions. The Soviets proposed the inviolability of borders, as well as non-interference in internal affairs. The West reiterated its commitment to human rights and freedoms of thought, conscience, opinion, expression, religion, ideas, and beliefs. Solzhenitsyn said […]
By Katrina Gulliver Last week, I had the great pleasure of welcoming to Atlanta Jacob Mchangama, who came to talk to me about his book. We had a standing-room-only crowd of Freeman readers as I asked him what he thought about the past—and future—of free speech. (The conversation below has been edited for length.) One […]
By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff This essay is adapted from The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026) European democracies hold free and fair elections, ensure peaceful transfers of power, and maintain a vibrant media landscape. Their independent judiciaries hold governments accountable if they […]
By Peggy Sastre There is censorship that is obvious: it hits, locks up, banned, cuts the Internet, throws journalists in jail and does not bother with big words to make you understand that it prefers silence to freedom. And then there is the sweetest in her manners, cleaner on her, more satisfied with her reasons, […]
Interview by Emmanuel Tellier This Danish lawyer, based in the United States, hosts the think tank The Future of Free Speech. In his book “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media” (2022), Jacob Mchangama, a strong supporter of the right to tell the truth, draws up a gallery of portraits of defenders of […]
Germany built aggressive systems to combat hate speech, but the line between defending democracy and undermining it may be beginning to blur. Excerpted from The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff. Copyright 2026. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press. By Jacob […]
Editor’s Note: This essay is adapted from the new book, The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff (Johns Hopkins University Press). By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives carried out the deadliest single attack on Jews since […]
Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff argue that protecting free expression—rather than restricting it—is essential to democracy’s survival April 7, 2026 — NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As governments across the world tighten controls on speech in the name of combating disinformation, hate speech, and political extremism, a new book from leading free speech scholars warns that democracies […]
Interviewer: Jillian York Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer, human rights advocate, and public commentator. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. His new book with Jeff Kosseff, The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential […]