Freedom not Fear

From 8 to 11 November 2024, Freedom not Fear, a self-organised conference on privacy and digital rights, will take place in Brussels.

We invite people from all across Europe to meet and work towards more freedom in the digitalised world, plan actions against increasing surveillance and against other attacks on civil rights.

Freedom not Fear 2024
8–11 November (Friday–Monday)
Mundo Madou (tbc) (Sat&Sun) • European Parliament (Mon)

Do you have a question that is not answered here? Please let us know at contact@freedomnotfear.org

1  Participation – How can I sign up?

The FNF (un)conference on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is open for everyone. Signing up is not mandatory. That might be different for EP visits on Monday. We would appreciate it if you could still sign up with this form to help us plan capacities. In the sign-up form you can also indicate if you’d be interested in a possible EP visit on Monday, travel support or free accommodation.

2  Registration & Expenses

We are not asking for a registration fee, but we do ask for voluntary donations to cover expenses such as venue hire and faciliation, also to support others who can’t afford an expensive trip. During the event we will kindly request your donation for lunches and our networking dinner on Saturday evening as well as donations to support organisational expenses.
Please bring cash!

3  Travel & Reimbursement

We encourage travelling by train rather than plane.

When planning your departure, please keep in mind that there might be meetings scheduled on Monday afternoon with MEPs and other policy makers until about 15:00.

We’re trying to facilitate financial support for travel costs. Thanks to MEP invitations and a small grant we secured and donations from some generous individuals, we can likely offer some financial support for travel expenses to those who wouldn’t be able to (completely) cover their travel expenses themselves. Make sure to always keep receipts and tickets, we might need them for reporting.

If you need financial support, please indicate this in the sign-up form and submit before 30 September.

See below at “Official EP visit & meeting with MEPs” for more information.

4  Accommodation

We are not organising hotel accomodation this year and we ask participants to make their own arrangements. We do encourage couchsurfing and try to facilitate contacts among participants who can offer or seek a place to stay.
If you are looking for hotel recommendations, this is where we were in the last years:
Hotel Adagio Access Brussels Europe, 12 rue de l’Industrie, Brussels (OpenStreetMap)

5  Catering / Food

On Saturday evening, 9 November 2024, from 19:00, we will organise the famous FNF networking dinner again at social space DK. The food will be prepared by a group of volunteers and will cost us a contribution of 12 € (or more). Please register to take part in the dinner (or send a mail to: contact@freedomnotfear.org if you do not want to register)
Please bring cash to pay for the dinner

6  Official EP visit & meeting with MEPs

We plan to organise an visit to the European Parliament at the invitation of MEPs, as we have done in the past. EU Citizens may receive a travel reimbursement for participating in this EP visit.

However, we cannot guarantee enough spots for all participants at this point. If you want to be part of the visit, please make sure to indicate so in the registration form (deadline: 30 September).

We will review all registrations at the end of the sign-up period and allocate the available spots. Once you have been confirmed for the EP visit, participation is mandatory and comes along with some financial support for travel and accommodation. This will also require an official registration with your official ID and valid documents brought for the EP visit.

7  Self-organised MEP & policy-maker meetings

The European Union is changing. We feel it is more important than ever to share our ideas and concerns, network and develop strategies for digital rights advocacy.

We strongly encourage everyone to schedule meetings with policy-makers ahead of time, so that you can discuss with them the topics and sessions you brought to FNF. We are preparing a guide to help you with that. This is to be published here soon.

You can help others in getting in touch with policy makers? Please offer a session, prepare MEP meetings together and take others along!

8  Schedule

The rough schedule is:

• Friday, 8 November 2024, 18:00: opening by welcome team
• Saturday and Sunday, 9 & 10 November 2024, all day: your sessions
• Saturday night: joint dinner and evening programme
• Monday, 11 November 2024: self-organised meetings with MEPs, Commission staff and other EU policy-makers

9  Programme

FNF follows a barcamp format where the programme is being created on the spot by participants’ contributions.

