China Campaign

August 2008 sees the staging of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, a country where PEN has had significant concerns for many years because of the large numbers of writers and journalists held in prison for calling for improved civil and political rights. In addition to the number of long-term detainees in China, PEN is also seriously concerned about prison conditions, ill-health, access to medical care and family visits, lack of due process and harassment.

Centres will be asked to raise publicity in their own countries, encourage journalists to cover freedom of expression in their reporting on the Games, lobby their own governments, sporting and other delegations to Beijing, request meetings with Chinese diplomats and representatives in their own countries, and to form alliances with other NGOs and individuals concerned for the state of free expression in China.

International PEN Poem Relay

International PEN Poem Relay, carrying the torch for freedom of expression in China ...
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We Are Ready for Freedom of Expression

PEN America, PEN Canada and Independent Chinese PEN iniaitive More...