…social peace, harmony and order. This is backed up by data from Freedom House showing that global respect for press freedom reached a 13-year low in 2016 following constant decline since 2004. Read the full article here….
…erkel in a speech to the Bundestag last November. The German chancellor grew up under a communist dictatorship and leads a country where vicious propaganda once paved the way for genocide. So few people have stronger credentials when it comes to balancing the pros and cons of free speech. And she is not the only democratic leader concerned about extremism. French President Emmanuel Macron has worried that the internet is becoming a “threat” to dem…
…erkel in a speech to the Bundestag last November. The German chancellor grew up under a communist dictatorship and leads a country where vicious propaganda once paved the way for genocide. So few people have stronger credentials when it comes to balancing the pros and cons of free speech. And she is not the only democratic leader concerned about extremism. French President Emmanuel Macron has worried that the internet is becoming a “threat” to dem…
George Orwell warned against the idea that one could “Only combat Communism, Fascism or what not if we develop an equal fanaticism. It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself.” So what might a “non-fanatic” response to Islamism consist of? It is unlikely that one simple approach will do the trick. But among the remedies needed is a strong civil society movement including both Muslims and non-Muslims aim…
George Orwell warned against the idea that one could “Only combat Communism, Fascism or what not if we develop an equal fanaticism. It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself.” So what might a “non-fanatic” response to Islamism consist of? It is unlikely that one simple approach will do the trick. But among the remedies needed is a strong civil society movement including both Muslims and non-Muslims aim…
…lawyer who monitors free-speech restrictions, notes: “Democracies do have compelling reasons to prevent the establishment of deep parallel societies guided by illiberal norms operating without accountability. However freedom of expression and religion must also protect a religious authority’s political statements, and “threats” about consequences in the after-life must be clearly distinguished from actual threats of violence or the like.” Read th…
…Twitter — which once prided itself on being the “free speech wing of the free speech party” — is trying to figure out just how much of that support for free speech it needs to jettison if it’s going to stop being known as the harassment wing of the bigoted party. Read the full article at www.washingtonpost.com…
…versity’s Global Freedom of Expression Center and FIRE between now and July 2018. A prologue introducing the background of the podcast series is scheduled for release on January 25th, and the first official episode will be aired on February 1st. Subsequent episodes will be released on a biweekly basis. Each episode focuses on a particular historical era or theme, providing listeners with a deeper understanding of how, where and why free speech has…
…rian governments eager to curb political dissent. The crackdown began after 2015, when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to welcome more than 1 million refugees and asylum-seekers was greeted with a tidal wave of protest ranging from derision to visceral hatred on social media. The anger migrated from the online trolling and memes of keyboard warriors into actual attacks on refugee centers across Germany. Read the full article here. Read the rep…
In a speech earlier this month the European Union commissioner for justice, Vera Jourova, declared: “If freedom of expression is one of the building blocks of democratic society, hate speech on the other hand is a blatant violation of that freedom. Ot must be severely punished”. Director Jacob Mchangama says to The Economist that, Ms Jourova’s approach “takes the EU away from its founding values” because “one cannot foster tolerance through repre…
