ARTICLE 19

108 civil society organisations (including IFEX), academics, companies and other experts have called on the European Commission to protect people’s rights and dignity in a data-driven world by reaffirming the GDPR as the cornerstone of EU’s digital law and supporting its rigorous enforcement.

Current draft legislation removes the threat of imprisonment, but still leaves journalists, publishers, and others involved in public debate at risk of criminal defamation proceedings.

“The effective implementation and enforcement of the Digital Markets Act is one of the most powerful tools to guarantee an open, decentralised, fair and diverse information environment across the EU” – ARTICLE 19

“A resilient democracy must go beyond physical protection; it must also include the safeguarding of information integrity. This means, first and foremost, ensuring that the right to freedom of expression is always protected, and inclusive access to reliable information before, during, and after a crisis is guaranteed.”

Central America presents a complex panorama for freedom of expression because of the permanence and rise of authoritarian governments backed up by unjustified exception regimes, as in El Salvador and Honduras, and the continuity of anti-democracy actors in the judiciary, as in Guatemala.

Humanitarian actors are unable to assess needs or dispatch aid because digital and physical access continue to be blocked.

Rights groups express concerns to EC over the downgrading of fundamental rights, child sexual abuse material, and non-consensual intimate image abuse risks in the third draft of the EU Code of Practice for General Purpose AI models.

IFEX joins partner human rights and journalist organisations in calling on the government to cease its attacks against peaceful protesters, stop targeting journalists and news channels, and halt its crackdown on online speech.