During 2007, The Nobel Peace Center produced an exhibit about freedom of expression, called “Freedom of Expression — How Free is Free?”. This exhibit featured all aspects of freedom of expression, including whistle blowing, revelation of military secrets, religion, human rights activists, hate speech, and the freedom of cultural expression such as literature, films, pop culture, and of course music. In our work with this exhibit, we benefited from invaluable help and assistance from Freemuse. They provided both cases and texts for the exhibition, and have thus been a very important collaborating partner for the Nobel Peace Center in 2007.
Because we see freedom of musical expressions as so inherently important, in 2008 the Nobel Peace Center in collaboration with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and Concerts Norway (Rikskonsertene) organized a seminar on March 3, the day known as Music Freedom Day. Music Freedom Day was established in 2006 by Freemuse. In this project as well, Freemuse played a very important part in providing input and information about the current situation for musical freedom of expression, and direction as to which are the most important challenges we face today in this important field of human rights work. The seminar featured international artists such as Kris Kristofferson, Ferhat Tunç, Chiwoniso Maraire and Mari Boine. Freemuse also handed out the very first Freemuse Award at the seminar. The Award was given to reggae performer Tiken Jah Fakoly from the Ivory Coast.
The Nobel Peace Center sees the freedom of musical expressions as an extremely important human right, and we are concerned about the situation for musicians and composers today. The Nobel Peace Center recognizes the important role Freemuse as an organisation plays internationally in the fight for freedom for musical expressions, and we are very grateful for their work. We look forward to continuing this important collaboration with Freemuse in the years to come.
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