Documenting the threats
to artistic freedom in Europe
A real-time database of AI-generated content abuse, censorship, contract violations and chilling effects targeting screenwriters and creative professionals across Europe.
Submit an incident
Have you encountered a piece of content — an article, a script, a film treatment — that you believe was generated or significantly assisted by AI without disclosure? Or witnessed censorship, contract abuse, or a rights violation targeting a creative professional? Submit it here for FSE analysis.
Declare a chilling effect
A chilling effect is when the fear of reprisal, legal action, or professional exclusion causes a writer to self-censor — to abandon a project, soften a message, or refuse a commission. These invisible pressures are as damaging as overt censorship. Declare yours anonymously.
Threat level by country
Geographic distribution of documented incidents across 32 European countries.
Most frequent methods
How rights are being violated — ranked by frequency across all validated submissions.
No validated submissions yet — be the first to document an incident.
About this observatory
The Right to Write European Observatory is an initiative of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE). It was established to systematically document, verify and publish evidence of threats to the creative rights of screenwriters and audiovisual authors across Europe.
The observatory focuses on three interconnected crisis areas: the undisclosed use of generative AI to replace human creative work, the erosion of contractual rights through unilateral AI clauses, and the chilling effects that cause writers to self-censor in anticipation of reprisal.
All submissions are reviewed by FSE member guilds before publication. The AI analysis pipeline provides an initial assessment; final validation is always human-led.
The Right to Write Report
This observatory was created in response to the findings of the FSE's Right to Write report, which documented widespread and accelerating encroachments on screenwriters' authorship rights across Europe in the context of generative AI deployment by studios, broadcasters and streaming platforms.
The report identified a critical gap in data: while individual cases were reported anecdotally, no systematic, cross-border database existed to demonstrate the scale and pattern of these violations.
Download the report →