Freedom of Expression in the Czech Republic This master thesis deals with freedom of expression in the Czech Republic while focusing on the issues of hate speech. It is not only Czech legal code this thesis takes into consideration, because there is an inspiration coming from foreign decisions as well. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explains the term "freedom of expression": it deals with the terminology of "right" and "freedom", categorizes it into the hierarchy of other rights and elaborates the aspects in which freedom of expression is included. This chapter also deals with the arguments supporting freedom of expression. The second chapter describes how freedom of expression is regulated in the Czech legal code. It briefly summarises the evolution, then it deals with individual legal acts: Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the international conventions (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). An idea is also put forward: Does restricting freedom of expression imply the restriction of freedom of thought? The third chapter deals with the restrictions, with the relation between Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the...

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and identify the present status of relations between a freedom of an artistic work and a legal system of the Czech Republic with reflection of the the way the legal proceedings can affect a public opinion on artistic work. In order to delineate and understand key aspects of the freedom of expression and of the artistic work is the opening theoretical chapter of the thesis divided into two major segments using jurisprudence and aesthetics separately. The goal intended to be attained in the second chapter of this thesis is to identify the characteristics of freedom of artistic work in the most significant international treaties and national constitutional legislative system. Furthermore the chapter links the legislation to judicial practice of European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. The core part of the thesis consists of major Czech art vs. law cases divided into three topics by the kind of artistic expression. All cases were chosen for the influence they have had on forming of the author's of this thesis opinions on controversial art. Presented cases were compared to results of a public opinion questionnaire to evaluate the impact of chosen cases on opinions of selected sample of...

L’impact des technologies d'information et de communication est essentiel sur lesdroits de la personne, et en particulier la liberté d'expression et la protection de la vie privée. Les tensions relatives à l’établissement de la frontière entre l’espace public et l’espace privé en ligne se sont exacerbées avec la diffusion de l'informatique et la démocratisation des usages d'Internet, de la téléphonie mobile et, plus récemment, d'autres objets communicants et services numériques. De même, les libertés de s’exprimer, de communiquer et de s’informer sont mises en danger dans la mesure où, sous prétexte de la lutte contre la cybercriminalité et le cyberterrorisme, et dans un but général de maintien de l’ordre public, les autorités publiques interviennent dans les contenus publiés pour les contrôler, surveiller, restreindre ou interdire. Ceci d’autant plus que les capacités - tant des Etats que des acteurs privés - à constituer les bases de données extrêmement précises répertoriant les informations sur les habitudes de consommation, les itinéraires de déplacements ou encore sur les opinions ou pensées des personnes, augmentent progressivement. Ainsi, le besoin de la redéfinition de la manière dont est pris en compte le volet relatif au respect des droits fondamentaux des personnes face à l’environnement numérique devient pressant. / The impact of today’s information and communication technologies is essential forthe exercice of human rights, particularly concerning freedom of expression and privacyprotection. With the massive use of Internet, mobile phones and – more recently – other smart objects and digital services, the tension mounts with respect to establishing the limit between public and private space online. Likewise, the freedom of expression, communication and information are at risk as - under the pretext of fighting cybercrime and cyber terrorism, as well as maintaining public order - public authorities interfere with online contents by controlling, monitoring, restraining or prohibiting it. Especially as both States’ and private companies’ capacities in creating extremely precise databases identifying information on persons’ consumption habits, itineraries, thoughts and opinions gradually increase. Therefore, the need to redefine the way in which the respect of fundamental freedoms is taken into consideration in the context of digital environment becomes urgent.

A major weakness of the literature on the regulation of freedom of expression within the field of political science is the assumption of peaceful, liberal democratic conditions. My project seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the legitimate regulation of speech by analyzing disciplinary approaches to freedom of expression through the lens of countries recovering from intractable conflict. I ask: How appropriate are current understandings of freedom of expression to the regulation of speech in post-conflict environments? Relying on insights from the field of social psychology and the case of post-genocide Rwanda, I argue that greater restrictions on freedom of expression could be legitimate in countries recovering from intractable conflict. However, rights derogations must take place within limits so as not to become a tool of authoritarian rule.

