Is there a global free speech recession?

We travel from America to Europe, Russia, China, and more places to answer the question: Is there a global free speech recession?

Guests:
Sarah McLaughlin: FIRE senior scholar, global expression
James Kirchick: FIRE senior fellow
Jacob Mchangama: FIRE senior fellow

Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro
03:52 Free speech global surveys
07:49 Freedom of expression deteriorating
11:43 Misinformation and disinformation
18:05 Russian state-sponsored media
24:55 Europe’s Digital Services Act
29:26 Chinese censorship
34:33 Radio Free Europe
54:57 Mohammad cartoons
01:04:14 Outro

Read the transcript here: https://www.thefire.org/research-lear...

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Show notes:
Authoritarians in the academy: How the internationalization of higher education and borderless censorship threaten free speech Sarah McLaughlin (2025) https://amzn.to/4jmwaBV
“The First Amendment created gay America” So to Speak (2022) https://www.thefire.org/news/podcasts...
“Secret city: The hidden history of gay Washington” James Kirchick (2022) https://amzn.to/4lEx1jx
“Who in the world supports free speech?” The Future of Free Speech (2025) https://futurefreespeech.org/wp-conte...
“V-DEM democracy report 2025: 25 years of autocratization — democracy trumped?” V-Dem Institute (2025) https://www.v-dem.net/documents/60/V-...
Global risks report 2024 World Economic Forum (2025) https://www.weforum.org/publications/...
“Gay reporter kicked off Kremlin network after protesting anti-gay law” Washington Free Beacon (2013)    • Gay Reporter Kicked Off Kremlin Network Af...  
Free speech: A history from Socrates to social media (paperback) Jacob Mchangama (2025) https://amzn.to/3XUcop3
Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) (2022) https://commission.europa.eu/strategy...
Careless people: A cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) https://amzn.to/4lnJYhb
“The Voice of America falls silent” The New York Times (2025) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/op...
Text of Havel’s speech to Congress The Washington Post (1990) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archiv...
Voice of America wins in court, for now, as judge blocks Trump administration from firing staff AP News (2025) https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-a...