Dear friends!
On behalf of the Vaclav Havel Library let me welcome you to Prague. We are honoured, indeed, to have you as our guests for a couple of days, because the mission of the Library is not only to hold and make available materials related to Havel’s life and work, but also to foster what might be called the Havelian spirit or tradition. Through events like this, the Library will give a voice to those who are contributing to the diverse chorus of contemporary culture, a culture that reflects both social and individual truth. The Library aspires to become an international forum for dialogue and open communication; and to serve as a space for free-ranging conversations about the future shape of our common world.
On the eve of Human Rights Day 2011, the Havel Library has decided to mark the occasion by organizing – in co-operation with the People in Need Foundation and Prague’s Archa Theatre – an international symposium entitled The Epoch-Making Power of Free Speech.
The symposium will open with a seminar on the role of freedom of expression and the importance of safeguarding that freedom in the international community, which is becoming ever more globalized, interconnected and interdependent, while remaining culturally and religiously heterogeneous and diverse.
