"Wikileaks: Freedom of Speech or Threat to Freedom?"

(Ljubljana, January 19th 2011)

"Wikileaks: Freedom of Speech or Threat to Freedom?"

The Joze Pucnik Institute and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy invite you to attend:

Wikileaks: Freedom of Speech or Threat to Freedom?

(Hotel Lev, Ljubljana, Wednesday January 19th at 17:00)






The recent series of releases of classified and potentially politically and strategically sensitive State materials by Wikileaks, the non-profit media organization, have embarrassed governments and brought a greater level of transparency to international relations than ever before.

For its critics, Wikileaks is a threat to national security and spoiler of international diplomacy. To its supporters, it is the newest expression of online and empowered citizenship, enhancing democratic discourse and challenging powerful public institutions and private organisations.

The Jose Pucnik Institute, (in cooperation with The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy) is proud to present a debate on the role of Wikileaks in modern diplomatic relations and in the information age.

Program

17:00   Welcoming speech by Mr. Brejc, President of the Board of IJP

17:05  Opening speech by Mr. Mark C. Donfried, Director and Founder of the ICD

17:10  Wikileaks ? Freedom of speech or threat to democracy?

Speakers:

Janez Janša (Former Prime Minister of Slovenia) »
Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli (U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia)
Ernest Petrič (President of the Constitutional Court)
?iga Turk, (Former Slovenian Minister for Development)
Matej Makarovič (Lecturer at the School of Advanced Social Studies, University of Lubljanja)
Mark C. Donfried (Director and Founder of the ICD)
18:40 Discussion

19:00 Conclusions

19:20 Speakers' Dinner in Luljanja's city centre

Location

Hotel Lev, Vo?njakova 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Hall Karantanija.

Speakers Background Information

Janez Janza is President of the Slovenian Democratic Party and between 2004 and 2008 he was the Prime Minister of Slovenia. In 1989 Jan?a was involved in the founding of one of the first opposition parties in Slovenia, the Slovenian Democratic Union (SDZ) and became its vice-president, and later president of the Party Council. Following the first free elections in May 1990 he became the Minister of Defence and in 1993 he was appointed as the president of the Slovenian Democratic Party, being re-elected multiple times. Jan?a has published several books in which he expresses his views on the problems of Slovenia's transition from communism to a parliamentary democracy. (Read more »)
 
Ambassador Joseph Adamo Mussomeli is currently the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia. He joined the US Foreign Service in 1980 and has held a variety of postings since, including in Egypt, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Morooco and as Ambassador to Cambodia. Joseph Mussomeli has received several awards including the 2010 Arnie Raphael Award, the 2008 Presidential Distinguished Service Award, two Superior Honor Awards, one Group Superior Honor Award, and two Meritorious Honor Awards.
 
Ernest Petrič has been Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna since 2002. From 1997 to 2000 he held the position of State Secretary responsible for multilateral issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia. He served as the Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York and from 2000-2002 as non-resident Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to Brazil. From 2002 to 2003 Ambassador Petrič was also the Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.
 
?iga Turk is Professor and Chair in Construction Informatics at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering at the University of Ljubljana and Secretary General of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe, In 2007/2008 Dr. Turk was Minister for Growth in the Slovenian government, National Coordinator for the Lisbon Strategy and Chief Negotiator for the Slovenia's accession to the OECD. During the Slovenian presidency to the EU, he was in charge of the updates to the Lisbon Strategy. He is also known for inventing the Virtual Shareware Library (that later evolved into shareware.com) and founding a computer magazine, Moj Mikro.
 
Matej Makarovič is a researcher and lecturer at the School of Advanced Social Studies at the University of Lubljana. He obtained his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Ljubljana. Between 2001 and 2007 he was a university lecturer in the same faculty. Currently he is employed at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica as a researcher and lecturer.
 
Mark C. Donfried is founder and director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. Mark worked as an analyst at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York and later at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik.  In 1999, Mark founded the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD), an independent, non-profit NGO based in New York City. The ICD has since opened a European Headquarters in Berlin, where Mark is presently based. He is a visiting Professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is focusing his current research and publishing in the field of civil-society-based cultural diplomacy.