Nominations for the Freedom of Expression Foundation Prize 2018

January 31 2018

Each year, Fritt Ord awards the Freedom of Expression Foundation Prize to individuals or institutions that have shown civil courage and worked to defend and strengthen freedom of expression and the conditions for it in Norway, especially by encouraging dynamic debate.

The Fritt Ord Foundation invites nominations for potential candidates for the prize. Nominations should be a maximum of 4000 characters long and include a brief description of the nominee’s efforts and a grounded justification for why the person or organisation in question deserves the prize. Please do not send attachments.

Nominations for the prize should be submitted to post@frittord.no. The email should be marked: “The Freedom of Expression Foundation Prize 2018”. The deadline for nominations is 12 noon on Wednesday 31 January.

The Fritt Ord Foundation’s Board will review the nominations parallel to considering the Board’s own nominations. The nominations will not be made public.

The prize is the Fritt Ord Foundation’s highest distinction. It consists of the Freedom of Expression Foundation statuette crafted by Nils Aas, and a prize of NOK 400 000.

A list of former recipients can be found here.

News

Free Media Awards for 2025

September 9 2025

The Fritt Ord Foundation and the ZEIT Stiftung Bucerius hereby announce that the Free Media Awards for 2025 will be presented to media outlets and journalists from Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan

Greater diversity among journalists results in greater diversity among sources

September 2 2025

A recently published report reveals biases in who is allowed to participate in the public debate. According to a new report from Retriever commissioned by the Fritt Ord Foundation, men who have Nordic names dominate both as sources and journalists in Norwegian media. Women, younger people and people with foreign names are less likely to be included. This is true both as interviewees and as authors of articles. That being said, greater diversity among journalists results in greater diversity among sources.

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.