Right of Expression: Article 19, 19(A)

The freedom of expression has been intrinsically contributing for an individual's healthy functioning in society whether it is emotional, social or intellectual well-being. Freedom of expression is paramount to achieve other human rights e.g., human dignity, fair administration of the judicial system, rights of oppressed genders or minorities etc. Ever since man has appeared in this universe, his instinct to be a part of expression (in any form) cannot be ignored. One can gauge the worth of freedom by analyzing the standard punishment for the accused and convicted people, i.e., to get them in prison e.g., solitary confinement, detention center or penitentiary etc. Right of expression is one of the fundamental rights of human rights in International law.

 Freedom to expression is recognized by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human rights (ACHR), the Arab Charter on Human Rights (Arab Charter) and African’s Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights (ACHPR).

 In relevance to protect the basic human right 1973 constitution of Pakistan there is a provision in the form of Article 19 to preserve right of expression.

"Every citizen shall have the right to speech and expression, there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of the Islam, the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with the foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt to court, commission of or incitement to an offence.”

Article 19 (A) provides the right to information

"Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restriction imposed by law”.

Freedom of expression broadly encompasses a collection of rights that includes right of opinion, press, speech, association, information, thoughts, beliefs and religion. Contemporary issues related to right of expression are hate speech, commercial speech, religion, terrorism. Currently, the internet has transformed the communication, but it has enabled national and international surveillance which has the tendency to threaten freedom of expression.

Does freedom of speech give us the right to offend? Absolutely not, but there is other side of the coin to think about; generally, freedom of expression is subjective (apart from subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law); it is hard to maintain the equilibrium each time for instance, people sometimes identify themselves with their beliefs so they might get offended, there may be groups or individuals who are offended by some source (gender, position of power). For centuries, poets, socialists, activists, politicians, humanitarians have been struggling to broaden the horizon for right of expression, but there is no ultimate ending due to the fact of consistently evolving cultures. However, concerns on right of expression are emerging with the breakthrough of technology majorly via artificial intelligence and digital media.

Have people made a difference? In recent years our world has moved to a rather different form of bigotry. We are predominantly moving away from tolerance. The most prevalent issue since the past decade till date is internet associated issues like privacy breach, cyber-crime (digital media), terrorism (main stream media) etc. In every society, people want to be politically correct but don’t want to hurt others’ sentiments. Can I ask how sure are you, that what you express won’t offend anyone? Yes! Offending someone seems kind of inevitable, but right of expression is pivotal to achieving societal progress. Discussion and dialogue are the soul of societal growth, which can be only achieved through expression of speech. Martin Luther King Jr said;

“Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about things that matter”