We invite everyone to submit session proposals with this form before 25 October 2024: https://freedomnotfear.org/cfs

This helps us to create a first rough schedule, prevent conflicting schedules in case someone can attend FNF only at a specific time slot or bring people together who want to hold sessions on the same topic. A preliminary programme will be compiled and more sessions will be added spontaneously at the event during the morning plenary.

10  Language

The main language of communication and workshops will be English. However, it is possible to also offer workshops or sessions in other languages. If someone is not comfortable communicating in English at the event, please support each other with translations.

11  Awareness

At the event we ask everyone to be conscious of your own behaviour and respect needs for distance or other safety measures of people around you. We are aiming to have an awareness team. If that is an issue you are knowledgeable about or interested to contribute to, please let us know: contact@freedomnotfear.org

12  Stay informed

To stay informed about FNF-related developments and meet other participants & friends, sign up to the mailing list: https://listen.akvorrat.org/mailman/listinfo/akv-international

Historically, Freedom not Fear was founded by people from the German working group against data rention (AKVorrat) in 2006. The title “Freedom not Fear” is used by AKVorrat and like-minded groups for a series of activities related to human rights internationally. There have been events of all kind supporting human rights called “Freedom not Fear” from places all over the globe, including South America, the United States, Canada and Europe. The Brussels Freedom not Fear started as one such activity. During the first Brussels Freedom not Fear in 2011, it was decided to use “AKV-international” as the official mailing list for FNF instead of starting a new mailing list. Today this list is exclusively used by Freedom not Fear.

13  Donations

Since FNF has no official organisational structure, we need to collect donations via some other legal entity. This year, the non-profit association D64 – Center for Digital Progress from Germany is providing an account for donations – our heartfelt thanks for that!

Donations to the D64 account will reach us without any deduction. Please mark your donations clearly by stating “FNF” or “Freedom Not Fear” in the reference.

Bank details:
Recipient: D64 – Zentrum für Digitalen Fortschritt
IBAN: DE13 4306 0967 1134 4765 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Bank: GLS Bank
Reference: FNF / Donation

https://freedomnotfear.org/2024/call-for-donations

14  How is FNF organised?

Freedom not Fear is traditionally organised by a group of committed volunteers with support from last year’s organisers and administrative support from some official body.
The organising team is newly set up every year and starts preparing the event around February. Looking for an adequate venue and accommodation, contacting MEPs and dealing with a lot of EP administration and communication is part of the tasks as well as calculating a budget, looking for donations and funding, writing texts, setting up forms, advertising the event and communicating with participants. Interested to join the organising team or donate for the event? E-mail us at contact@freedomnotfear.org.

This year the event is organised purely by volunteers with the help of German-based non-profit association D64 – Center for Digital Progress from Germany hosting our finances and supporting funding efforts. Therefore the event will be much more self-organised, we are not booking hotel accommodation nor professional lunch catering. However, if anyone has capacity to organise some lunch for Saturday and Sunday, and someone to organise some couch surfing / sleeping places in Brussels, you’re warmly welcome, please get in touch!

Please join us for 2024’s edition of Freedom not Fear, 8–11 November 2024 in Brussels and register now!

Registration

As places are limited, please register as soon as possible but in any case by 30 September 2024.
Click here for the registration form.

We have collected additional participant information in a separate blogpost. Get in touch if you have further questions.

EP visit and reimbursement

As part of Freedom not Fear we will try to organise a visit with MEPs in the European Parliament. European Union citizens who participate in FNF and in this visit are eligible for travel reimbursement and a fixed allowance thanks to visitor quotas of the MEPs who support us.

Registration for the FNF events from Friday to Sunday is not compulsory. However, in order to take part in the EP visit on Monday and to receive any allowances you must register. The European Parliament travel reimbursement is linked to an official visit to the European Parliament on Monday morning, 11 November, and the Parlametarium or House Of European History (to be determined).

