From Afghanistan to Congo and Norway, the annual Music Freedom Day is marked on Monday, March 3rd.

Death threats in Yemen, murder cases in Mexico, new satelite tv restrictions in the Middle East, court cases in Turkey … If you browse through the news headlines of the last week on freemuse.org, you could very well get the impression that musicians are an endangered species.

This is why, once a year, musicians and media get together to advocate freedom of expression for musicians world-wide.

This year, Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center will highlight the Music Freedom Day with a seminar and a concert featuring Kris Kristofferson, Ferhat Tunç (Turkey), Chiwoniso Maraiere (Zimbabwe) and Norway’s own world famous Sámi singer, Marie Boine. 13 countries will broadcast the concert which will also be transmitted globally by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation via the Internet.

In Afghanistan, 1,000 balloons will fly over Mazar-i-Sharif City to convey the message to the world that Afghans also love music. The Afghanistan Culture House Organisation in Balkh Province organizes the event on Music Freedom Day, commemorating that Balkh is the birth place of the famous sufi poet and thinker Rumi, who introduced music as the ‘sound of the creation of universe’. There will be a press conference, a concert and a general gathering to support music and freedom of expression in Afghanistan as well as in the world.