On April 25-26, Columbia Global Freedom of Expression hosted its third Justice for Freedom of Expression Conference. The biennial event brought together experts, academics, legal practitioners and activists from some 30 countries to highlight the changing environment for free speech and press freedom through a focus on jurisprudence, laws and policies from around the world. It was an opportunity to discuss the challenges to free speech doctrines and jurisprudence, in a context characterized by the rise in populism and intolerance, the shrinking of civil society and of democratic space, and an increasingly disruptive digital world. To this day, the Conference remains the only forum focusing on global jurisprudence related to freedom of expression. This year’s Conference was unique in that it was preceded by the launch of the 2018 Corporate Accountability Index, prepared by Ranking Digital Rights, and included a panel co-organized with the School of Law of the University of Los Andes, in Bogota, Colombia.

Conference Program

The 2018 Justice for Free Expression Conference opened with an Update from the Global Freedom of Expression Community about its members’ latest initiatives and work to strengthen a global understanding of freedom of expression. During the panel, Columbia Global Freedom of Expression presented its new Teaching Portal, planned for launch in late 2018.

The first panel focused on Global Milestones and Challenges. Experts presented and debated freedom of expression developments in law and jurisprudence of the last 24 months in their regions of focus.

The panel on Private Actors and Human Rights Online sought to highlight the human rights implications of a privatized and commodified internet, and the recent legal, political and self-regulatory, as well as technical developments.

The panel co-organised with the University of Los Andes focused on the Sustainable Development Goal 16 that aims to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” Six panelists debated the role of the Judiciary and of the Media in meeting SDG 16, the policies that must be in place to achieve them, as well as the challenges to foster rule of law, freedom of expression and access to information in the present international environment.

For the fourth panel titled Around the World in 7 decisions,  legal scholars illustrated the past 18 months through the lens of one particularly important decision from their jurisdictions.  Countries covered included South Africa, India, Tunisia, Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil and the European Court for Human Rights.

The following panel on Framing Radicalization and Radical Speech examined how Governments, courts and societies around the world were approaching and defining the concept of “radicalization” and “radicalized” individuals, including in the context of cases testing the limits of freedom of expression.

The final panel of the Conference focused on the Regulation of Lies and “Fake News” in Elections and addressed the various ways in which Governments and Courts were responding to “lies” and “Fake News”, and the extent to which controlling fake news online was simply a matter of extending off-line laws to the digital arena.

Agenda

Click here to see the agenda

Participants

The richness of the discussions at the Conference was made possible by our great community of experts, academics, legal practitioners and activists. Over 50 speakers and some 100 attendees shared their knowledge and perspectives, debated current and future issues, and collaborated on existing and new initiatives over the two days of the event. Further, the speaker selection achieved gender balance and regional diversity, with some 30 countries represented.

Click here to see each participant’s photo and their bio

Panel Videos