Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel Chapter 6: Freedom of Expression Introduction: Issues at Stake In principle and practice, armed forces personnel, as “citizens in uniform”, enjoy the same fundamental rights as citizens. In many states, however, armed forces consider restrictions on service personnel’s freedom of speech to be necessary, in part because of the need for them to be seen as politically neutral, and also to prevent dissent and insubordination. Moreover, in certain situations, including operational deployments, special restrictions will be necessary in order to maintain the security of operations and to protect the right to life of armed forces personnel. This chapter begins with a general discussion on freedom of expression in the military. It then addresses specific topics of concern, including the use of mobile phones and social media, as well as whistleblowing. The requirements of international human rights law on the right of freedom of expression and limitations upon the right are then examined. The chapter concludes by presenting the approaches of different OSCE participating States to these questions. Freedom of expression is a valuable form of self-expression that enables service personnel to make their opinions known. In a military context, freedom of expression may be relevant in various forms. These range from issuing communications complaining about conditions of service and publishing barracks newsletters, to maintaining blogs and using social media, as well as expressing public dissent about military orders, voicing criticism in the media and whistleblowing about human rights abuses or illegal activities. Respecting and protecting each individual’s right to exercise their freedom of expression is fundamental to the well-being of democratic societies. It is also closely connected to other human rights concerns, and is integral to, for example, the ability to exercise the civil and political rights addressed in “Chapter 5: Civil and Political Rights” and the right to freedom of religion or belief discussed in “Chapter 9: Religion in the Armed Forces”. Moreover, the exercise of this right is also closely tied to the possibility to report any illegal malpractice, misconduct, ill-treatment or human rights abuses committed in the armed forces. This latter aspect is all the more important owing to the traditionally barracked environment of the armed forces, in which such abuses are more likely to be shielded from public view and secrecy can lead to a culture of impunity. In a number of OSCE participating States, armed forces personnel have the right to submit petitions and complaints to public and state institutions, such as ombuds institutions and human rights commissions. Some countries (such as Armenia) provide dedicated hotlines to enable reporting of this kind. Individual freedom of expression is also closely linked to freedom of the media. In principle, there is a distinction between a member of the armed forces expressing their own opinion as a private person and as a representative of the state. In the former situation, they are 90