Ford grantmaking has emphasized the interdependence of expressive freedoms and human dignity since the inaugural Foundation mission statements of the 1950s. Support for freedom of expression, both as a set of concrete rights and as a broader commitment to a rich, diverse, and participatory public sphere, has been among the Foundation’s most central and enduring commitments.  Because freedom of expression is fundamentally an enabler of other rights—political, economic, and cultural—it is likely to remain so.

This report is conceived as both an introduction to the contemporary ‘freedom of expression’ (FOE) landscape and as an account of recent Ford grantmaking within it. This discussion falls into three sections:

Part I provides an introduction to traditional and emerging challenges for FOE, including brief accounts of the major concepts and instruments of traditional rights discourse, the converging policy venues that increasingly shape expression, the challenges of media policy and intellectual property rights, and the diverse donor and civil society participants in this sector.

Part II documents Ford grantmaking history in this area, with a focus on three distinct types of intervention into the public sphere: Media Institutions, Civil Society, and Democratic Participation and Inclusion. This section also identifies a fourth, cross-cutting set of concerns with digital technologies.

Part III provides a brief set of conclusions and possible avenues for the further development and consolidation of FOE work at Ford.