Article by Chloé Berthélémy, EDRi Policy Advisor
In EDRi's series on COVID-19, COVIDTech, we will explore the critical principles for protecting fundamental rights while curtailing the spread of the virus, as outlined in the EDRi network's statement on the virus. Each post in this series will tackle a specific issue at the intersection of digital rights and the global pandemic in order to explore broader questions about how to protect fundamental rights in a time of crisis. In our statement, we emphasised the principle that states must “defend freedom of expression and information". In this second post of the series, we take a look at the impact on freedom of expression and information that the measures to fight the spread of misinformation could have. Automated tools, content-analysing algorithms, state-sponsored content moderation, all have become normal under COVID-19, and it is a threat to many of our essential fundamental rights.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns an op-ed by a pro-government military commander in Fiji defending curbs on freedom of expression and freedom of the press in order to enforce the lockdown imposed by the government to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Journalists covering the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and their journalistic sources have faced access denials and retaliation for their reporting on the virus, press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders reports.

The Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples has issued a strongly worded statement condemning what is says are the most recent warlike escalations undertaken by the President of the United States Donald Trump against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba.

By David Swanson
When a few thousand people were murdered on 11 September, 2001, I was actually stupid enough - I kid you not - to imagine that the general public would conclude that because massive military forces, nuclear arsenals, and foreign bases had done nothing to prevent and much to provoke those crimes, the U.S. government would need to start scaling back its single biggest expense. By 12 September it was clear that the opposite course would be followed.