Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties and recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, will speak at the World Expression Forum in Lillehammer on June 2-3.
Matviichuk will talk about how she and the organization she leads work for freedom of expression and against authoritarian forces. Among other things, she is focused on countering disinformation and societal division:
“Internet and social media are overloaded with fakes and disinformation. People are losing their ability to distinguish between truth and lies. Now, even residents of a small community have no shared reality. Without a shared reality, there is no common action. Without common action, we can lose our freedom and democracy,” Matviichuk stated in a comment to the World Expression Forum.
Matviichuk and the Center for Civil Liberties are not the only Nobel Peace Prize winners coming to Lillehammer and the World Expression Forum in June. It has previously been announced that Maria Ressa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, will also speak at the conference.
Having participated in the World Expression Forum in both 2022 and 2023, Matviichuk is returning to WEXFO for the third time.
Among the speakers at this year’s World Expression Forum are also Charlie Hebdo editor Gérard Biard, lawyer and feminist Seyran Ates, filmmaker Deeyah Khan, and Norway’s Minister of Culture and Equality, Lubna Jaffery. The conference is led by Norwegian journalists Jette F. Christensen (Altinget) and Kadafi Zaman (TV 2).
The World Expression Forum (WEXFO) is a meeting place and driver for global cooperation to ensure freedom of expression for future generations. WEXFO organizes an annual global conference on freedom of expression that takes place in Lillehammer in May/June. The conference gathers experts, activists, journalists, and academics from around the world. In connection with the conference, WEXFO also organizes a youth freedom of expression festival and week-long seminars on freedom of expression in Lillehammer and Utøya for young and international freedom of expression advocates.
Photo: Olena Vedmid
