Freedom of expression

You can find the right to freedom of expression also in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 19) and in many national constitutions, eg in the German basic law (article 5).

  
Freedoms protected

• freedom to hold opinions : Article 10 of the human rights act protects your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference. This includes the right to express your views aloud (for example through public protest and demonstrations) or through: published articles, books or leaflets, television or radio broadcasting, works of art, the internet and social media. The law also protects your freedom to receive information from other people by, for example, being part of an audience or reading a magazine.
• freedom to receive information and ideas : to gather and seek information through all possible lawful sources
• freedom to impart information and ideas : allows for free criticism (of eg the government), allows for artistic freedom and free circulation of arts

Types of protected speech : The "expression" is not limited to words but extends to pictures, images, songs, actions (eg of cultural heritage) or even dresses - anything intended to express an idea or to present information.

The tolerance of individual opinions is important for a democratic society. The extent of protection depends on the context and the aim of the criticism. A well-known German example of this tolerance is the  youtube-video by Rezo  (May 2019, before the European election), in which he spoke his mind, that the CDU (Christian Democratic Party) "destroys our lives and future", backed up by facts and figures he showed in his one-hour presentation. 

Distinction between facts and opinions

Article 10 distinguishes between information (facts) and ideas. Ideas include value judgments, viewpoints or personal assessments of an event or a situation and cannot be proven to be true or false, but the facts that the opinion is based upon can be! Debates on  Fake News  are a burning issue, and it causes confusion when a president publicly denies scientific data about climate change. People have to rely on mass media that are also protected by freedom of expression (freedom of the press, radio and television broadcasting).With the development of the "new media" it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish between mass- and individual-communication, between fact and fake, information and opinion, that´s why media literacy plays an important role today. Please view Unit 2 "Media Literacy".

Limitations on freedom of expression

Feedom of expression is not absolute. It is valid on the basis of national laws and in consideration of other basic rights.

Unprotected speech

Absolutely forbidden are:

• incitement to violence
• hate speech and racism
• Holocaust denial and references to Nazi ideology

Limitations due to "public" reasons

Threats to

• national security
• territorial integrity
• public safety
• public morals

override the right to freedom of expression. The latter point has mostly been examined in context with artistic freedom and due to the specificity of morals in different countries (or even different regions in the same country) resulting in large differences in what is allowed or not.

Limitations due to personal rights protection

Freedom of expression can be restricted when it harms private life and reputation or honor of other persons. The so-called "personal rights" differ from nation to nation, depending on the respective basic rights legislation. In Germany, for example, the basic right in article 1 declares "The human dignity shall be inviolable". This, along with other laws, shall protect private and family life, reputation and honor, right to one's own image, freedom of religion and other personal rights. Whether rights of others clash with the freedom of expression is often hard to tell. Going to court because of insult or defamation used to be a concern of politicians or high ranking officials but in the social networks unacceptable offense, assaults or insults can hit anyone.

Freedom of expression online

The Council of Europe has engaged in setting and promoting standards to address challenges created by the internet in order to guarantee and protect human rights offline and online. In 2014, they published the  "Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users" . The  brief leaflet  covers (among others) two important points:

• " Freedom of expression and information:  You are free to express yourself and access information online. The freedom to express and access information and opinions extends to those which may offend, shock, or disturb others as long as they do not incite discrimination, hatred, or violence. Public authorities must respect and protect this right, and any restrictions must pursue a legitimate aim in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. You may choose not to reveal your identity online with the acknowledgment that national authorities may take measures which may reveal your identity. "
  
  
• " Protection of children and young people:  If you are a child or young person, you are entitled to special protection while using the internet. You have the right to have content which compromises your dignity, security, privacy, or future reputation or interests deleted in a short period of time. You are also afforded special protections with regards to physical, mental, and moral welfare, such as regarding sexual exploitation and abuse. "

The  balance of conflicting interests (freedom of expression against reputation and rights of others) has developed a large jurisprudence - in public and private life.

Example:  A lot of people know the famous selfie of the refugee Anas Modamani with chancellor Angela Merkel from summer 2015 (see photo here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/syrian-selfie-refugee-anas-modamani-sues-facebook-170114063131147.html) This was followed by numerous media reports and even an invitation to a talk show. However, in 2016 the picture of the young Syrian man appeared again on facebook, used by rightwing-groups for agitation against refugees. They even claimed that Modamani was responsible for a terrorist attack.He asked facebook to remove photomontages and assertions, but even with the help of a lawyer he couldn´t force the company to automatically remove all derogatory reports and photos, so the only thing he can do is to search through the social network by himself, notify Facebook about each single case and request the deletion of the data (Würzburg court judgment of March 2017).

Case law regarding the responsibiltiy for defamatory content is in constant evolution . Social networks and other online operators have come under public and government pressure to monitor and take action against harmful speech generated by users. Example: To prevent bullying,  insulting, intimidating and humiliating behaviors  the UK government published a  Code of Practice  for providers of online social media platforms in April 2019. This is the  easy-read-version  by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and sport. For further details on cyberbullying, hate speech etc., please view Unit 6 "Critical Media Consumption".

Special case: Media Freedom

Freedom of expression is also valid for media representatives (journalists). Along with the technological development, the old term "press freedom" has turned into "media freedom" - and it is not for granted everywhere in the world.

Video "Media freedom around the world" by the  UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office  To enable subtitles in your language use the setting button!

In Germany, the media enjoys an enormous amount of freedom - and sometimes their representatives put it to the test, like the satirist Jan Böhmermann in March 2016. In his satire show "Neo Magazin Royale", aired by the public television channel ZDFneo, he read out a poem that deliberately insulted the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leading to intervention by chancellor Angela Merkel, deletion of the show from the ZDF mediatheque and legal complaints against Böhmermann, who was even placed under police protection. Details about the Böhmermann affair are available in  English  and  German .

"There is no freedom without press freedom" - this quotation is from the  European Center for Press and Media Freedom  (ECPMF), where you also find the European Charter on Freedom of the Press.

Teaching resources

In your lessons, you can use the  UNESCO's Freedom of Expression Toolkit: A guide for students  (available in English, French, Spain, Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian - license type  CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ). It was written with upper high school students in mind.

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Sources:  https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression ; "Protecting the Right to Freedom of Expression under the European Convention on Human Rights - A handbook for legal practitioners"  by Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska; (last access: october 2019)