The Free Speech Partnership creates a network of intellectual journals from post-soviet countries. The Kiev conference aims to establish cooperation between editors and writers who will actively instigate an integration of the Eastern and Western parts of Europe and create an awareness of contemporary issues crucial in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland
Formed as an informal association of editors, Free Speech Partnership aids joint start-up projects of its members, promulgates mutual consultations of the intellectual agenda, and instigates content exchange in order to foster independent, high quality analyses and opinions.
The conference marks the second annual meeting of journals participating in the programme of Res Publica Nowa. Its major sponsor is the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, which supports the project within the framework of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council. The first FSP Conference took place in October 2010 in Warsaw, with the support of the RITA Przemiany w Regionie grant of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, Adam Mickiewicz Institute and City of Warsaw.
Since the fall of the Iron curtain, the East and West global positioning has lost significance and countries to the East of the old 'border' have been reinventing their place in the European community. History and politics, once determinant of the region's narrative, have lost their appeal to economy and culture which set today’s principles of dialogue. The conference aims to bring together cultural and intellectual journals from the former Soviet territories to exchange ideas, present a selection of the best articles printed in the region, and set up long lasting ties for exchange and cooperation.
The working theme of the conference is censorship:
How does censorship affect us? Once it is reinstalled in the universal pursuit of control, how can it be escaped? How to avoid letting it become once again a habit? Is it at all possible to eradicate it - or can one make use of it? Does censorship fight us or do we fight censorship within ourselves? Finally, how has the idea of free speech evolved since the era of book burning as an ultimate symbol of mental terror? What is the burning temperature of the Internet?
Participating in the conference are the editors from 35 cultural and intellectual journals from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine:
Arche, ArtVertep, Czas kultury, Dziejaslou, Fa-art, Fronda, Generation.by, Ha! Art, Istoryczna Panorama, Ji, Karta, Krytyka, Krytyka polityczna, Kultura Enter, Midrasz, Multimedia Magazine 34,Nasza Niwa, Novaya Europa, Nowa Europa Wschodnia, Obywatel, pARTisan, Prava ludyny, Przegląd polityczny, Radar, Spilne, Sprawy Polityczne, Telekrytyka, Ukraina Moderna, Ukrainskyi tyzhden, Więź, Znak, and others.
The Polish organiser of the event is Res Publica Nowa. The magazine has been first printed in 1979 by a group of Polish intellectuals as an independent underground journal. Since the very beginning Marcin Król has been Res Publica Nowa's editor-in- chief. Eight issues of the magazine which was initially called Res Publica were published by 1981. Among significant contributors were Paweł Śpiewak, Barbara Toruńczyk, Andrzej Micewski, and Stefan Kisielewski. In 1987, Res Publica Nowa was restarted with the approval of state officials. At the time it was probably the only journal of its kind in the Soviet block.
Res Publica became renowned for featuring censored intellectuals from Poland and abroad - such as H. Arendt, I. Berlin, M. Oakeshott, and many others - virtually unknown to Polish readers at the time. The magazine also played a major role in creating the political environment necessary to make the Roundtable Negotiations possible. Despite all political and staff changes, Res Publica Nowa has managed to defend its position of a trend-setting journal. Over the decades it has been publishing articles from various disciplines including philosophy, politics, sociology, literature and the arts.
Today, Res Publica Nowa reappears for the fifth time in its history. After bringing up a generation of intellectuals born in the 1960s, it is now edited by a third generation of the 1980s. With many of its previous editors still "on board", the magazine gathers a growing group of readers.
See more: www.res.publica.pl
Launched in 2009, the Free Speech Partnership programme takes as its main aim the cooperation of editorial offices of former Eastern Bloc countries, based on intellectual exchange and the sharing of experiences. Through reprinting texts, organizing meetings, debates and conferences, the organisation works to improve the quality of discussion about countries to the east of Poland and establish a network of intellectual communities that can share their contributions.
Free Speech Partnership also increases the awareness of significant contemporary issues in the societies of countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine. Groups selected and animated by the organisation are to present and debate on the most significant regional issues. The groups are not required to have a pro- European profile, but it is crucial for them to be aimed at young people and intellectual communities. The plan is to also juxtapose texts on culture, society, political ideas and contemporary texts from Eastern Europe with articles on similiar topics published in the West.
Date: 7th-9th of October, 2011
Venue: Molyha Academy, Kiev
Organised by: Res Publica Nowa
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute