Is the assertion that freedom of expression is under pressure just a myth used to cover up more important political incompatibilities? British-Sudanese author and Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik investigates this in her new book We Need New Stories: Challenging the Toxic Myths Behind our Age of Discontent.

Malik is coming to Oslo to open Litteraturhuset’s Commission on the Freedom of Expression. In her lecture, she’ll answer the following questions: Is freedom of expression threatened today, and if so, how? How has the climate for free speech changed over the last twenty years? What kinds of challenges does it create, and what measures are necessary to protect this cornerstone of Norwegian democracy?

The lecture will be followed by a conversation between Malik and Nazneen Khan-Østrem, author of London: Among Gangsters, Rabbis, Oligarchs, Rebels and Other Legitimate Children of the British Empire and member of Stortinget’s Commission on the Freedom of Expression in 1999.