This year's Irish Times Cúirt Debate - Freedom of Speech: a Right or a Weapon? - will join forces with Critical Voices to explore perceptions of the West among writers, artists and thinkers from the Islamic world. The debate will focus on freedom of speech and issues raised by the accompanying photographic exhibition, White and Black: Between East and West, by Touhami Ennadre and Jalel Gasteli, at Galway Arts Centre. The exhibition's curator, the Tunisian author Abdelwahab Meddeb, will also participate.
 
Other international speakers include Egyptian writer and editor Yosri Fouda (from Al Jazeera news), Dunya Mikhail (Iraqi/Kurdish poet) and Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, who will be joined by Irish Times foreign correspondent, Lara Marlowe. The debate will be chaired by Professor John Horgan of the School of Communications, Dublin City University.

This event takes place in Town Hall Theatre, Galway at 8.30pm and admission is €12/10. For bookings, please phone 091 569777 or see www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt.