SWI swissinfo.ch gives a platform to global voices of freedom

© Ed Kashi / Vii

Freedom of expression is a human right, yet it is anything but a matter of course. Many dedicated people around the world continue to campaign for it day in, day out. Here at SWI swissinfo.ch, we give them a platform - in our series "Global voices of freedom from around the world" - with pit stops all around the world.

Manami, Fatima, Ellie, Can, Galina and Marie are entrepreneurs, journalists, elected politicians or just active citizens from all around the world. They express themselves on public issues, big and small, controversial or less controversial. What unites them is their daily commitment to expressing themselves freely and, importantly, to being heard.

In the age of digitalisation and global social media, freedom of expression must be defended every day. That’s what the people behind the voices we met for our series “Global Voices of Freedom” are doing. In very different places, in various conditions and in the most diverse contexts, they are standing up for freedom of expression and democracy.

Our world tour of the “Global Voices of Freedom” begins on the small Japanese island of Ishigaki, almost 2,000 kilometres south of Tokyo. This is where 28-year-old Manami Mihara lives.

From Ishigaki and the East China Sea we travel to Central Asia and Afghanistan, where the Islamist Taliban regime has radically curtailed the rights of the female population in recent years. The young human rights activist Fatima Haidiri is campaigning for Afghan women from exile.  

Next stop on our virtual trip around the globe we meet Ellie Kisyombe who hails from the east African country of Malawi and arrived in the Irish capital Dublin as an asylum seeker more than ten years ago.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was re-elected in May, has led the country away from democracy step by step over the last twenty years. Critics like the journalist Can Dündar had to leave his country because of this. Since then, he has been working from Germany for the democratic future of his homeland.  

In Russia, the situation for media professionals has deteriorated a lot since the start of the war against neighbouring Ukraine. Independent journalists like Galina Timchenko, the Russian-Ukrainian editor-in-chief of the online platform meduza.io, now report from the Latvian capital Riga.

But even in countries where democracy has made progress in recent years, journalists live in danger. For example in Mexico, where – as Joel Vera told SWI swissinfo.ch – there are “no security guarantees for freedom of expression”.

And even in a stable and long-established democracy like Switzerland, freedom of the press and freedom of expression sometimes comes under pressure. In the Swiss city of Lausanne, Marie Maurisse publishes the online Gotham City magazine. Together with her team she uncovers economic crimes and experiences the limits of press freedom every day.

These voices of journalists and activists from different countries and continents of the world make it clear why freedom of the press is such a valuable asset that is worth standing up for every day.

Read about other aspects of the freedom of expression topic in our focus page: