Abstract
The issue of freedom of speech has been on the Nordicom agenda for some time, with earlier collections devoted to it, and it is good that it remains there, for it has many facets and many relations that require continuing examination and consideration. This makes the current volume a welcome further contribution to discussion and debate on freedom of expression, press freedom and communication rights. As Ulla Carlsson notes in her introduction, there are many obstacles, for not all citizens are in the position or condition to exercise their rights, due to extreme poverty, social injustice, poor education, gender discrimination, ethnic and religious discrimination, unemployment, or lack of access to health care – as well as lack of access to information and knowledge. (p. 11)
A further obstacle is the power of global media corporations whose priorities are profit accumulation or political control over media output or both. All of these stand in the way of freedom of expression, yet this is the axiomatic principle of democracy and civic engagement. The articles gathered together here are based mainly on research in Nordic countries, but they include collaborations with researchers elsewhere in the world, while the questions raised and problems broached are applicable in many other regions. Recent and current changes, and the ways in which these are impinging on matters of free speech, are very much to the fore, along with the aforementioned (and other) threats to freedom of the press and the exercise of free expression. A final section takes up the reporting of war and conflict, with the issues of safety and civil rights a major preoccupation.