Copenhagen Summit on Artistic Freedom of Expression

The ‘Copenhagen Summit on Artistic Freedom of Expression – Artsfex’ is scheduled to take place on 9-11 December 2011. It is organised by Freemuse, in collaboration with Danish PEN. Artistic freedom must be protected. In collaboration with Danish Pen, Freemuse is inviting key international artists’ organisations to Copenhagen with the aim of creating a global network for the protection of artistic freedom of expression. “We are organizing a meeting in Copenhagen which we hope can provide the basis for establishing an ‘Artsfex’ in defense of the artistic freedom of expression, in a similar way as the media organisations have gathered themselves in an IFEX network,” said Ole Reitov, Project Manager at Freemuse. The ‘Copenhagen Summit on Artistic Freedom of Expression – Artsfex’ is scheduled to take place on 9-11 December 2011. The summit is made possible through a £30,000 (DKK 250,000) grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture. The organizers, Freemuse and Danish PEN, have invited a number of persecuted artists and free speech organisations. They expect key people from networks representing more than 600 international artists, cultural and free speech organisations to attend the meeting. Also, a public meeting will be held where senior representatives of the artist and free speech organisations and artists who have been subjected to censorship and persecution, will talk about censorship mechanisms and effects. “Leading international human rights reports are primarily focussing on media when they describe violations of freedom of expression. Unfortunately, many donor organisations and human rights organisations neglect the importance of protecting artists. We hope that arts organisations in collaboration with Freedom of Expression organisations such as Freemuse and PEN will succeed in creating larger attention and support to the protection of artistic freedom of expression,” says Ole Reitov. Read more about the global network for artistic freedom of expression Read more about the International Coalition for Arts, Human Rights and Social Justice