Podcast: Freedom of expression in a pandemic

Podcast: Freedom of expression in a pandemic - Civic Space

West Bengal, India, April 2020. Sanjoy Karmakar/Shutterstock

As we begin to emerge from a pandemic that has gripped the world, Emily Hart speaks to experts in Brazil, Tunisia and Thailand about how freedom of expression has fared in their countries since the outbreak of Covid-19.

The last two years have seen unparalleled shifts in the ways governments around the world react and respond to the needs of its citizens. Many of those actions radically have affected our rights, particularly the right to speak and the right to know.

This year, ARTICLE 19’s Global Expression Report analysed the radical new restrictions being placed on these vital freedoms under the justification of pandemic management. The conclusions were bleak, with the overall score for freedom of expression down yet again and significant drops in key elements such as public participation in decision making and protest.

Speaking to experts, Emily asks where freedom of expression will go from here and how we can rebuild a status quo that’s better than the one we had before.