Pressure on freedom of expression
The issue of freedom of expression created controversies repeatedly in 2009. The latest stirs include the allocation of the Freedom of Expression Prize to Nina Karin Monsen, the recent debate at the UN’s Human Rights Council’s meeting in Geneva in April and the winter’s failure to resurrect the blasphemy section of Norway’s Constitution. Many challenges related to freedom of expression have emerged in the wake of globalisation’s new public spaces, cultural conflicts and different views about the place of religion in society. All in all, freedom of expression is currently under pressure from quarters we could hardly even have imagined 20 years ago.