unfortunately he left the country for a visit tour that was not planned at the time we were organizing the conference but he very kindly  conference which as our friends will talk about is an attempt for all of us to understand how far we've gone in terms of bringing a global perspective to what has been eminently conceived as a national issue until internet but even with internet so we are gonna to the next session really try to share unfortunately i'm unable to be with you in person today because of international travel to participate in this important conference that provides always a unique opportunity to reflect on the state of freedom of expression juris prudence across the globe when we last met two years ago there were palpable concerns among us many of you here today were there about escalating challenges to freedom of expression something many of you were experiencing in your work as journalists advocates activists and scholars the concerns unfortunately proved well founded since then there have been major moves toward outright rejection of free speech values continued endemic and systematic repression in some regions and significant erosion of the ideal of global norms in others even so it would have been difficult then to anticipate how pervasive and politicized the issue of fake news would become particularly in the united states where historically our respect for first amendment speech and press freedoms and our ethos of journalistic independence and integrity have long stood above partisan politics neither could we have predicted that debates about whether facebook is the new public forum would turn to furor over its misuse of ostensibly private data and its failure to prevent the spread of misinformation at unprecedented speed and with nearly unlimited reach across its platform efforts emerging at a number of countries to address the spread of fake news over social media however have the potential to open up new avenues for censorship where laws and regulations designed to promote quote truth can also become yet another potent instrument to control journalistic freedom careful consideration vigilance is obviously required and transparency and accountability must be ensured as always too preserve that the bedrock conditions for functioning democracies are kept against this backdrop there is still reason to remain hopeful that the principles of freedom of expression will emerge from the current pressures exerted by populist nationalist and authoritarian forces as ever more robust global norms the judicial decisions highlighted in this year's nominations nominations for the global freedom of expression awards are a testament to the continued strength of the courts in many parts of the world in protecting freedom of expression jurisprudence and in some cases courts have ruled in ways that expand freedom of expression a truly notable achievement given the global regional and national context for instance courts have determined that criminal defamation is unconstitutional that a government cannot refuse to register lgbt advocacy groups as associations that there is a fundamental obligation to investigate thoroughly violence against journalists and that failure to do so is a violation of a right of free expression it is the remarkable work of lawyers national and international ngos and pro bono firms through their briefs and defense to enable the court's rulings by ensuring the progressive decisions and norms advanced in one jurisdiction get the attention they deserve in others many of the unsung heroes of this ongoing project developing global norms are in the room today i appreciate very much what all of you here today do to advocate and expand global norms champion the importance of independent and impartial judicial institutions and protect the freedom of expression principles that are foundational to any free society thank you for participating in this conference and contributing to the work of columbia global freedom of expression as always my thanks and congratulations to agns callamard i look forward to hearing about the discussions you have to and your recommendations for how best to respond to the many challenges we are confronting thank you