Congratulations to the winners of the Fritt Ord and ZEIT-Stiftungs Eastern Europe Press Prizes

June 24 2015

The Fritt Ord Prize: Free Press Russia and the Gerd Bucerius Prize: Free Press Eastern Europe were awarded on Wednesday 24 June 2015 at noon at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

The prize laureates are the weekly newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya and editor Galina Timchenko from Russia, the news agency Slidstvo.Info and the journalists Serhiy Harmash and Valentyna Samar from Ukraine, along with the online news medium Netgazeti from Georgia.

Read more about the laureates here.

Speakers and musical perfromaces, in chronological order:

Improvisation: “Song of India”
from the opera Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov

Welcome (pdf), by Sigrun Slapgard, Foreign Reporter and Member of the Board of Trustees, Fritt Ord Foundation

Speech of congratulations to the prize laureates (pdf), by Morten Høglund, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A never-ending challenge? Speech by Manfred Lahnstein, Professor and Chair of the Board of Trustees, ZEIT-Stiftung

“En fermant les yeux”
from the opera Manon by Massenet

Address on behalf of the jury (pdf), by Theo Sommer, Chair of the Jury

Speeches on behalf of the Laureates,


“Marechiare”
by F.P. Tosti

Musicians:
Håkon Kornstad (saxophone, vocals)
Frode Haltli (accordion)
Mats Eilertsen (double bass)

News

The Fritt Ord Foundation Prize for 2025 goes to satirical artists May Linn Clement, Marvin Halleraker and Morten Mørland

April 29 2025

The Fritt Ord Foundation Prize for 2025 is awarded to three representatives of Norwegian satirical art for challenging public opinion by standing up to power and for their biting humour: May Linn Clement, Marvin Halleraker and Morten Mørland.

Call for nominations: Free Media Awards 2025

March 14 2025

In collaboration with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS of Hamburg, the Fritt Ord Foundation has allocated the Free Media Awards annually since 2004 to Eastern European journalists and media that defy every obstacle to tirelessly ensure independent press coverage. Russia’s war against Ukraine and the subsequent wave of disinformation clearly demonstrates the need for independent reporting in the region. Journalist, editorial teams and media companies in and from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary who make a contribution to press freedom through their investigative, independent reporting can be nominated for the Free Media Awards.

Civitates' Tech & Democracy open call

March 6 2025

Civitates – The European Democracy Fund is a pooled philanthropic fund that was set up in 2018 for the sole purpose of addressing democratic decline and closing civic space in Europe. The case for confronting these threats is growing increasingly urgent. Fritt Ord Foundation is one of the initiators and partners of Civitates.

Civitates has launched its Tech and Democracy open call to support organisations working to ensure safer, more inclusive online spaces (social media platforms, search engines etc.) by improving the enforcement of EU tech regulations at the national level.

This open call offers a unique opportunity to strengthen civil society’s role in holding the tech sector accountable, with a focus on key EU regulations such as the Digital Services Act, GDPR, AI Act or the European Media Freedom Act to name a few.

Norwegians increasingly more positive to computer games

March 5 2025

Norwegians are increasingly more positive to accepting computer games as culture

About 17 per cent have developed a more favourable view of computer games over the past year. Six of ten play computer games, and one of three plays computer games weekly. At the same time, computer games are ranked as having lower status than books and music, for example.
“Computer games deserve more attention and discussion”, contends Joakim Lie of Fritt Ord.