The Ossietzky prize, administered by the Norwegian P.E.N., one of the five members of the Human Rights House in Oslo, was today awarded to the municipality of Stavanger on the west coast of Norway for its efforts in favour of freedom of expression. For nearly ten years, the city of Stavanger, otherwise better known as the focal point of the Norwegian offshore industry, has hosted the so-called Kapittel festival, a literary festival focussing on freedom of expression issues. For the last years, a high profile conference on freedom of expression has been arranged in relation to the festival.

While this is reason good enough, Stavanger receives the prize also because of its active contribution to the International Network of Cities of Asylum. Stavanger was among the first cities in the world joining this network, and has since 1996 played a key role in developing the concept of asylum cities for persecuted writers further.

Helge Lunde, Director of the Kapittel Festivals, has also initiated ‘Xpress,’ a permanent Centre for the Freedom of Expression at Sølvberget, Stavanger’s Culture House. Xpress, inaugurated this year by the famous Russian journalist and freedom of expression campaigner Anna Politkovskaja, has already become a safe working place for several exiled authors, who have contributed to the rapid growth of the net-based resource bank www.friby.no. Check it out, says Lunde, and feel free to check www.kapittel.com as well.