KEY MESSAGES

• Recognition and protection of artistic freedom is germane not only to the being and creative practice of artists themselves but also to the rights of all cultural producers.
• Fundamental freedoms are an essential ingredient of the wellbeing of citizens and societies, in the dynamics of social development and for the stability of the arts and cultural and creative industries sectors. 
• Restrictions to artistic freedom and access to artistic expressions generate important cultural, social and economic losses, deprive artists of their means of expression and livelihood, and create an unsafe environment for all those engaged in the arts and their audiences. 
• In 2014, Freemuse registered 237 attacks on artistic expression. However, threats to artistic freedom are under-reported in comparison to threats to journalists and other media professionals. This leads to a limited picture of the true scale of the challenge to creative free expression, in particular the physical threat to socially engaged artists and practitioners.