"I think about all freedoms. So when you say free expression, free speech, or freedom of information or Article 19, all of those concepts are linked together, I immediately think of all human rights at once. Because what I have seen during my current or past work is how that freedom is really the cornerstone of all freedom. If you don't have that, you can't have any other freedom."
"You have realities, violations, that exist but are not talked about, and are not exposed, not revealed, not tackled, and nothing is really improved without that first freedom. I also think about Myanmar because I remember going there in 2012, when the country had just opened after the democratic revolution. We got the chance to meet with many officials, ministers, and we got to tell them that they should start with that because their speech was"
Benjamin Ismail leads campaigns exposing authoritarian censorship and oversees the App Censorship Project tracking mobile app censorship globally. He connects free expression, free speech, freedom of information, and Article 19 as integral and foundational human rights. Freedom of expression is framed as the cornerstone of all other freedoms; without it, journalism, pluralism of opinions, and the exposure of violations give way to self-censorship. Examples include Myanmar in 2012, where officials were urged to prioritize free speech rather than postpone press freedoms. Prioritizing free expression enables accountability, revelation of abuses, and societal improvement.
Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation
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