From an American perspective they certainly are, but I realize we're the odd ones out here with extremely strong 1st amendment protections.

Freedom of speech is just as prominent in many other places, such as the Netherlands.

I could believe that, I know very little about NL law. Is there anything in the Netherlands comparable to the US Sullivan rule?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

One this count, it does seem like the rest of the world is correct, even Canada has much stronger laws against libel and defamation and there’s no real pressure to make then weaker.