MODULE 5: General Comment 34 (Article 19: Freedoms of opinion and expression) ● promote plurality of the media.
e plurality of the media. Consequently, States parties should take
Human Rights Committee
General Remarks
● General Comment No. 34 offers guidelines to States on what the ​freedoms of
opinion and ​expression mean in a series of current contexts under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
● It is binding on more than 165 countries.
● Article 19 of the ICCPR
○ 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
○ 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall
include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all
kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the
form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
○ 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article
carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be
subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are
provided by law and are necessary:
○ (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
○ (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre
public), or of public health or morals.
● General comment 34 (2011) replaced general comment No. 10 (1983).
● The Committee says that the obligation to respect freedom of opinion and
expression is binding on every part of the State as a whole (Paragraph 7), which
means that it applies also to administrative agencies.
● Reservation is not allowed in article 19, paragraph 1 for it will be incompatible with
the object and purpose of the Covenant. Reservations to particular elements of
article 19, paragraph 2, may be acceptable but it cannot be a general reservation.
Freedom of Opinion
● All forms of opinion are protected, including opinions of a political, scientific,
historic, moral or religious nature.
● No restriction is possible.
Freedom of Expression
● Protects all forms of expression and the means of their dissemination.
● It covers even the expression considered as ​deeply offensive​.
Freedom of expression and the media
● The public has a corresponding right to receive media output.
● The State should not have monopoly control over the media and should
appropriate action, consistent with the Covenant, to prevent undue media
dominance or concentration by privately controlled media groups in monopolistic
situations that may be harmful to a diversity of sources and views. (Paragraph 40)
● The penalization of a media outlet, publishers or journalist solely for being critical
of the government or the political social system espoused by the government never
be considered to be a necessary restriction of freedom of expression. (Paragraph
42)
Right of Access to Information
● To give effect to the right of access to information, States parties should
proactively
put in the public domain Government information of public interest.
● States parties should make every effort to ensure easy, prompt, effective and
practical access to such information.
Freedom of Expression within the political rights context
● freedom of expression is important for the conduct of public affairs and the
effective exercise of the right to vote.
Possible restrictions to the freedom of expression and opinion, as established in Article
19(3) of the ICCPR (Paragraphs 21-35)
● General Comment explains in detail the scope and jurisprudence surrounding the
possible restrictions to the freedom of expression and opinion, as established in
Article 19(3) of the ICCPR.
● These restrictions may relate either to:
○ (a) the rights and reputation of others, or,
○ (b) to the protection of national security or public order.
● In particular, the Committee explains how these restrictions should concurrently
be:
○ (i) provided by a law that is available to the public, with enough precision
to let everyone know what is not permitted (Paragraph 24); and
○ (ii) necessary and proportionate for a legitimate purpose (Paragraph 33),
which encompasses the obligation of States to individualize and demonstrate how
a threat justifies an action.
● Regarding the subject matter for establishing restrictions, they could either be to:
○ (i) ensure the respect of the rights of others (Paragraph 28), or,
○ (ii) to protect national security or public order (Paragraph 29).
Limitative scope of restrictions on freedom of expression in certain specific areas
● Political Discourse
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 ○ It may be legitimate for a State party to restrict political polling
imminently preceding an election in order to maintain the integrity of the
electoral process.
○ Insulting a public figure in a public debate is not sufficient to justify the
imposition of penalties.
● Electronic information dissemination systems
○ Any restriction to its operation could only be permissible as long as they
are compatible with Article 19(3). Therefore, they should be only
content-specific and, cannot be overarching bans on the operations of
certain sites and systems or be ordered on the basis that they’re critical
to the government or their interests.
● Counter-terrorism measures
○ Such offences as “encouragement of terrorism”108 and “extremist
activity” as well as offences of “praising”, “glorifying”, or “justifying”
terrorism, should be clearly defined.
● Defamation laws
○ must be crafted with care to ensure that they comply with paragraph 3,
and that they do not serve, in practice, to stifle freedom of expression.
● Religion
○ Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief
system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the Covenant,
except in the specific circumstances envisaged in article 20, paragraph 2,
of the Covenant.
● Erroneous Opinion about Historical Facts
○ Laws that penalize the expression of opinions about historical facts are
incompatible with the obligations that the Covenant. The Covenant does
not permit general prohibition of expressions of an erroneous opinion or
an incorrect interpretation of past events.

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW | ATTY. POCO & ATTY. SEI | C2022. 2