Reclaiming Freedom of Expression

International human rights law, rooted in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, provides a framework for defining freedom of expression as the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds. On April 6-7, 2026, Perry World House convened scholars, policymakers, legal experts, and civil society practitioners to examine this phenomenon. They explored whether this protection, which theoretically encompasses both speakers and audiences, aligns with common public conceptions of “free speech,” which often center only on the rights of the speaker and state censorship of speech while omitting or overlooking the rights of audiences, listeners, and the broader public interest. They then discussed how framings of free speech that are commonly absolutist and speaker-centered could be contested and reoriented toward a more expansive and democratic conception. The challenge, experts, agreed, was that this multi-directional framing has been largely absent from current public discourse. Therefore, reclaiming it would have real stakes across policy domains, from platform governance and public media to academic freedom and the regulation of artificial intelligence. This report summarizes these discussions and identified key themes and areas for future research and action.