Why now?
Journalists, cartoonists, writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists, nonconformists and dissidents of every kind are being silenced, threatened, forced into exile, jailed and murdered in greater numbers than at any time in recent memory.
Governments are crushing dissent in China, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia … the list is very long and rapidly growing.
Extremists are blowing up journalists in Paris; hacking journalists, bloggers and musicians to death in Bangladesh; killing and terrorizing all who disagree with their uncompromising ideologies. Some, by destroying historical records, artistic masterpieces and entire ancient cities such as Palmyra and Nineveh, are trying to wipe out entire entire cultures and silence even the voices of the past.
In the West, too, governments and populist movements are shutting down those who hold contrary views. Even in the United States, which has prided itself on protecting free expression since it adopted the Bill of Rights in 1791, threats to a free press and free expression are accelerating. The press is attacked as “the enemy of the people,” the label “fake news” is wielded to discredit those who challenge the powerful, academic institutions dedicated to free and robust inquiry shut down unwelcome voices in fear of protest, exemplary scientists are derided as cooking up false conclusions to fit their policy preferences and are seeing their work hidden from public view.
Rarely has there been a more important time for people around the world to mobilize in support of the right to free expression.
Journalists, cartoonists, writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists, nonconformists and dissidents of every kind are being silenced, threatened, forced into exile, jailed and murdered in greater numbers than at any time in recent memory.
Governments are crushing dissent in China, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia … the list is very long and rapidly growing.
Extremists are blowing up journalists in Paris; hacking journalists, bloggers and musicians to death in Bangladesh; killing and terrorizing all who disagree with their uncompromising ideologies. Some, by destroying historical records, artistic masterpieces and entire ancient cities such as Palmyra and Nineveh, are trying to wipe out entire entire cultures and silence even the voices of the past.
In the West, too, governments and populist movements are shutting down those who hold contrary views. Even in the United States, which has prided itself on protecting free expression since it adopted the Bill of Rights in 1791, threats to a free press and free expression are accelerating. The press is attacked as “the enemy of the people,” the label “fake news” is wielded to discredit those who challenge the powerful, academic institutions dedicated to free and robust inquiry shut down unwelcome voices in fear of protest, exemplary scientists are derided as cooking up false conclusions to fit their policy preferences and are seeing their work hidden from public view.
Rarely has there been a more important time for people around the world to mobilize in support of the right to free expression.