In February 2012, less than two weeks before presidential elections in Russia, a two-minute video of young women in brightly colored masks and short dresses was uploaded to YouTube. The video featured four members of the Pussy Riot punk feminist band performing a wild dance in front of the altar of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Lip-syncing to a song, which they called a punk prayer, they beseeched the Virgin Mary to "drive" Vladimir Putin, then the prime minister and a presidential candidate, "away." The performance was followed by the quick arrest of three of the band members and a trial in a criminal court that sentenced them to two years in a penal colony on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and transformed the case into a symbol of the infringement of freedom of expression in Putin's Russia. This research explores the legal and discursive strategies for marginalizing political dissent and discusses the implications of the case for shrinking the arena of legitimate public debate in contemporary Russia. As revealed by a critical discourse analysis of a report by psychological and linguistic experts that formed the basis of the prosecutor's case, it employed a range of discursive devices that normalized conformity and depoliticized the band's critique. Whereas those discursive devices portrayed Pussy Riot's religiously contextualized speech as socially unacceptable, the analysis of the court's decision revealed the mechanism that made it illegal. An analysis of the rationale used by the court to justify the criminal conviction of Pussy Riot showed clear prosecutorial bias. The post-case amendments that were introduced into Russia's Criminal Code and Code of Administrative Violations toughened up the punitive measures in articles associated with insulting religious feelings of citizens and contributed to further authorizing limitations on political speech on religious and moral grounds. As demonstrated by an analysis of the media coverage of the Pussy Riot affair, the Russian press did little to delegitimize this power abuse. The state-run newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta took a clear stance in support of the prosecution. The mainstream newspaper, Izvestia, although not demonstrating a consistent prosecutorial bias, did not provide any sensible alternatives to the government's framing of the affair. Neither did the liberal-oppositional outlet Gazeta.ru. It failed to provide a comprehensive, substantial, and contextualized coverage of Pussy Riot's activism and portrayed them not as agents of change, but as victims of the vigilant, all-powerful state. By doing so, it did not take advantage of the public resonance of the case to elevate a discussion about the feasibility of dissent in an increasingly authoritarian context and thus potentially contributed to undermining the value of political protest. The treatment of the Pussy Riot affair by the Russian state contributed to further infringements of freedom of expression, strengthened the interpenetration of church and state and illuminated the legal system's role as a tool for conserving the status quo of power relations in contemporary Russia.

Freedom of expression and the right to criticize are important prerequisites in the Swedish labor market. In fact, the freedom of expression is regulated in a long chain of protection, and not at least for the public employees which have the ECHR’s protection and the Swedish constitution embedded in their employment contracts. For the private employees, on the other hand, the legal situation looks completely different. A private employee does not receive equal opportunities to invoke the ECHR or the Swedish constitution when criticizing the employer. The main purpose of this paper is thus to investigate the legal situation for each sector, after which the legal situation must be compared and discussed in light of the duty of loyalty.  As the right to criticize has become a major issue for discussion, Sweden received a whistleblower regulation in 2017 which came to protect workers from reprisals. Nonetheless, a couple of years have passed, and a new EU-directive has been introduced with a number of new requirements. In December 2021, Sweden will introduce a more comprehensive whistleblower regulation and replace the current regulation. The second purpose of this paper is accordingly to investigate the new protection and examine the possible impact of the protection in each sector.  The conclusions of the paper were not entirely easy to summarize. What is clear is that there is no uniform protection in the sectors, and the enhanced protection may result in a smaller gap between the sectors, despite different interests.

