Night of Ideas: Protecting press freedom in Europe

27 Jan 2022, 6:30 PM

Let’s get straight to it, before we divert you

How much does a ticket cost? Free admission within the capacity of the conference room, please book your seat via our form below. 

In what language? Simultaneous translation in French, Czech and English.

Do I need a test? We follow current government regulations against covid-19.

DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Poupětova 1, Prague 7
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The French Institute in Prague and the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art invite you to the DOX on Thursday 27 January 2022 from 6pm, for a new edition of the Night of Ideas.

This year, the Night of Ideas is dedicated to the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. On 27 January 2022, throughout the European Union, a series of debates on Europe will bring together leading intellectuals from the arts, letters, sciences, journalism and civil society.

In Prague, this event will focus on the theme of press freedom in Europe. Europe is still the continent that is most favourable to press freedom, but this should not obscure the worrying developments in the situation of European journalists over the last few years. The year 2015 was marked by the attack on the editorial staff of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in which eight journalists lost their lives. In 2017, Swedish journalist Kim Wall was killed in Denmark and investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered in Malta. 2018 saw the death of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak, and in 2019 was killed Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee, shot dead while covering the riots in Londonderry/Derry…

Today, the risk of a drift is perceived as real. Press freedom is indeed high on the agenda of European institutions. All over Europe, society as a whole must mobilise to ensure that journalists can exercise their profession in complete safety.
With the exceptional participation of Matthew Caruana Galizia, Maltese journalist and director of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and Pavla Holcová, Czech investigative journalist. The discussion will be moderated by Martin Ehl, journalist and columnist (Hospodářské noviny).

Matthew Caruana Galizia is a Maltese journalist and director of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation. In 2018, following the assassination of his mother Daphne Caruana Galizia, he established the Foundation that bears her name. Since then, Matthew Caruana Galizia and his family have worked tirelessly to fight impunity and uncover the truth about Daphne's death. He is laureate of the 2018 Press Freedom Award (Impact Award) from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Pavla Holcová is an investigative journalist (in investigace.cz, and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)). She joined OCCRP in 2013 as regional editor for Central Europe. She is the founder of the independent media investigace.cz. Together with her Slovak colleague Ján Kuciak, she revealed the links between the Slovak government and the Italian mafia. In November 2016, Pavla was selected as one of the 100 “New Europe Changemakers”. In 2018, she was selected as a member of the European Young Leaders initiative.

Pavla Holcová and Matthew Caruana Galizia were both involved in the global Panama Papers investigation, for which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists received the Pulitzer Prize.

In partnership