「言論自由」是基本人權的一環，但是在台灣，人們所享有的言論自由權利，其實並非自始已然。台灣在1949年至1987年間因國共內戰而實施戒嚴，在長達38年的戒嚴期間，許多人因言談或書信中不滿政府或批評元首，就動輒被視為「叛亂」、當成「匪諜」，或被交付感化，或遭判處重刑，甚至喪失寶貴生命。

這類因言論獲罪的人們分佈在各行各業，以軍公教人員最多，但更多是基層民眾，包括教師、學生、店員、遊民，甚至受刑人。在戒嚴時期家裡長輩經常訓誡孩子不要亂說話、不可以亂塗鴉，否則就會被警察抓走。人們也因此謹小慎微，唯恐一時語言或書寫的無心疏忽而被當成「叛亂犯」，這種寒蟬效應，是台灣五、六年級生記憶的一部份，正是戒嚴時期庶民生活的日常。由於這類案件當事人都非公眾人物，檔案也都分散在不同卷宗，儘管解嚴後學者陸續解讀檔案，但言論獲罪這個領域的研究仍然非常有限。

本展主要素材取自國家人權博物館的委託研究，由陳百齡、楊秀菁和黃順星等傳播和歷史學者，組成跨領域研究團隊，針對言論獲罪案件運用數位工具進行資料探勘，再從中整理上出千則「言論獲罪」個案調查分析。本展大多數素材都是首次對外公開的檔案史料，對瞭解台灣言論自由發展的歷史腳步，應該有所助益。

"Freedom of Speech" is a part of basic human rights, but during the period of martial law in Taiwan, there were more than thousand of imprisonment cases due to speech, text, or images. Under the " No right to free speech", many people were sentenced to death, life-imprisonment, limited length of prison term or reformatory education, for which creating a chilling effect on the entire population.

However, since the lifting of the martial law until today, the proportion of studies focusing on the “Freedom of Speech” cases were comparatively low. The reason is that for early reports concentrated mainly on cases which were highly attracting public attention, especially for those cases of well-known public figures or cases of large numbers of victims. However, majority of the people involved were mostly ordinary people, but due to the tendency of selective studies in the past, they were less studied, reported or even neglected.

Compiling the results of many years of hard work and research, this exhibition integrates digital and manual indexing methods to take a crucial step forward in investigating political cases involving free speech with the purpose of inspiring and promoting awareness on human rights and history.