If you have trouble taking part due to financial restrictions, please get in touch with us and we will try to find a solution. Thanks to a small grant we secured and donations from some generous individuals, we can likely offer some financial support for travel expenses to those who wouldn’t be able to (completely) cover their travel expenses themselves or who are not eligible for the EP visit.

Donations

Freedom not Fear is dependent on individual donations to cover expenses such as venue, facilitation, infrastructure, and to make the event affordable to participants from all backgrounds and all parts of Europe. Your donation would be highly appreciated!

More information and how to donate: https://freedomnotfear.org/2024/call-for-donations

Spread the word

More details on the schedule and programme for FNF 2024 are going to be published ahead of the conference. Also watch the Fediverse for #fnf24 and #FreedomNotFear or follow our Mastodon account at @fnf@eupolicy.social – and help spread the word!

Let’s make FNF 2024 happen!

Since FNF has no official organisational structure, we need to collect donations via some other legal entity. This year, the non-profit association D64 – Center for Digital Progress from Germany is  providing an account for donations – our heartfelt thanks for that!

Donations to the D64 account will reach us without any deduction. Please mark your donations clearly by stating “FNF” or “Freedom Not Fear” in the reference.

We will soon publish more details, but if you want to make sure FNF 2024 is happening and help us find a venue, you can donate now.

Bank details:

Please always mark your donations as “FNF” or “Freedom not Fear”!

QR-Code with details for bank transfers

You can scan the QR code on the right with your online banking app and add
your desired amount. The code contains the bank details as shown above.

An update on the planning process will follow soon.

Thank you for supporting Freedom not Fear 2024!

A big “thank you!” to all participants and supporters for making possible yet another fantastic event!

We are inviting all participants to bring their expertise, interests and questions into Freedom not Fear 2023 as session proposals. The programme of FNF is created by all participants together on the spot.

Need inspiration?
Your session could be connected to the following topics, but of course you are not limited to these:

• Tech buzz or game changer: “AI” and how do we deal with it?
• Climate crisis: tech(ies) as problem, solution or what?
• Public and private surveillance: who is watching whom?

All workshops and talks (Fri – Sun) will take place at:
Mundo Madou
Avenue des Arts 7-8
1210 Brussels

An important part of Freedom not Fear (FNF) is “advocacy monday”. We want to meet with Members of European Parliament (MEPs) or Commission and other policy makers and talk to them. Feel free to contact MEPs to invite them to Freedom not Fear for presenting their topic, to discuss with us or to arrange meetings with them outside of Freedom not Fear.

Rough schedule

There is no pre-set programme at Freedom not Fear – only time-slots to be filled with content. The programme will be made by you, the participants, during the actual event.

This is the rough schedule for the event:

Friday, 1 Sep 2023

18:00: Welcome desk opens

19:00: Opening of Freedom not Fear 2023

European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Wojciech Wiewiórowski will give a brief input on “Fediverse for Public Administration. Why we try and why we fail” followed by a fishbowl discussion.

Saturday 2 Sep 2023, 9:30 – 19:00h

Morning plenary (We invite you to submit your sessions during the morning plenary.) Sessions during the day. Saturday night: joint dinner and evening programme

Sunday 3 Sep 2023, 10:00 – 19:00h

Morning plenary. Sessions during the day.

Monday, 4 Sep 2023

9:30–11:00 & 13:00-14:00: visit to the European parliament (EP) and meeting with MEPs, visit to the Parlamentarium.
After 14:00: (self-) arranged meetings with MEPs, European Commissioners and other EU policy makers

Support the organisiation of fnf

Freedom not Fear is dependent on individual donations to cover expenses such as venue, facilitation, infrastructure, and to make the event affordable to participants from all backgrounds and all parts of Europe. Your donation would be highly appreciated here: https://digitalcourage.de/donate
(Enter “FNF 2023” in the “Message” at the end of the form to direct the donation towards FNF.)

If you have any questions you can always contact us at: contact@freedomnotfear.org

Please join us for the 2023 edition of Freedom not Fear, 1–4 September 2023 in Brussels and register now!

