A new report entitled Free to Create: Artistic Freedom in Europe, published by the Council of Europe, explores the challenges European artists and cultural workers face in the practice of their right to freedom of artistic expression.
These range from laws that curtail creative freedom, attacks from non-governmental groups and online threats to the “under-the-radar” pressures that entail self-censorship.
Artistic freedom is a core human right requiring protection and recently it has worsened, affected by political extremism, economic collapse, a global pandemic, threats from digitisation, an emerging environmental catastrophe, and by the return of war within Europe – all crises with major impacts on human rights across society.
Divided into nine chapters, the report covers:
- the legit basis of artistic freedom protection in Europe;
- artistic freedom state in Europe over the 2020-2022 period;
- “under the radar” threats;
- artists advisory;
- all levels’ recommendations and ways forward.
The report outputs are useful for artist and cultural stakeholders in their practice to resist the suppression of fundamental right to freedom of expression.
