When the headlines are bleak, crises appear to mount day after day, and the harsh realities of the world we live in are too much to bear, humour can offer a much-needed escape. At the very least, it can challenge what we think and feel and spark vital debate that can fuel movements for change.
Yet governments across the globe use restrictive laws to curtail free speech and silence criticism – and satire is often in their crosshairs.
Take Kazakhstan, where Temirlan Yensebek, the founder of the satirical site Qaznews24, faces charges of incitement to ethnic hatred for sharing satirical content. The blogger remains in pretrial detention and faces up to seven years in prison. It isn't the first time he's been targeted: In 2021, he was accused of spreading false information after joking that the former president had been granted the status of God.
Investigative journalist Baransel Ağca is being tried in absentia in Turkey for ‘publicly degrading the religious values of a section of the public’ for a tweet mocking the history of the prohibition of alcohol in Islam. In the United Kingdom, Marieha Hussain faced prosecution for ‘racially aggravated public offence’ over a protest placard that mocked leading politicians, though she has now been acquitted.
In fact, satire has long been used at protests as a powerful tool for demanding change. That’s why women in Poland marched with banners reading ‘I wish I could abort my government’ in defiance of draconian anti-abortion laws, and why young climate activists held placards stating ‘The wrong Amazon is burning’.
International laws and standards protect the right to satire and humour, even when they offend, disturb, or shock. The law safeguards individuals – not abstract concepts like religions or belief. So criminal prosecutions are always a disproportionate means of limiting free speech.
Through mockery, irony, and exaggeration, satire can expose hypocrisy, injustice, and abuses of power in a more effective – and often more compelling – way than conventional forms of speech.
Politicians and law enforcement agencies must never target or punish citizens for using humour to express their views.
Decision-makers around the world must respect international freedom of expression standards – and maybe, just maybe, learn to smile a little more.
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