WEXFO
Board
Mads Nygaard
Chair of World Expression Forum
Publisher and president of Aschehoug. Twenty years of experience in the publishing industry. Former CEO and vice president of two newspaper/media companies; Dagsavisen and Avishuset Dagbladet. Board member of The Norwegian Publishers Association and a number of other companies.
Anne Bergman
Board member
Director of The Federation of European Publishers since 2004, based in Brussels. Bergman holds a Master in Medieval History, and has served on the board of Europeana.eu, EU’s digital portal for common European cultural heritage, as well as for the European Internet Forum.
Marit Borkenhagen
board member
Managing director, The Norwegian Festival of Literature. Member of the Board of Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), ANNO Museums in Hedmark, the Sigrid Undset Society, Lillehammer UNESCO City of Literature, Lillehammer Literature House, Gunnar Bjerkes Kulturfond and member of the Adjudication Committee for the Bjørnson Prize. Head of network of Norwegian Literature Festivals. Former head of information in The Norwegian Book Club. Master of Literature (UiO).
Celina Jerman Bright-Taylor
board member
Background in international relations and international law. She has studied and worked with human rights issues in several countries, but has in the last years been working in civil society organizations in Norway like NOAS, FIVAS and the Norwegian Council for Africa. She has been especially involved in the work with corporate social responsibility. She currently works as an advisor at Safemuse – Safe Havens for Artists, and is the leader of the human rights organization FIVAS.
Margit Ketterle
Board member
Editorial Director for non-fiction at Verlagsgruppe Droemer Knaur. Chairs the Foundation of Freedom of Expression in the German publishers’ and booksellers’ association (Börsenverein).
Felicia Anthonio
board member
Felicia Anthonio is #KeepItOn Campaign Manager at Access Now, a global campaign of over 300 organizations that fights against internet shutdowns. She has authored and co-authored several publications on internet shutdowns featured on Access Now, Yale University, CIPESA and Bloomsbury Collections websites. Felicia hosted The Kill Switch podcast and was featured on The Shutdown documentary by BBC World Service. Felicia is an Advisory Council member of the US-based Open Technology Fund’s (OTF) and a Board member as well as Programme committee member of the World Expression Forum (WEXFO), in Norway. Before joining Access Now, Felicia worked as Programme Associate, press freedom and free speech advocate, at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) where she coordinated the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX). She is a member of the African Digital Rights Network and a 2019 Fellow of the African Internet Governance School (AfriSIG). She holds a Master’s Degree in Lettres, Langues et Affaires Internationales from l’ Université d’Orléans, France and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French and Psychology from the University of Ghana.
Trine Skei Grande
board member
CEO at Norwegian Publishers Association. Former Minister of Culture and Equality, Minister of Education and Integration and Deputy Prime Minister in Norway. Parliamentary leader and parliamentary representative in 2001-2021 for Venstre (The Liberal Party). Former Vice Mayor and City Councelor in Oslo.
Aage Borchgrevink
board member
Head of Center for International Justice at The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Oslo. Chair of the Board of the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers’ and Translators’ Association (NFFO). Member of the board of Truth Hounds (Ukraine). Freelance journalist and columnist. Writer of fiction and non-fiction. Received the Norwegian PENs Ossietzky Prize for defending freedom of expression (2004), and The Norwegian Critics’ Prize for Non-Fiction for En norsk tragedie/A Norwegian Tragedy; Anders Behring Breivik and the Massacre on Utøya (Gyldendal 2012; English edition, Polity 2013).
Elisabeth O. Sjaastad
board member
Film and theatre director educated at Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama (1998-2000), Promotion manager Virgin Records/EMI 2000-2002. Amanda nominated for the documentary film “Shiny Stars, Rusty Red” (2003) about freedom of expression in China.
Vice President of Norwegian Filmmakers’ Association 2005-2010, CEO FERA (Federation of European Film Directors) in Brussels 2009-2014. Founding partner and head of project for the independent Norwegian streaming service Nettkino in cooperation with Kulturmeglerne funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Creative Europe 2015-2020. President of Norwegian Filmmakers’ Association 2020-present
Fatemeh Ekhtesari
board member
Fatemeh Ekhtesari is an Iranian poet, editor, human rights activist and midwife. She is part of the Iranian literary movement “Postmodern Ghazal”, seen as the most radical poetic movement in contemporary Iran, and has been chief editor of several literary magazines. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction writing explore issues of sexuality, religion, and gender, and the struggle for women’s rights.
José Borghino
board member
Secretary general of the International Publishers Association, Geneva, since September 2015. He joined the IPA as policy director in 2013, and was in charge of policy development, organizing the Prix Voltaire (IPA’s Freedom to Publish Prize), and managing the IPA’s activities in the educational publishing sector, including the annual What Works? conference and the Educational Publishers Forum. Before joining the IPA, he was manager, Industry Representation at the Australian Publishers Association. Has been executive director of the Australian Society of Authors, a lecturer in literary journalism and creative industries at the University of Sydney, and editor of the online news magazine NewMatilda.com. He held senior positions at the Literature Board of the Australia Council and was the founding editor of EDITIONSReview.
Anne Holt
board member
Author and lawyer. Minister of Justice 1996-1997, lawyer 1992-1996, Junior Police Prosecutor, Oslo, 1988-1990, journalist and host NRK Television 1984-1988 and 1990-1992. Chair of JURK, legal advice for women. Education: Master of Law 1986.
Helje Solberg
Board member
Head of News division at NRK, Norwegian Broadcasting. Chair of the board at Faktisk (Norwegian fact checking organization). Previous vice president of World Editors’ Forum.
Khin Thandar Htay
Board member
Thandar is a marketing and communications professional who previously led a commercial team of one of the leading media in Myanmar, Frontier Myanmar. In parallel, she also led the Black Knight Marketing and Communication Agency, a sister company of Frontier Myanmar, in collaborating with several top international clients in Myanmar. Thandar currently leads the programmes and activities for WAN-IFRA Women In News in Southeast Asia as Director for the region. The World Association of News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, is the global organisation of the world’s press with the mission to protect the rights of journalists and publishers worldwide to operate independent media.