Please note: The registration is closed as there are no more slots from our visitor quota left that could receive a reimbursement.
Nevertheless it is still possible to participate in fnf in a selforganized way. You could book your own EP visit and/or request a meeting with an MEP on your own account.  If you do so, please inform us about your plans and expected participation.

More details on the schedule and programme for FnF 2023 are going to be published soon – also watch the Fediverse for #fnf23 and #freedomnotfear or follow us at fnf@digitalcourage.social – and help spread the word!

Find more information on the general event here: https://freedomnotfear.org/about-freedom-not-fear

Registration

As part of Freedom not Fear we will meet with MEPs in the European Parliament. Participants in this visit are eligible for travel reimbursement and a fixed allowance thanks to visitor quotas of the MEPs who support us.

Registration for the FnF events from Friday to Sunday is not compulsory. However, in order to take part in the EP visit on Monday and to receive any allowances you must register.

EP visit – mandatory for reimbursement

In order to receive travel reimbursement and the allowance, it is mandatory to take part in the official visit to the European Parliament on Monday, 4 September, 10:00–11:30 and the Parlametarium for another hour.

Accommodation

We have organised hotel accommodation close to the event venue and the EU facilities, as an option. Please state your accommodation preferences in the registration form.

Please register by 30.6.2023 →Final registration deadline: 17 July 2023

The available places are limited, please register as soon as possible but in any case before 17 July 2023.

You will find more information on the registration form.

If you have trouble taking part due to financial restrictions, please get in touch with us and we will try to find a solution.

Donations

Freedom not Fear is dependent on individual donations to cover expenses such as venue, facilitation, infrastructure, and to make the event affordable to participants from all backgrounds and all parts of Europe. Your donation would be highly appreciated!

https://digitalcourage.de/spenden

(Enter “FnF 2023” at “Nachrichten” at the end of the form to direct the donation towards FnF.)

Dear volunteer designers,

Freedom not Fear is looking for a new logo!

FNF is an annual self-organised event on privacy, digital technologies and its effects on human rights. People from all across Europe meet and work towards more freedom in the digitised world, plan actions against increasing surveillance and against other attacks on civil rights. It is an empowering and refreshing barcamp with workshops, panel discussions and talks.

FNF trajectory

Since 2006, FNF’s predecessor “Freiheit statt Angst” regularly organised protests in Germany around issues of privacy. The first “Freedom not Fear” was guided by the thought of taking the street protest from German cities to European capitals, and that has indeed happened in the first few years.

After about 15 editions, the logo still reflects those roots, but in practice the event’s focus has changed: we expanded with social media campaigns, engaged in advocacy directly with European Union’s decision makers – making our voices heard while influential policies such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were shaped early in the 2010s – and professionalised our work.

FNF keeps tackling ever emerging issues identified by grass roots organisations and concerned citizens like you, calling decision makers in the European Parliament to their responsibility and striving for a positive change in our societies.

You can find more information about FNF and the current logo at https://freedomnotfear.org/

FNF aspirations

We are looking for design contributions which reflect FNF’s trajectory, state of the art and aspirations.

Some keywords: digital rights, stop surveillance, protecting fundamental rights, people empowerment.
Some inspiring terms: activism, inclusion, collaboration, openness, self-determined, grass roots, democracy.

We have been busy addressing current threats that come with e.g. new laws, so we often focus on reacting, preventing and safeguarding. As a result, this makes us seem like innovation haters and “stoppers” of progress. But this is not what Freedom not Fear is about. We provide this platform to seed and bolster constructive solutions and ideas for human-centred innovation (as opposed to profit-centred). We are also thinking about Foucault, the distribution of information and societies’ relations with mass surveillance. We envision an image that somewhat projects these intentions.

Your contribution

You’d become part of a growing movement fighting against surveillance, censorship and discrimination in the digital age. FNF is an event to motivate, connect and mobilise our community with an inclusive, friendly and independent/self-determined spirit. With the new logo we will launch a call for merchandise design collaborators to collect donations and support the event.

