![Press freedom demonstration on Zurich’s Münsterhof on 8 August 1980, photograph by Gertrud Vogler.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kundgebung-1-1-300x225.jpg)
The right to a free press, free speech and artistic expression
Freedom of expression is sometimes described as oxygen to democracy. Freedom of the press has been enshrined in the Federal Constitution since 1848. However, the right to free speech and artistic expression were only recognised as fundamental rights in the 20th century.
![As opposed to other fundamental rights, freedom of the press was enshrined in the Federal Constitution as early as 1848, thus abolishing censorship. To the libertarian ‘founding fathers’ it was important that citizens could form their own opinions about political matters. Censored section in the Schweizer Bote, 1825.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/schweizer-bote-225x300.jpg)
![Ferdinand Hodler’s painting Night was presented at the opening of a municipal exhibition in Geneva in 1891. The Geneva City Council subsequently had the painting removed from the exhibition on “the grounds of protecting public morality”.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/hodler-300x115.jpg)
![According to the poster, the painting by Hodler that was removed from the exhibition could be seen elsewhere for one Swiss franc.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/la-nuit-225x300.jpg)
![Cinemas in the cantons were in some cases still subject to strict censorship until the 1970s. The screening of the film Pink Flamingos was banned in the canton of Zurich in 1974 in response to a complaint by someone who had only read a write-up of the film. Poster for the film Pink Flamingos by John Waters, 1972.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/flamingos-225x300.jpg)
![Besides the explicit depictions of sex, this painting was described as obscene material due to the image of Jesus being removed from the Cross. The Fribourg government seized all three paintings in this series by Josef Felix Müller in 1981. To have them returned, the artist took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Shortly before the judgment was served, the paintings were returned. Switzerland therefore narrowly escaped a conviction.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/mueller-300x225.jpg)
Every person has the right freely to form, express, and impart their opinions.