# Outreach Letter: Article 19

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** Article 19
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Freedom of Expression, Cultural Rights, and AI Governance

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Dear Article 19,

We write to you with profound respect for Article 19's global leadership in defending and promoting freedom of expression and information. Named for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article enshrining these fundamental freedoms, your organisation has been instrumental in protecting journalists, artists, and activists worldwide, challenging censorship, and ensuring that all people can freely seek, receive, and impart information.

## The Palimpsest License: Expression Freedom in the AI Era

The **Palimpsest License** addresses emerging threats to freedom of expression in the age of artificial intelligence: the unconsented extraction of creative works for AI training, the stripping of cultural and political context from expression, and the erosion of creator control over their own voice and message.

This is fundamentally a **freedom of expression issue**—when AI systems appropriate creative works without consent and generate derivatives without attribution or context, they undermine the expressive autonomy that Article 19 has long defended.

## Why This Matters to Article 19's Mission

### 1. Expressive Autonomy and Consent
Freedom of expression includes the right to:
- **Control one's creative voice** – Deciding how expression is used and transformed
- **Maintain message integrity** – Preventing distortion of intended meaning
- **Preserve context** – Ensuring expression retains its cultural, political, historical grounding
- **Determine attribution** – Controlling how one is credited for expression

AI training threatens these freedoms by:
- Extracting expression without creator consent
- Generating derivatives that distort original meaning
- Stripping political and cultural context
- Erasing or obscuring attribution

### 2. Cultural Expression and Minority Rights
Article 19 recognises that freedom of expression must protect:
- **Cultural minorities** – Whose expression reflects distinct cultural practices
- **Indigenous peoples** – Whose creative works embody cultural heritage and knowledge systems
- **Linguistic minorities** – Whose expression in minority languages deserves protection
- **Diaspora communities** – Whose narratives reflect displacement and cultural persistence

AI training often:
- Appropriates minority cultural expression without community consent
- Strips cultural context from indigenous narratives
- Homogenises linguistic diversity
- Commodifies diaspora stories without community benefit

### 3. Political Expression and Dissent
Article 19 defends political expression, including:
- **Protest art and music** – Creative works expressing political resistance
- **Satirical and critical expression** – Humour and critique challenging power
- **Testimony and witness narratives** – First-person accounts of injustice
- **Underground and censored works** – Expression suppressed by authoritarian regimes

When AI trains on political expression:
- **Context is lost** – Protest songs become "folk music" stripped of resistance meaning
- **Risk is erased** – Censored works are commodified without acknowledging author danger
- **Meaning is flattened** – Satire becomes "humorous content" without critical edge
- **Communities are exploited** – Resistance narratives fuel AI without supporting movements

### 4. Journalists and Documentary Makers
Article 19's work protecting journalists extends to AI-era concerns:
- **Investigative reporting** used to train AI without attribution or compensation
- **Conflict zone documentation** extracted without journalist consent or safety consideration
- **Source protection** potentially compromised by AI pattern analysis
- **Editorial independence** undermined when AI-generated journalism mimics human reporting

## How Palimpsest Protects Expression Freedom

### 1. Informed Consent as Expression Control
Creators explicitly decide whether their expression can be used to train AI systems—parallel to Article 19's defence of individual control over one's own expression.

### 2. Political and Cultural Context Preservation
Palimpsest mandates preservation of:
- **Political context** – The circumstances that shaped expression (e.g., authoritarian censorship, protest movements)
- **Cultural meaning** – Community origin, symbolic significance, emotional resonance
- **Historical grounding** – Temporal and spatial context essential to meaning
- **Creator intent** – The purpose and message behind expression

### 3. Attribution and Voice Protection
Requires:
- **Creator attribution** in AI-generated derivatives
- **Community acknowledgement** for collectively-held expression
- **Pseudonym protection** where necessary for safety
- **Style credit** when AI mimics distinctive voices

### 4. Collective Expression Rights
Supports:
- **Community governance** of collectively-created expression (protest movements, indigenous narratives)
- **Solidarity licensing** enabling mutual support among creators facing suppression
- **Cultural heritage protections** for expression tied to specific communities
- **Collective bargaining** for marginalised creator groups

## Global South and Marginalised Communities

Article 19 works globally, particularly supporting expression rights in the Global South. AI training raises critical justice issues:

### 1. Extraction Without Benefit
**Pattern:** Global North AI companies train on Global South creative expression—literature, music, visual art, oral traditions—without:
- Consent from creators or communities
- Compensation or revenue sharing
- Attribution or cultural context preservation
- Benefit to local creative economies

**Parallel:** Data colonialism—extracting value from Global South whilst benefits accrue to Global North corporations.

### 2. Cultural Appropriation at Scale
**Examples:**
- African oral traditions extracted to train "storytelling AI"
- Latin American magical realism used without author consent
- Asian cultural narratives commodified by Western AI companies
- Indigenous knowledge systems appropriated without community permission

**Palimpsest response:** Collective consent mechanisms, cultural context requirements, revenue sharing frameworks.

### 3. Language and Linguistic Justice
**Challenges:**
- Minority language content extracted without community consultation
- Endangered languages' limited corpora used without cultural safeguards
- Code-switching and multilingual expression homogenised
- Postcolonial literatures stripped of linguistic innovation

**Palimpsest response:** Linguistic community consent, cultural context preservation, support for collective language governance.