Could you create something based on this? Feel like giving it a try?

• When choosing colours, please keep accessibility considerations in mind.
• It would be great if your graphics also work well in black and white / monochrome.
• We are looking for freely shareable results end editable source files using non-proprietary fonts and file formats.

Please send submissions (and questions) by Monday, 19 June 2023 to: contact@freedomnotfear.org

We would contact selected designers by the end of June.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Do you have a question that is not answered here? Please let us know at contact@freedomnotfear.org

Freedom not Fear 2023
1–4 September (Friday–Monday)
Mundo Madou (Fri–Sun) · European Parliament (Mon)

Locations

• Venue: Mundo Madou, Avenue des Arts 7-8, 1210 Brussels
• Hotel: Adagio Access Brussels Europe, 12 rue de l’Industrie, Brussels (OpenStreetMap)
• European Parliament (EP): 60 rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60, Brussels (OpenStreetMap)
• Parlamentarium: Esplanade Solidarność 1980, Rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60, Brussels

Participation – Do I need to register?

The event is open for all and no registration is needed, if you just want to take part Friday to Sunday. We would appreciate, if you could still let us know when you’ll be there in order to plan lunch and other capacities.

If you want to take part in the EP visit on Monday and apply for any reimbursements, you do have to register, see below.

Option 1: Participation Fr-Sun, no EP visit, no (travel) allowance:
Freedom not Fear 2023 is self-organised and free, you do not need to register to take part in the conference at Mundo Madou from Friday to Sunday evening.

However, if you would like to take part at your own expenses, not joining for the EP visit but want to book hotel accommodation with us, you may still register, notifying us that you won’t join the EP visit.

If you will take part but don’t register, please e-mail us at contact@freedomnotfear.org to let us know when you are planning to come, so we can plan for food and venue capacity.

Option 2: Participation whole event, EP visit & (travel) allowance:
By registering you benefit from a reimbursement of (some) travel expenses (see “Travel reimbursement”) and optional affordable accommodation arranged by us. For any allowance you MUST take part in the official EP visit on Monday, 4 September 20233. No show = no money.

EDIT: Please note: The registration is closed, there are no more places available.
Nevertheless it is still possible to participate in fnf in a selforganized way. You could book your own EP visit and/or request a meeting with an MEP on your own account.  If you do so, please inform us about your plans and expected participation.

Registration fee & expenses

We are asking for a registration fee of 50 € for the expenses we need to cover in in advance, such as venue hire, hotel booking and catering. During the event we will kindly request your donation for lunches and our joint dinner on Saturday evening as well as donations to support organisational expenses. However, we will not charge anything, contributions are highly appreciated but voluntarily. After the event you may receive a reimbursement of your actual travel expenses up to an amount as defined below plus an allowance of up to 100 €, see below for conditions.

Travel & Reimbursement

As soon as you have registered and received a confirmation from us, you should book your travel in order to secure tickets. We recommend to book refundable tickets, since there is no reimbursement of expenses for cancelled travel. Make sure to always keep tickets, receipts and boarding passes, which we need to claim reimbursement.

Please also consider environmental issues – if traveling by plane is only little cheaper than bus/train, and you are willing to invest some more time, travel by land could be the better option. It is also possible to combine different means of transportation. When planning your departure, please keep in mind that we will try to schedule meetings on Monday afternoon (after the mandatory EP & Parlamentarium visit until 14:00h!) with MEPs and other policy makers until about 15:00h.

Travel reimbursement

People who have registered are eligible for reimbursement of (some of) their actual travel expenses after having taken part in the official visit to the European Parliament and Parlamentarium. Make sure to keep all tickets and receipts (travel, accommodation, food, local transport etc.) since we need the original tickets for reimbursement. The maximum reimbursement for your travel expenses is 0.09 € per km travel* from your EU-residence to Brussels and back plus an accommodation & food allowance of up to 100 €, if desired (see “Accommodation”). You can expect to receive the allowance within a month after FNF.

