Amid escalating global clampdowns on civic space and ruthless legal attacks on journalists and the media, Trust Conference 2025 asked a pressing question: Is it too late to save democracy, which stands on free and independent media that hold the powerful to account and enable...
Politics-informed developments in the United States of America this year so far confirm that rights and entitlements can be rolled back with the stroke of a pen. And there is a significant segment of society that is happy to cheer on a blanket erasure of constitutional...
The right to freedom of expression alone is not enough to protect democratic communication and public debate, which are the cornerstones of society. This right, while essential, does not create avenues to address power imbalances in how people communicate and shape public opinion. A tech mogul...
We expected 2025 to be a challenging year for human rights defenders, if only from the global political turmoil U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump is promising. For many, though, Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on 7 January that Meta would replace fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram with the...
Football (soccer), the world’s most popular—and we would argue most beautiful—sport, has become a multi-million-dollar industry marked by astronomical salaries, stadiums that look like spaceships, and billion-dollar sponsorship and television deals. The sport is regulated by FIFA at the global level and groups like CONMEBOL and...
Videos of Elon Musk promoting dubious investments. Popular news anchors advertising all manner of products. Seemingly plausible news articles bearing bylines of known journalists.Welcome to the world of AI-enabled misinformation and disinformation that has rapidly spiraled into the new normal.Over 11,000 business leaders in 113...
In Britain over 20 years ago a large group of local postmasters were prosecuted for fraud. Many were convicted, some jailed, most lost jobs and incomes. Why? Because the Horizon computer system, used to manage their financial accounts was thought incapable of error. Only later,...
Substack is the latest digital communication platform to set off a freedom of expression debate after the co-founder Hamish McKenzie stated that the platform would not demonetize those posting extremist content on the newsletter platform — namely Nazi and white supremacists. The comments sparked both condemnation...
There is no escaping the bitter irony of celebrating a child born in Bethlehem – north-east of the Gaza Strip – and the sickening deaths of more than 6,600 children in Gaza alone since 7 October 2023. Thousands more are missing under the rubble. The UN...
A WACC project is backing efforts by the Guatemalan rights organization Asociacion Ixchel to secure Indigenous peoples’ right to freedom of expression, participation in cultural life, and equality before the law through legally sanctioned radio broadcasting. In the peace agreement that brought an end to civil...