Freedom of Expression across Cultures

Under the title: “Freedom of Expression Across Cultures”, CIHRS organized a workshop in cooperation with the International Media Support (IMS), and in coordination with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), the Moroccan Organization of Human Rights (OMDH), and the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS), in Cairo in the period 7-8 December 2006. A group of Journalists, Human Rights Defenders, artists, novelists and academics from Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Denmark and France participated in the workshop.

The workshop discussed the repercussions of the Danish cartoons Crisis and the way the Egyptian media responded. The workshop also tackled the Judiciary stance on the problems of freedom of expression both in Egypt and Europe, and the way religious issues are being tackled in media and academic curricula. Religious guardianship on freedom of literary, artistic creativity and academic freedom were also among the subjects of the workshop.

This workshop is the outcome of a preliminary workshop held by the organizers in Copenhagen, Denmark between November 2nd and 4th 2006, where a group of journalists, civil society activists, Arab and Danish academics took part.