Threatening to government
Is this right often perceived as threatening to government authorities?
| Right | Breakout | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Freedom of Association | Freedom of association is a valuable right that encompasses the relationships, organizations, and environments in which a public can manifest other freedoms, such as expression, speech, and assembly. As Tom Kahn, a civil rights activist stated, “Freedom of expression without freedom of association is the right to speak freely in the wilderness” (qtd. in Democracy Web). As such, this freedom grants people power and influence in the government and society around them. In both democratic and authoritarian regimes, government authorities have a variety of reasons why they might restrict freedom of association, including being threatened by the right.
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| Freedom of Expression | At times, states have felt intimidated by different instances and types of expression.
Historical concerns about expression have been documented as far back as ancient Rome, where laws were put in place that made offenses against state leaders and the country in general a criminal act. Later, this legislation evolved to enact severe punishments on those who caused offense to the sovereign, whether through verbal or other attacks (“Lese Majesty”). In Medieval England, heretics - those that expressed sentiments and performed acts contrary to the Church of England and its teachings - were prosecuted and burned at the stake for threatening religious authority (Statutes of the Realm, 2:12S-28: 2 Henry IV). Centuries later in 1798, the US government made it illegal for any citizen to print, state, or distribute words about the government or its members that were considered to be spiteful and untrue by passing the Sedition Act. Those who were prosecuted for such crimes were largely Democratic-Republican Journalists, indicating that the ruling Federalist party passed the legislation to suppress opposition figures whose speech threatened their authority (“Alien and Sedition Acts ” 1798). In the current era, studies evaluating freedom of expression suggest that the right continues to be viewed as a threat to many national governments. In fact, according to the 2023 Freedom in the World report, the number of countries that are classified as having the lowest possible score in terms of freedom of expression have doubled. Additionally, statistics show that 109 countries approved some sort of legislation that restricted this same right in the year 2022 (Gorokhovskaia, Shabaz, and Slipowitz 2023). In many cases, both recently and in the past, regimes of all types have justified limitations on the freedom of expression as actions meant to protect public interests in some way, shape, or form. Governments may demonstrate that they feel threatened by free expression through police crackdowns or legal actions. As an example, in 2022 Iranian authorities began to violently crack down on citizens protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had perished at the hands of the country’s morality police. Demonstrations grew, with many opposing the Islamic republic’s policies, including mandatory veiling. As a result, authorities reacted by employing internet blackouts, arrests, imprisonments, and more (Ziabari 2023). President Ebrahim Raisi justified these repressive actions and threatened further crack down on dissidents, stating that they were opposing Iran’s “security and tranquility” (The Guardian 2022), making it necessary to curtail freedom of expression. Fears that freedom of expression may compromise public security have also been demonstrated in countries such as the United States. A primary example is the Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. Ohio, decided in 1969. The proceeding was based around a Ku Klux Klan leader who had spoken at a rally for the organization, “advocat[ing]... the duty, necessity, or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform” (Brandenburg v. Ohio 1968, 444-445), according to prosecutors. As a result of this reasoning, the plaintiff was convicted under the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism statute, a decision that was later appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that it violated freedom of speech and expression as defined by the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. This piece of legislation was described by the court as a way to prevent the teaching “of the moral propriety or even moral necessity for a resort to force and violence” (Brandenburg v. Ohio 1968, 448), indicating that Ohio’s state government had produced the law due to concerns that certain types of expression could lead to public corruption or insurrection. Ultimately, the Supreme Court deemed the state’s Criminal Syndicalism statute unconstitutional, widening the scope of freedom of expression in the United States (Brandenburg v. Ohio 1968, 448-449). The interests and values of a majority group often play a contentious role in governments’ feelings and responses to certain expressive acts. Offending a dominant religion, ethnicity, or other social group tends