Speechbag by Liberties: Recent Episodes
Liberties
Speechbag is a podcast that focuses on human rights and democracy issues across Europe. It is brought to you by Liberties, an EU-wide civil liberties watchdog.
Nicholas Aiossa, Deputy Director of Transparency International – EU, discusses the bribery and money laundering scandal that’s shaken the European Parliament and how to clean up its ‘culture of impunity’.
Some 900,000 children born, raised and schooled in Italy are nevertheless denied Italian citizenship. They are denied recognition from the only home they’ve ever known. Why? Because their parents aren’t Italian.
The Speechbag podcast talked to Oiza Queens Day Obasuyi, a junior researcher and program assistant at the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights, about the push to reform Italy's citizenship law - and what the new right-wing government means for their campaign.
The internet is changing – for the better. Last week, the EU passed the Digital Services Act (DSA), landmark legislation to restore users’ rights and rein in the dangerous business practices of Big Tech.
The new rules will put you in charge of what you see and what you share. MEP Alexandra Geese and Eliska Pirkova of Access Now join the Speechbag podcast to discuss what the DSA means for you. The highlights: more safeguards for your data, limits on targeted advertising and so-called dark patterns, and clearer rules for removing illegal content.
The EU may be a beacon of democracy, but its laws are still being finalized in secretive meetings that are closed to the public. But they’re not closed to lobbyists, meaning Big Tech and others have the last word.
Guests:
European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly
Max Bank - LobbyControl
As the war in Ukraine and the results of the Hungarian elections make clear, the need to protect media freedom and the rule of law is at a critical juncture in Europe. Far from waning, authoritarian tendencies are becoming even stronger.
And, at the EU’s doorstep, we see with horror the consequences of unchecked authoritarianism.
German MEP Sergey Lagodinsky joins the Speechbag podcast to discuss concrete steps for protecting civil society and rule of law in Europe. And he speaks of the need for the EU to “de-Putinize” itself and stand united not only on sanctions but on the importance of strong democracies and free and plural societies.
“We should not forget that we have our own Putin, and we should not be feeding our own Putin in ourselves,” he tells Speechbag.
Many European countries have considered mandatory vaccination schemes, and some, like Austria, are pushing ahead with them.
That's brought protesters into the streets by the thousands. They claim mandatory vaccines violate human rights. But do human rights groups agree?
Orsolya Reich, a senior advocacy officer at Liberties, joins the Speechbag podcast to discuss why this is not necessarily a human rights issue.
To mark International Human Rights Day, held every 10th of December, Liberties is releasing a new guide to help progressive campaigners connect more effectively with the public using values-based framing. It offers a new approach to responding to negative press and smear campaigns, which is something quite handy for activists in Hungary. Marta Pardavi, the co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, discusses the current lay of the land in Hungary and how her organization is using values-based framing to grow support despite the constant attacks from the government.
It’s been three years since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, and yet the daily theft and abuse of internet users’ personal information continues. Will the EU finally take action against abusive online targeted advertising?Your location, religion, political convictions, even sexual orientation – it’s all information that online platforms like Facebook track about the users and then offer to advertisers. This allows them to create advertisements that are specifically targeting you, using information you never thought they could have.
And when it’s used for political parties, it can threaten our democracy and free and fair elections. By feeding people only information that will interest or even enrage them, they become tracked in echo chambers that prevent them from hearing opposing or alternative viewpoints. This makes people angrier, more polarized, and less informed. And we’ve seen the consequences of this on election day.
Member of the European Parliament Paul Tang of the Netherlands, Karolina Iwanska of the Panoptykon Foundation and Eva Simon from Liberties join the Speechbag podcast to discuss the threats of targeted advertising and what the EU could do about it.
What can we learn from Germany’s rush to create two coronavirus tracing apps? Quite a lot – but maybe not what you’d guess.
At first Germany was feted for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The first wave was weathered comparatively well, the government seemed to be acting fast and decisively, and the country’s contact tracing app, while far from perfect, was popular and privacy friendly.
That changed quickly. As the second wave got out of control, there was panic by the public and politicians. They look for a new panacea against the virus, endorsing yet another contact tracing app. But this one carried far more risks.
On this episode of SpeechBag, we talk to Christian Thoennes, the author of a new report on lessons learned from Germany’s developments of two contact tracing apps. Orsi Reich, a senior advocacy officer at Liberties, also joins to discuss how people and politicians alike reacted to the developments.
A “SLAPP” is a strategic lawsuit against public participation. The term refers to abusive legal actions whose point is not to genuinely assert a right, but to drain the resources, damage the reputation and destroy the personal lives of those they target. Businesses, politicians and public figures use their wealth and power to bring to court journalists, activists and rights defenders exposing harmful practices with cases they know they will not win, just to drag costly legal proceedings for years. Their objective is to silence them and scare off others from even trying to investigate and raise awareness on their wrongdoings.
In this episode our host Jonathan Day talks to Matthew Caruana Galizia, the son of the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia about the abusive lawsuits that made his mother life "impossible". Speechbag is joined by Liberties' advocacy expert Linda Ravo who talks about what the EU could do to defend activists and watchdogs from malicious lawsuits.
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An ongoing court case could upend discriminatory policing. Litigation Director at The Public Interest Litigation Project Jelle Klaas will unfold a developing story in the Netherlands.
Our Head Of Advocacy Israel Butler will join us discussing how to talk about ethnic profiling in a way that changes minds positively.
To help us – and our economies – get moving again, the EU has created the Digital COVID Certificate. Is it the one piece of gear you need to travel and enjoy a summer of sun and fun? Orsi Reich joins Speechbag to discuss the “green pass” – what it is, what it isn’t, and what threats it poses to our rights.
Israel Butler also joins the podcast to talk about how we communicate about the virus and vaccines. How do we get through to anti-vaxxers? Is there any value in myth-busting?