By Paulo Silva Pinto and Leo Garfinkel Joan Barata, a freedom-of-expression scholar at Vanderbilt University in the United States, says the right to voice an opinion must be preserved even when it makes others uncomfortable. “The right to freedom of expression includes the right to shock, disturb, and offend—three very strong verbs. You have the […]
By Jacob Mchangama The battle of the airwaves was vital for promoting freedom during the Cold War. Trump abandons it at our peril. On February 21, 1990, Václav Havel, the Czechoslovakian dissident turned president, received a rapturous welcome from a packed U.S. Congress. In his speech, Havel recalled that just months earlier he had been arrested by […]
By Jacob Mchangama In February, 50-year-old Hamit Coskun was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” to the Islamic faith after burning a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London. A KC told the National Secular Society that the charges were “plainly defective”, while the NSS accused prosecutors of reintroducing a blasphemy law “by the back door”. […]
By Jacob Mchangama Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance lectured European leaders about their troubling retreat from free speech, calling their actions “shocking to American ears” and a threat to democracy itself. Yet new global survey data reveal a troubling incongruity in Vance’s own backyard: Despite boasting the world’s strongest constitutional protections, Americans’ support for free speech […]
By Jordi Calvet-Bademunt As the US and EU shape their AI frameworks, they should consider lessons from recent experiences. The fear-driven narrative surrounding AI and the most recent elections, where AI-created content had limited impact, should caution policymakers against rushing ahead on laws that may unintentionally undermine democratic values. Policymakers crafting the forthcoming US Action […]
By Jacob Mchangama How a cartoon crisis transformed a local debate into a global reckoning over censorship and religious sensitivities – one whose aftershocks continue to shape Western democracies two decades later In Sept. 30, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ignited a global firestorm when it published 12 cartoons – some depicting the Prophet Muhammad – under […]
Rough English Translation By Katharina Bracher Is freedom of expression really under threat in Europe, as US Vice President J.D. Vance claims? Danish author and lawyer Jacob Mchangama agrees. But he also says that the US is facing a major problem. If you let everyone say anything, at some point, you won’t be able to […]
Originally published in Portuguese. A rough English translation is below. To read a longer version of this article, check out The Bedrock Principle. By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff In 2019, Dias Toffoli , then president of the Supreme Federal Court, appointed Alexandre de Moraes to lead an inquiry into “fraudulent news, slanderous accusations and threats against the Court, […]
A survey from The Future of Free Speech, an independent think tank out of Vanderbilt University, has found support for free speech has fallen in the United States. In the report released this month, the United States, Japan and Israel showed the biggest drops in support for free speech since 2021. While majorities in all 33 […]
By Lukas Leuzinger In principle, most people are in favor of freedom of speech. However, when it comes to specific criticism of religion or minorities, for example, that can quickly change. This is shown by a new report by the organization The Future of Free Speech , which is based on a survey in 33 countries (Switzerland is not […]