to be perceived as a threat to the government, which can be viewed in the 2005 case heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), İ.A. v. Turkey. The applicant, a citizen of Turkey who was referred to throughout the case as Mr. İ.A., owned and directed a publishing house which had released the novel “Yasak Tümceler”, which discussed various religious and philosophical issues. Turkish prosecutors deemed the book an offense to Islam and charged him with blasphemy against the nation’s dominant religion based on Article 175 of Turkey’s Criminal Code (İ.A. v. Turkey 2005, 1-2). As a result, Mr. İ.A. appealed to the ECHR, saying that his conviction infringed upon the right to freedom of expression as defined by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. For their part, the Turkish government insisted that “the book had fallen short of the level of responsibility to be expected of criticism in a country where the majority of the population were Muslim” (İ.A. v. Turkey 2005, 4), and thus freedom of expression had to be limited. The ECHR eventually sided with the Turkish government, agreeing that “as paragraph 2 of Article 10 recognises, the exercise of that freedom carries with it duties and responsibilities. Among them, in the context of religious beliefs, may legitimately be included a duty to avoid expressions that are gratuitously offensive to others and profane” (İ.A. v. Turkey 2005, 5). Given this reasoning, the court confirmed that the limitations authorities placed on the applicant’s freedom of expression were justified and a “pressing social need” (İ.A. v. Turkey 2005, 5-6). The Turkish government’s actions and legislation to protect the religious majority’s feelings from an expression that abused it, backed by the ECHR. In some cases, freedom of expression can be viewed by the government as a threat to public morality. This justification for limiting the right can be viewed in another ECHR case, Handyside v. The United Kingdom, which, similar to İ.A. v. Turkey, was based around the publishing of a book. The applicant, Mr. Handyside, owned a publishing company that bought the British rights to a work titled The Little Red Schoolbook, aimed towards school-aged audiences and including a section that discussed sexual matters (Handyside v. The United Kingdom 1976, 3-6). After it was released in the UK, many complaints about the book’s contents were made, with authorities eventually convicting Handyside of possessing obscene books for publication for gain under the Obscene Publications Acts of 1959 and 1964 (Handyside v. The United Kingdom 1976, 5), as well as confiscated the copies found in his office. Mr. Handyside then appealed these convictions to the ECHR on the grounds that the United Kingdom’s actions violated his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and breached several other rights laid out in the same document (Handyside v. The United Kingdom 1976, 13). However, the British government argued that they were justified in their actions, explaining that the limitations on expression were “necessary in a democratic society… for the protection of… morals” (Handyside v. The United Kingdom 1976, 16). This sentiment was backed by the ECHR, which found “that the 1959/1964 Acts have an aim that is legitimate under Article 10 para. 2 (art. 10-2), namely, the protection of morals in a democratic society” (Handyside v. The United Kingdom 1976, 16). References: “Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)”. n.d. National Archives. Accessed June 7, 2023. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/alien-and-sedition-acts#sedition Gorokhovskaia, Yana, Adrian Shahbaz, and Amy Slipowitz. 2023. “Freedom in the World 2023: Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy.” Freedom House. The Guardian. 2022. “Protests Spread in Iran as President Raisi vows to crack down.” September 29, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/24/protests-spread-in-iran-as-president-raisi-vows-to-crack-down Handyside v. The United Kingdom, Application No. 5493/72, ECtHR judgment of 7 December 1976. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-57499 İ.A. v. Turkey, Application no. 42571/98, ECtHR judgment of 13 December 2005. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-70113 “Lese Majesty.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, 2013, https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/lese+majesty. Accessed 7 June 2023. Parliament of the United Kingdom. Obscene Publications Act 1959. 7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c.66 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/66/section/1 Statutes of the Realm, 2:12S-28: 2 Henry IV Supreme Court Of The United States. U.S. Reports: Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444. 1968. Periodical. https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep395444/. Ziabari, Kourosh. 2023. “Iranian Protests and the Crisis of Free Speech.” Arab Center Washington DC. February 23, 2023. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/iranian-protests-and-the-crisis-of-free-speech/ | |
| Freedom of Religion | Government authorities have often viewed freedom of religion as a threat.
