In the course of the nineteenth century, the public sphere and freedom of expression featured prominently in political and cultural discourses in Northern Europe. Defined as the space where public opinion takes shape, the public sphere develops as a concept across Europe around the 1810s alongside discussions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press centering on the extent to which the press’s and the individual’s ability to spread information and express new ideas should be guaranteed by law (Hemstad and Michalsen 2019: 16). More recent debates following cases such as the _Jyllands-Posten_ Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005, the Charlie Hebdo case in 2011 and subsequent reactions following the shooting in 2015, the highly contentious publications by Milo Yiannopoulos and the spreading of concepts such as ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’, are only a handful of well-known examples demonstrating how these two topics continue to be of interest and relevance today. This special issue entitled _The Public Sphere and Freedom of Expression in Northern Europe 1814–1914_ discusses the origin and development of these important fields focusing on their formative period, while placing debates around them within a broader socio-cultural context and emphasising the importance of transnational and comparative approaches.