* ( 0.09 €/km travel forth and back = 0.18 € per km distance between your residence and the EP in Brussels as pre-calculated by the EP according to google maps)

Accommodation

We arranged some rooms in Hotel Adagio close to the venue, which is relatively affordable for this area. You can book a single or double/twin room when registering for the event or register without accommodation and arrange your own accommodation instead. If you book a double/twin room, you can either provide a name of a person you would like to share a room with or we chose a room-mate for you.
Registered participants who take part in the EP visit are eligible for an accommodation and food allowance of up to 100 €, so please keep all receipts for any food, accommodation, (local) travel. You can decide to claim the full amount or donate any part of it to cover FNF organisational costs.

Who can take part / receive support

The FNF (un)conference on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is open for everyone. However, since we are focusing on EU policy and meeting your MEPs, our main target group is EU citizens.
To take part in the official EP visit, and receive allowances, you must be a citizen of an EU member state, a former EU member state or an EU candidate country. For the application you need to provide name, complete private address, nationality and date of birth.
If you are not a citizen of a current or former EU member state or an EU candidate country, but live in a current or former EU member state or an EU candidate country, please contact us BEFORE registering, because we would need to hand in your relevant residence permits for approval.
People who are a resident in a third country cannot benefit from financial support by the EP. If you reside in a neighbouring EU country, please contact us BEFORE registering, because we would need to apply for an exemption (derogation) at the MEPs’ office.

Catering / Food

There will be no breakfast and no dinner organised at the venue. If you’re booking accommodation with us, you can order breakfast extra in the form.

LUNCH: Vegetarian/vegan lunch will be provided at the venue – if you are not registered, please e-mail us to say on which days you will attend lunch to help us estimate the number of people we should expect: contact@freedomnotfear.org

Expenses for the lunch are about 12€ per person, please chip in as much as you can to cover the costs, since we are self-funded.

Saturday evening, 2 Sep 2022, 19-22h, we are organising a joint FNF-networking-dinner for all participants and affiliates from around Brussels at a different venue, about 30min walk from Mundo Madou. Please sign up and pay (recommended donation: 12€) for it when checking in at fnf – places are limited.

Visiting the European Parliament

The visit to the EP on Monday will include a meeting with the MEPs who invited us, a visit to the Plenary and a visit to the Parlamentarium (new requirement for the sponsored MEP visit since this year).

Make sure to bring your valid passport/ID to the visit.
The EP is wheelchair-accessible – if you have any needs for support, please let us know in advance.

Programme & Content

There will be a call for session proposals and a pre-liminary programme will be compiled from all session proposals we get submitted.
It will still be possible to propose sessions spontaneously at the event.

The rough schedule is:

Friday, 1 Sep 2023, 18:00: Arrival, 19:00h Opening, keynote and discussion
Saturday and Sunday, 2/3 Sep 2023: Your sessions
Saturday night: networking-dinner for those who want
Monday, 4 Sep 2023, 8:30 until 14:00: visit to EP and Parlamentarium, meeting with MEPs, Commission staff and other EU policy makers.

Language

The main language of communication and workshops will be English. However, it is possible to also offer workshops or sessions in other languages. If someone is not comfortable communicating in English at the event, please support each other with translations.

Covid policy

There are no official restrictions in place. At the event we encourage everyone to be conscious of your own behaviour and respect needs for distance or other safety measures of people around you.

How is FNF organised?

Freedom not Fear is traditionally organised by a group of committed volunteers with support from last year’s organisers and administrative support from Digitalcourage in Bielefeld, Germany. The organising team is newly set up every year and starts preparing the event around February. Looking for an adequate venue, booking accommodation, contacting MEPs and dealing with a lot of EP administration and communication is part of the tasks as well as calculating a budget, looking for donations and funding, writing texts, setting up forms, advertising the event and communicating with participants. Interested to join the organising team or donate for the event? E-mail us at contact@freedomnotfear.org.