In the modern era, it is generally agreed that all people should be able to practice religion freely, as the liberty is enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, governments continue to restrict certain aspects of the right if they find it to be intimidating. In many cases, legislation has pointed to a government feeling uneasy about aspects of religious freedom; in France for example, the legislature passed Act No. 2010-1192, which banned face coverings in public places. According to writer Heraa Hashmi, this targeted Muslim women who wore the niqab or burqa in an attempt to protect public order and to ensure others’ rights and freedoms,” (Hashmi 2022) pointing to the government’s concerns about religious expression. In other cases, simply refusing to protect religious rights, or doing so in an extremely selective manner, can indicate that a government authority is threatened by a certain faith and/or its expression. According to the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, the country’s laws contain “no legal recognition or protection of freedom of religion” (US Embassy to Saudi Arabia 2021). However, blasphemy of Islam has been criminalized, and the Basic Law states that “the duty of every citizen is to defend Islam,” (US Embassy to Saudi Arabia 2021). In addition, scholars have argued that “where [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] has truncated the power of the religious establishment, it is to consolidate power into the central state and specifically, to boost his own control” (Hoffman 2022). On top of that, there is “a comprehensive effort by the state to eliminate all independent or dissenting religious voices capable of challenging MbS’s desired monopoly on Islam in Saudi Arabia” (Hoffman 2022). This would indicate that Saudi leadership is heavily connected to Sunni Islam, and therefore the existence of other religions is viewed as a threat. In some cases, states may see freedom of religion as a threat due to negative impacts on public health. In California, the state legislature passed Senate Bill No. 277, which eliminated exceptions to mandatory vaccinations based on personal beliefs. This decision was made based on the findings of a government report which had shown that “when belief exemptions to vaccination guidelines are permitted, vaccination rates decrease” (Brown v. Smith 2018, 5) leading to difficulty controlling the spread of contagious viruses. While it is worth noting that the idea of “personal belief exemptions” are not exclusively related to religion, and thus the elimination of such exemptions are not specifically targeting faiths, some California parents understood this law as a restriction on their religious freedoms due the the fact that they “describe themselves as Christians” who were therefore “opposed to the use of fetal cells in vaccine” (Brown v. Smith 2018, 11). Other parents saw the law as suppression of their “sincerely held philosophic [and] conscientious…beliefs” (Brown v. Smith 2018, 6), and allied with those opposing the Bill based on their faith, eventually taking their complaints to the California Court of Appeals. While the coalition of parents eventually won the case, it was not based on violations of religious freedom. The Court quoted previous case law discussing faith and health such as Prince v. Massachusetts, which explained that “the right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death” (Brown v, Smith 2018, 11). This indicates that freedom of religion is not all-encompassing in the United States; there are limitations. As a result, if a group such as the plaintiffs in Brown v. Smith refuses to comply with laws such as Senate Bill No. 277, they are threatening the interests of the state to protect public health and safety. Governments have also felt threatened by religious freedom when it is perceived as hazardous to public safety and or morality. In Iran, state authorities have restricted the rights of the Baha’i faith group, as well as other religious minorities, for these reasons. According to reports from the US State Department, in 2022 many such individuals were systematically jailed and accused of having membership in organizations that “disrupt national security,” or “agitating the public consciousness” (US Department of State 2022, 22). Independent media outlet Iranwire has also reported that several Baha’i preschool teachers were detained by Iranian intelligence officers and accused of being spies, a charge that has been leveled against members of the faith for years (Sabeti 2022). According to the news outlet Reuters, Iranian authorities