Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

from opposition and civil society with violence in the aftermath of peaceful elections in 2018, and
with a series of extremely violent crackdowns on protestors and internet shutdowns in January 2019.
In El Salvador, the ownership of the majority of media platforms and channels lies in the hands of a
very small elite. Combined with physical and verbal aggression and intimidation against journalists,
this effectively puts in place self-censorship mechanisms. Likewise, in Honduras journalists often
face criminal prosecution for defamation and libel, which has a chilling effect on other journalists.
Violent dispersion of peaceful protests by civil society have also deterred people in Kenya from
exercising their freedom of assembly. In a number of European countries, activists and CSO staff
defending minority group rights – particularly Roma and LGBTQI rights – have faced physical attacks
and disruptions of their meetings. 39
Another powerful political strategy to clamp down on CSOs is through smear campaigns and hateful
narratives against civil society, as exemplified by the Kenyan case described above. This includes but
goes beyond the adoption of “foreign agents” laws, as described above. For instance, a proposal for
an own-initiative report by a German Christian Democrat Member of the European Parliament has
called for much more monitoring and restrictions on NGOs receiving EU funding, castigating NGOs as
unaccountable lobbyists abusing EU funding. 40 While this was not passed, it amplified anti-pluralist
narratives that denounce civil society as unaccountable lobbyists that do not serve the public
interest.
More widely across Europe, civil society’s response to the refugee humanitarian crisis has been met
with hateful rhetoric and even criminal persecution of CSOs and volunteers. CSOs have been accused
by far-right politicians for supporting human smugglers, for instance, and some humanitarian actors
have been charged for rescuing people in the Mediterranean. This has gone hand in hand with a shift
in attitudes on NGOs and CSOs engaging with migrants and refugees. 41
The smear-campaign against foreign-funded NGOs and against George Soros in Hungary are
illustrative of the power of anti-CSO narratives in shrinking democratic space. In addition to a foreign
agents CSO law, billboards disparaging George Soros were set up all over Hungary. The smear
campaign paved the way for the closure of the Soros-founded Central European University through
the amendment of the higher education law targeting foreign universities. 42
39
EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (2018): Challenges facing civil society working on human rights in the EU. Available
here.
40
European Parliament (2017): Draft report on budgetary control of financing NGOs from the EU budget(2015/2345(INI)).
Available here.
41
Vosyliute, L. & Conte, C. (2019) : Crackdown on NGOs and volunteers helping refugees and other migrants. Available here.
42
Fee, S. (2018): Hungary’s Anti-George Soros Campaign Is A Cautionary Tale For The U.S. Available here.
18