Freedom of Expression
| #30: Freedom of Expression | |
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| World Assembly resolution | |
| Category | Furtherment of Democracy |
| Effect | Mild |
| Proposed by | Omigodtheykilledkenny |
| Status | Repealed |
| Adopted | Thu Jan 1 2009 |
| Votes For / Against | 3,225 / 992 |
Freedom of Expression is a World Assembly resolution aimed at protecting the right of individuals to air their political views openly without fear of reprisal. It was passed on New Year's Day, 2009 and repealed nearly 10 years later in June 2018. It was just the third Furtherment of Democracy resolution to be considered by the General Assembly, and the second to pass. It was a popular resolution, however controversial. It was subject to numerous attempts at repeal, including a serious replacement campaign by Bananaistan, who claimed it hampered politicians' rights to sue for defamation.
It was not until May 2018, when the GA Secretariat ruled (on an unrelated health care proposal) that FoE allows corporations to advertise tobacco products to children (and sadly no, we are not making this up) that a faction of the WA could compel the GA at-large to remove it.
History
The Kennyite delegation originally conceived of Freedom of Expression during the old United Nations mandate. It had introduced its first version of the resolution as Free Expression Act, which the UN defeated by 57 votes -- at the time the narrowest margin of defeat or victory in NS history, at least in terms of hard numbers. FEA was intended to block a competing free-speech proposal that the Kennyites viewed as problematic.
As controversial as the UN version was, Freedom of Expression did not meet nearly the level of opposition in the World Assembly. It had been carefully modified to correct problems with the first version -- namely the lengthy "exceptions" clause, which many delegations viewed as a backdoor access for dictatorships to restrict free speech all they wished. The clause was compacted in the WA version so it was not so easily exposed. At the time FoE reached the GA floor, interest in the new WA had waned, and NS activity itself was seeing a substantial decline over previous years, so the resolution was greeted with very low turnout, but nonetheless adopted with 77% support.
Resolution text
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Assured that freedom of expression is an essential human right deserving of international protection; Determined that no one should have to put their lives, families, liberty or property at risk for expressing honest dissent with, otherwise criticizing or even satirizing their leaders, governments, societies, churches or any other institutions of established power; Chastened by the sacrifices already made by prisoners and victims of conscience throughout the world; Nonetheless convinced that free expression does not extend to such abuses as defamation, incitements to disorder, or academic fraud; Agreed that for purposes of this resolution defamation is defined as the use of knowingly false information, or the raising of such with reckless disregard for its truthfulness, in a deliberate attempt to impugn the character or reputation of any individual, group or organization, excepting government institutions or political leaders, Be it therefore resolved that the World Assembly: Affirms the right of all people to express their personal, moral, political, cultural, religious and ideological views freely and openly, without fear of reprisal; Requires member states to respect and uphold this right in all available media to all individuals under their jurisdiction; Expects member states to enforce this right fairly and equitably in the application of national laws; Allows member states to set reasonable restrictions on expression in order to prevent defamation, as well as plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement, and other forms of academic fraud; incitements to widespread lawlessness and disorder, or violence against any individual, group or organization; the unauthorized disclosure of highly classified government information; the unauthorized disclosure of strictly confidential personal information; and blatant, explicit and offensive pornographic materials; Forbids member states from abusing these restrictions in an effort to stifle free expression among law-abiding citizens. |
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Response to repeal
The Kennyite delegation did not formally protest the resolution's repeal in June 2018. However, private concerns from State Department officials, leaked to the Paradise City press, identified the author as a "blundering Imperial fool," and castigated the Secretariat for "botching its interpretation" of the original resolution. Though FoE merely endorsed the right of individuals to free-speech protections, the Secretariat effectively expanded FoE's remit by claiming that corporations were also entitled to the same rights. Imperium Anglorum insisted in its repeal campaign that the ruling was legit due to the concept of "corporate personhood"; however, the unnamed Kennyite officials noted that no mandate exists for the WA to respect such a concept.
"And it is so typical of the Imperials to play the child-smoking card," groused one diplomatic aid. "They also contended that protecting indigenous culture would lead to human sacrifice."
Related articles
Additional materials
- Freedom of Expression - Official floor debate (2008-09)
- Repeal "Freedom of Expression" - Floor debate to repeal (2018)