have also been carrying out “propaganda missions to propagate Baha’i teachings” and “infiltrat[ing] various levels of the education sector” (Reuters 2022). Members of the faith are punished and restricted from religious expression because the government feels that they threaten national security and disseminate incorrect teachings. Government obligations to protect a state’s majority religion have also caused regimes to see the practice of minority faiths as a threat. In Sri Lanka, the constitution states that “The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e)” (Constitution of Sri Lanka 1978, art. 9), which include the freedom of conscience, religion, and thought, as well as “the freedom, either by himself or in association with others, and either in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching” (Constitution of Sri Lanka 1978, art. 14(1)(e)). In practice, this has meant that the government has limited the actions of religious minorities. For example, in 2003 a Roman Catholic Order submitted a request to incorporate to the government of Sri Lanka, which was enacted by passing it into law. This bill allowed the Order to “to spread knowledge of the Catholic religion” and “to impart religious, educational and vocational training to youth,” (UNCHR 2004, 4). However, a private citizen claimed that this statute was unconstitutional given that it allowed the Order to proselytize and did not sufficiently protect Buddhism. The case was eventually taken to the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, which sided with the objector and stated that “the propagation and spreading Christianity as postulated in terms of clause 3 [of the Bill] would not be permissible as it would impair the very existence of Buddhism or the Buddha Sasana” (UNCHR 2004, 5). The judicial body thus limited the ability of Catholics to express their faith and proselytize in order to protect the majority religion; however, the United Nations Human Rights Committee objected to this reasoning in Sister Immaculate Joseph v. Sri Lanka, claiming that it violated the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UNCHR 2004, 11). References Brown v. Smith (2018) 24 Cal. App. 5th 1135. https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2018/b279936.html Constitution of Sri Lanka (Rev. 2015), 1978. Art. 9. https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution.pdf Hashmi, Heraa. 2022. “Niqab and the Religious Freedom Violations in France.” UC Davis Journal of International Law and Policy. March 9, 2022. https://jilp.law.ucdavis.edu/blog/posts/niqab-and-the-religious-freedom-violation-in-france.html#:~:text=In%202010%2C%20France%20passed%20a,particularly%20impactful%20for%20many%20people. Hoffman, Jon. 2022. “The Evolving Relationship Between Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia.” Arab Center Washington D.C. April 20, 2022. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-evolving-relationship-between-religion-and-politics-in-saudi-arabia/ Reuters. 2022. “Iran arrested Baha’i citizens, accuses them of Israel links - state media.” August 1, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-arrested-bahai-citizens-accuses-them-israel-links-state-media-2022-08-01/ Sabeti, Kian. 2022. “Baha’is Arrested for Instigating ‘Sedition’ and Protests.” Iranwire. October 18, 2022. https://iranwire.com/en/politics/108702-bahais-arrested-for-instigating-sedition-and-protests/ UNHRC, Communication No. 1249/2004, Sister Immaculate Joseph v. Sri Lanka, UN Doc CCPR/C/85/D/1249/2004 United States Department of State. 2022. 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran. https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/iran/#:~:text=Since%201999%2C%20Iran%20has%20been,redesignated%20Iran%20as%20a%20CPC. US Embassy in Saudi Arabia. 2022. 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom for Saudi Arabia. https://sa.usembassy.gov/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom-for-saudi-arabia/#:~:text=Since%202004%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%20has,severe%20violations%20of%20religious%20freedom. | |
| Freedom of the Press | An example of why freedom of the press may appear threatening to those in power is because of the speed at which information moves, and the way it can shape critical events, like elections. Oftentimes it may seem like the news outlets have a bias, for example, “cable organizations are labeled as liberal or conservative instead of just news. Information flows on social media and Internet sites at lightning-fast speed with no way to verify accuracy” (Wermiel, 2019).