## Legal Framework and Global Accessibility

Palimpsest operates under:
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (European human rights framework)
- **Enforcement:** Scottish courts + international arbitration (UNCITRAL)
- **Bilingual:** Dutch + English (with provisions for minority language protections)
- **Global accessibility:** Open documentation, plain language guides, diverse format availability

Designed to be:
- **Symbolically meaningful** even where enforcement is limited
- **Culturally adaptable** to diverse legal and cultural contexts
- **Community-governable** enabling local adaptation
- **Solidarity-oriented** supporting collective action across borders

## Proposed Collaboration with Article 19

### 1. Freedom of Expression Advocacy
Collaborating on:
- **UN Special Rapporteur** engagement on AI and expression rights
- **UNESCO** cultural diversity and AI governance
- **International standards** for AI training consent and attribution
- **Regional human rights bodies** (African Commission, Inter-American Commission, etc.)

### 2. AI Governance and Human Rights
Working together on:
- **Human rights impact assessments** for generative AI systems
- **Expression rights** in AI regulation (EU AI Act, national frameworks)
- **Cultural rights** and AI training (UN Cultural Rights mandate)
- **Indigenous rights** and digital technologies (UNDRIP implementation)

### 3. Global South Creator Rights
Developing:
- **Capacity building** for Global South creators and cultural organisations
- **Model legislation** for AI training consent and cultural protection
- **Collective licensing frameworks** for marginalised creator communities
- **Cross-border enforcement** strategies and solidarity networks

### 4. Journalists and Documentary Makers
Supporting:
- **Journalist AI rights education** globally
- **Source protection** in AI training contexts
- **Conflict zone documentation** ethical frameworks
- **Investigative journalism** protection from AI commodification

### 5. Cultural Heritage and Minority Rights
Exploring:
- **Indigenous cultural expression** protection from AI extraction
- **Minority language** AI training ethics and community consent
- **Oral tradition** safeguards in digital environments
- **Cultural heritage institutions** navigating AI governance

## Case Studies Relevant to Article 19

### Protest Music and Resistance Narratives
**Scenario:** Protest songs from South African anti-apartheid movement, Chilean resistance, or Arab Spring are used to train "political music" AI without activist consent or historical context.

**Expression freedom concern:** Resistance narratives commodified, political context erased.
**Palimpsest protection:** Political context preservation, creator/movement consent requirements.

### Censored Literature
**Scenario:** Works banned in China, Iran, or Russia are extracted for AI training without exiled author consent, potentially revealing stylistic patterns that compromise safety.

**Expression freedom concern:** Censored expression exploited, author safety potentially compromised.
**Palimpsest protection:** Pseudonym protection, consent mechanisms accounting for safety risks.

### Indigenous Storytelling
**Scenario:** Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime stories, Native American oral traditions, or Andean mythologies are used to train AI storytelling systems without community permission.

**Expression freedom concern:** Cultural appropriation, community cultural sovereignty violated.
**Palimpsest protection:** Collective indigenous community consent, cultural heritage safeguards.

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with Article 19 to:

1. **Contribute to Article 19 research and advocacy** – AI, expression rights, cultural rights
2. **Develop educational resources** – Global creator rights in AI era
3. **Support regional initiatives** – Particularly Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America
4. **Coordinate international advocacy** – UN, UNESCO, regional human rights bodies
5. **Build solidarity networks** – Connecting creators facing AI exploitation globally

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We are flexible regarding format—video conference, written exchange, or participation in relevant Article 19 working groups or regional programmes.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. Article 19 has demonstrated that freedom of expression requires both defending individual rights and protecting collective cultural expression. We aspire to extend those principles to the AI era, ensuring creative expression retains its context, meaning, and connection to the communities and movements it serves.

In solidarity for freedom of expression worldwide,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

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## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- Human rights impact assessment framework
- Indigenous rights and cultural heritage protections
- Global South case studies and solidarity licensing
- Political expression and context preservation mechanisms
- International enforcement and cross-border cooperation strategies
