Description
What does freedom of expression mean in 2025? From hate speech and identity politics to digital censorship and protest bans, the boundaries of free speech are more contested than ever.
This timely event explores the forces shaping public debate today: the line between speech and harm, the influence of tech platforms, and how power and privilege shape who gets heard.
Join our panel as they ask: Are our freedoms under threat? Who decides what can be said – and what must be silenced? And how do we safeguard free expression while building a fairer, more inclusive society?
About the Speaker
Burhan Sönmez
Burhan Sönmez is the author of six novels. He is president of PEN International and a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. His novels have been translated into forty-eight languages and received international prizes, including the EBRD Literature Prize and Vaclav Havel Center Award. He was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before going to Britain for political reasons and living there in exile for several years. He has been on the judging panel of various events, including Inge Feltrinelli Prize and Geneva International Film Festival and written for press such as La Repubblica, Der Spiegel and The Guardian. He has translated the poetry book of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake into Turkish. Having written five novels in Turkish, he began to write in his mother tongue, Kurdish, with his last novel Lovers of Franz K. He lives between Cambridge and Istanbul.
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