In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act which allowed for people to be prosecuted when they “brought the president of the government into disrepute and ridicule” (Wermiel, 2019). So, freedom of the press can also appear to be threatening because it allows people to voice their concerns about the decisions of the US government. However, government officials may pass laws to ensure this doesn’t happen. This act was created because President Wilson and Congress wanted to eliminate people speaking out about their opposition to the involvement of the United States in the war (This Day in History). Freedom of the press may be perceived as threatening to government authorities when the media is able to uncover the wrongdoings or abuse of the government because it could prevent citizens from fully trusting the government in its ability to do things in the best interest of its citizens. For example, “Watergate” is “synonymous with political crime and corruption” (Watergate). President Nixon was not a big fan of freedom of the press; according to William Robinson, who worked for the New York Herald Tribune, he believed that it was a “handy refuge for subtle as well as overt character assassination” (Farell, 2014). However, even if some people in government positions may view freedom of the press as threatening, the Supreme Court has upheld the press’ right to report on anything they deem important. For example, in the Supreme Court case New York Times Company v Sullivan, the “actual malice” test was created, which requires that a public figure demonstrates that someone knew the information they were reporting was false, but proceeded to use it anyway (Oyez). So, while news outlets can post whatever they want, they run the risk of being sued for libel (the publication of false information). In order to cover up anything that government authorities may not want known, they have “made explicit attempts to silence critical media voices and strengthen outlets that serve up favorable coverage” (Repucci, 2019). It may appear that some government officials want to be seen in a positive light, and they could attempt to remove any media that depicts them in a way that’s different from that.
History.com Editors. 2019. “U.S. Congress Passes Sedition Act.” HISTORY. July 29, 2019. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-congress-passes-sedition-act. FBI. “Watergate.” Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/watergate. Farrell, John Aloysius. 2014. “When Nixon Met the Press.” POLITICO Magazine. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/nixon-and-the-media-109773/. Oyez. 2018. “New York Times Company v. Sullivan.” Oyez. 2018. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39. Repucci, Sarah. 2019. “Media Freedom: A Downward Spiral.” Freedomhouse.org. Freedom House. 2019. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-and-media/2019/media-freedom-downward-spiral. | |
| Privacy Rights | The Fourth Amendment has rarely been fully realized in its long history. While the Fourth Amendment guarantees privacy in search and seizure, the states originally did not want it to apply to their procedures and noted that it had yet to be applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.; US GPO, 1992, 1260) . As such, lots of cases came forward to the Supreme Court, and the Exclusionary Rule was established (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.). The Exclusionary Rule prevents trials from using improperly collected evidence, but it does not fully apply the Fourth Amendment and prevent searches (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.). The rule has gone through a couple of iterations based on the amendments from which it is derived by the Court. It was originally established in Boyd v. US ( 1886) , based in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, then evolved with Weeks v. US ( 1914) , which claimed derivation from the Fifth Amendment but appeared to be based in the Fourth. Its current state results from Mapp v. Ohio ( 1961) when the Court held that the Fourth Amendment was an essential feature of privacy and decided that the standards of evidence collection should be consistent between federal and state jurisdictions (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.; US GPO, 1992, 1262) . However, authorities can collect whatever evidence they wish and are not held to a legal standard unless they wish to have permissible evidence in the likely-upcoming judicial proceedings (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.). Additionally, there are currently many cases that have developed in which a warrant is not needed, causing even Congress, via the Government Publishing Office, to admit there has been an expansion of power given to authorities (US GPO, 1992, 1208- 1209) . Beyond this expansion, it is known that authorities who perform acts that are not permitted by law are rarely reprimanded, especially with search and seizure and the ability to use the “good faith” defense (Enforcing the Fourth Amendment, n.d.; US GPO, 1992, 1258) . These facts prevent the right to privacy from being perceived as threatening to government authorities.
References: Enforcing the Fourth Amendment: Exclusionary Rule. (n.d.). Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Retrieved Oct. 9, 2021, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-4/enforcing-the-fourth-amendment-the-exclusionary-rule US Government Publishing Office (US GPO). ( 1992, June 29). Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure (S. Doc. 103-6). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-CONAN- 1992/ GPO-CONAN- 1992- 10-5/summary |