Abstract The spread of disinformation has received significant attention in recent years, yet little has been paid to government disinformation, and whether governments may violate freedom of expression not only in how they regulate disinformation, but also in how they facilitate, sow and spread it. This article analyses whether and to what extent Article 10 of the ECHR is engaged by government disinformation. It extends the analysis from well-established violations of freedom of expression—overt censorship and withholding information—into novel forms of government interference in the ‘post-truth’ age: false claims of ‘fake news’ levelled at the press and intentional lies about matters of public importance. These latter categories warrant further attention, as governments can cause just as much harm to public discourse and debate by intentionally injecting falsehoods as by censoring truth. A purposive approach to freedom of expression is needed to protect not only the means of expression, but also the ends—vibrant democratic discourse and meaningful public debate.

中文翻译：

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修补匠、裁缝、推特、谎言：后真相时代的政府虚假信息和言论自由

摘要 虚假信息的传播近年来受到了广泛关注，但政府虚假信息却很少受到关注，以及政府是否可能侵犯言论自由，不仅体现在监管虚假信息的方式上，还体现在促进、传播和传播虚假信息的方式上。本文分析了《欧洲人权公约》第 10 条是否以及在何种程度上受到政府虚假信息的影响。它将分析从公认的对言论自由的侵犯——公开审查和隐瞒信息——扩展到“后真相”时代政府干预的新形式：针对媒体的“假新闻”的虚假声明和故意撒谎具有公共重要性的事项。后面的这些类别值得进一步关注，因为政府故意注入虚假信息和审查真相一样，会对公共话语和辩论造成同样大的伤害。表达自由需要一种有目的的方法，不仅要保护表达的手段，还要保护目标——充满活力的民主话语和有意义的公共辩论。