Khodorkovsky to Appear at Oslo Freedom Forum
The Oslo Freedom Forum has announced that Russian political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky will join 25 other international human rights leaders to deliver a speech at this year’s conference, taking place in Norway from May 12-14.
Among the other featured guest speakers are Harvard neuroscientist Steven Pinker, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, American actor Jeffrey Wright, and iconic Turkish protestor Erdem Gunduz, among others.
The event marks the sixth annual conference held by OFF, and will bring together a diverse and global audience to share experiences and discuss how to best promote free and open societies.
“This year’s speakers are a testament to the astonishing diversity of individuals working to advance human rights and stand up to tyranny and corruption,” said HRF chairman Garry Kasparov. “Hackers, dissidents, philanthropists, protestors, artists, engineers, executives—are all uniting in one place for an immersive three-day brainstorming session.”
The 2014 lineup includes Norwegian foreign minister Børge Brende; Iranian hip-hop artist Shahin Najafi; Russian author Masha Gessen; Moroccan author and gay rights advocate Abdellah Taia; Silent Circle co-founder and encryption technologist Jon Callas; Mexican journalist Marcela Turati; Stanford political scientist Larry Diamond; North Korean defector Hyeonseo Lee; Tunisian democratic activist Amira Yahyaoui; and Danish journalist Flemming Rose. They will be joined by participants from China, Ecuador, The Gambia, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Ukraine.
OFF will feature three days of talks, debates, performances, and workshops on topics like personal security, crowd-funding, and viral video. Programming will pay special attention to the surveillance state and the criminalization of free speech as paramount challenges for today’s human rights community. The conference will close on Wednesday, May 14 at 4:00pm Central European Time with the presentation of the 2014 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
