SPECIAL COLLECTION OF THE CASE LAW ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION of Ministers, may impose restrictions only in response to a pressing matter of public interest, if they are defined as narrowly as possible to meet the public interest and include proportionate sanctions. 86 Below we discuss the position of intergovernmental institutions as to the relevance of perhaps the most popular reasons for internet shutdowns that relate to protection of national security and public order. Those reasons are: introduction of emergency laws, dissemination of online disinformation, and propaganda for war or to prevent or mitigate cyberattacks from abroad. States of emergency. Internet shutdowns often occur when States declare a state of emergency or martial law. Indeed, according to the ICCPR (art. 4), in times of public emergency that threaten the life of the country and its existence, officially and lawfully proclaimed in accordance with both national and international law, a state may impose restrictions on freedom of expression and information but only to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation and only when and for so long as they are not inconsistent with the government’s other obligations under international law. In this context, it is notable that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) takes as one of its political commitments an “endeavor to maintain freedom of expression and freedom of information” during states of emergency, “with a view to enabling public discussion on the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as on the lifting of the state of public emergency.” 87 As a state of emergency is often introduced to prevent street violence, it is worthwhile to say that the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information provide that the protection of national security cannot be used to justify restrictions on the right to freedom of expression unless the Government can demonstrate that the expression is intended to incite imminent violence, that it is likely to incite such violence and that there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence.88 Disinformation. While the UN Special Rapporteur agreed that “[l]aws and policies addressing hate speech or online disinformation should be in place”, he noted that “these laws cannot justify internet shutdowns, which are disproportionate by default, and should strictly adhere to international human rights principles and standards, including those concerning the right to freedom of expression.” 89 Indeed, 86 Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)5[1] of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member States on Internet freedom (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 April 2016 at the 1253rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies), para 2.4.3, https://search.coe.int/cm/ Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=09000016806415fa 87 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), Document of the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (1991), Para 28.9, https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14310. 88 Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (1995). They were endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, in his reports to the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001 sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights — and referred to by the Commission in their annual resolutions on freedom of expression since 1996. 89 Ending Internet shutdowns: a path forward. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 15 June 2021, A/HRC/47/24/Add.2, para 44, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/ doc/UNDOC/GEN/G21/149/66/PDF/G2114966.pdf?OpenElement. See also: Report on online hate speech by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, 9 October 2019, A/74/486, Para 29, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a74486-report-online-hate-speech. 21