Free Word Centre
60 Farringdon Road, London
The new Free Word Centre will open on Tuesday, 15 September 2009, at 60 Farringdon Road in London, with participation from the Fritt Ord Foundation. The property used to be the Guardian Newsroom Building.
In Norway, freedom of expression is largely determined by international policy, legislation and media trends. For that reason, since the 1970s, the Fritt Ord Foundation has maintained professional relations with and provided support for three London-based organisations: Index on Censorship, Article 19 and International PEN. All of them have world-wide activities. They recently played a prominent part in the Global Forum on Freedom of Expression organised from 1 to 6 June 2009 in Oslo. The Fritt Ord Foundation was co-organiser and initiator: expressionforum.org.
In recent years, freedom of expression has been curtailed in a number of countries. Accordingly, there is a need for far better contact and cooperation across national frontiers among organisations dedicated to promoting freedom of expression. To be able to act more clearly and to put forward even more cogent arguments on behalf of free speech, it was decided that nine organisations would locate their offices under the same roof in central London.