With the new challenges of the digital world associated with disinformation, data breaches, and cybercrimes (Cadwalladr & Graham-Harrison, 2018; Connolly et al., 2016; Shipley & Bowker, 2013) many countries nowadays discuss approaches to Internet regulation. In Ukraine, which faced propaganda tactics employed by Russia as a part of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict (Yurkova, 2018), the need for information security in recent years became a major challenge. In 2017, authorities of Ukraine addressed the challenge by introducing sanctions to the most-used Russian web-platforms, including social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, search engine Yandex, and many other services. This study analyzed the discourse that was formed around the decision. The work incorporates the model of critical discourse analysis by Fairclough (1995a) and framing analysis by Pan & Kosicki (1993). This qualitative study analyzed materials from Ukrainian online media, TV stories, user comments, and political speeches from 16th-17th May 2017 – the dates when the decision on blocking of Russian web-sources was announced to the Ukrainian public. The research answers the questions about the dominant discourses in society regarding the approach of the authorities to Internet regulation, the main arguments and counter-arguments, and media framing. The results show that the discussion was locked in a trap of two dominant discourses of freedom of speech and national security, whereas alternative measures to restrictions were not represented on the public agenda.

Newspapers often report on the violation of learners’ rights. Many of these violations and critical incidents are related to the right to freedom of expression, which is internationally viewed as a core right in a democracy. My inquiry focused on grade 11 learners’ understanding of the right to freedom of expression. It is important to understand learners’ understanding of the right to freedom of expression, as they are the leaders of tomorrow and the right to freedom of expression is central to the survival of democracy. This inquiry was informed by an interpretivist paradigm. Atlas.ti™ was used to systematically analyse the data and categorise it into three hermeneutic units. This computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) tool facilitated the process of analysis and enhanced the validity of the research. During the inductive process of analysis two patterns crystallised, viz. the absolutising of the right to freedom of expression by some learners and the lack of skills to implement the limitation to the right to freedom of expression in schools. The main findings indicated that some learners did not have knowledge regarding the right to freedom of expression, although most learners were aware that they could speak their minds under this right. Furthermore, learners didn’t seem to know how to exercise the right to freedom of expression. One of the factors disrupting the implementation of the right to freedom of expression in schools is the perpetuation of an authoritarian culture in schools. Theoretical and practical recommendations are suggested and avenues for future research are identified. / Thesis (PhD (Education Management))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Freedom of expression is vital to our ability to convey opinions, beliefs, and to meaningfully participate in democracy. Although the laws on freedom of expression have restrictions, it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly what is allowed or not. The aim of this study is to analyze cultural journalistic texts that deal with the Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy in order to gain a greater understanding of the possibilities, problems and limitations of freedom of expression. An argumentation analysis is applied based on the arguments John Durham Peters addresses in Courting the Abyss to see what arguments and positions can be identified and to see what issues the debate concentrates on. Some of the writers agree all opinions, no matter how grotesque they are, must be discussed while some take ethical and moral positions into account. Freedom of speech is a rational principle and the only way to preserve and promote rationality is to strive for virtue. The fear of censorship as a consequence suffocates the artistic expression and the public sphere poorer. The writers criticize institutes and the general public for not standing up for the principle and in some cases, criticize each other for hypocrisy and double standards.

Cancel culture can briefly be described as the active attempt to silence a person that has expressed an opinion that offended someone whether it was intentional or not. This thesis will present how cancel culture is understood, perceived and experienced by journalists, communication professionals, and media experts, as well as how, according to them, it impacts freedom of expression and journalism. The findings are analyzed from a theoretical framework of the public sphere and participatory democracy. The conclusion shows that cancel culture can both serve as a means to address social injustices while also threatening freedom of expression and, by that, journalism. Cancelling journalists, because they have reported on controversial issues that others have found offensive, can result in more self-censorship among journalists which can have negative consequences for democracy itself. Further research is encouraged to investigate the impacts of cancel culture on the field of journalism and ultimately its impacts on freedom of expression and democracy.