My visit to PEN Norway

Accepting the Ossietzky Prize on behalf of my husband, Julian.

I visited Oslo, Norway last month to accept the Ossietzky Prize from PEN Norway. Here are a few key highlights:

Mads Andenæs, a lawyer, professor at the University of Oslo, and a member of PEN Norway's Assange Action Group interviewed me at the ceremony.

Watch my acceptance speech on behalf of Julian.

PEN Norway president, Ann-Magrit Austenå on the justification for awarding my husband, Julian Assange with the Ossietzky Prize this year.

PEN Norway general secretary, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, on the origins of the Ossietzky Prize.

An excerpt from “PEN Norway awards Julian Assange the Ossietzky Prize for 2023”:

The miseries for Assange don’t end there. At Belmarsh, he faces some of the harshest conditions imaginable. “Assange is held in inhuman conditions in a three-by-two prison cell,” Stella told a group of Norwegian audience on November 15.

“Recently, he had a discussion with Belmarsh jail management about the number of books he can keep. The jail management told Assange he couldn’t keep many due to the small prison cell size. Assange chose books over his bed, now opting to sleep on a yoga mat to make room for his friends – the books.”

For the past five years, Assange has been held in the high-security prison Belmarsh, facing restricted contact with family and limited communication with his lawyers. His health has deteriorated significantly during this time.

Read the full article from the PEN Norway website here.

Pictures from the PEN Norway Ossietzky Awards Ceremony for Julian with Mads Andenæs, Abazar A. Bagi Hamid,Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Ann-Magrit Austenå and Rune Ottosen.

PEN Norway is the Norwegian branch of PEN International – the world’s largest writer and freedom of expression organisation, established in 1921.

It is an independent and non-profit membership organisation, dedicated to defending freedom of expression and supporting writers at risk and writers in prison. PEN Norway’s goal is that everyone should have the right to express themselves freely.