Because Writers Speak Their Minds: Latest News
12 August 2010
News from ... Sydney PEN: Sydney PEN is gearing up for a full-on series of events in the coming months celebrating the work of the WiPC. It has participating organisation in the University of New South Wales' Faculty of Law internship program. For three months Sydney PEN's Writers in Prison Committee, chaired by Dr Chris Michalesen, a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law, will be working with an intern to research and prepare a report on regional affairs concerning freedom of expression, with starting focus on Fiji. From September 30-October 4 the centre will be taking part in the National Young Writers' Festival in Newcastle, Australia where there will be a panel chaired by Bonny Cassidy, President of Sydney PEN, where five Writers in Prison cases with author profiles and portraits displayed in empty shop fronts as part of the Festival's art walk around the city of Newcastle. - On November 19, there will be a public address at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney to mark the 50th Anniversary and the week of the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. This event will feature a high profile speaker in human rights activism, and a letter-writing booth and mailing station for the public to select a writer from the caselist and pen a personal message of hope. The Centre is aiming to establish similar booths in each of Australia's state libraries for the duration of the week. (See Sydney PEN's website)
3 July 2010
Pius Njawe - March 1957 - July 2010:
It is with deep sadness that International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee writes of the death of Pius Njawe, the journalist, editor, courageous and persistent protector of freedom of expression in Cameroon, who died in a car accident on 13 July 2010 while he was in the United States. Njawe was one of the 50 emblematic cases of writers who have struggled for the right to write during who are featured in International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee's 50th Anniversary Campaign Because Writers Speak Their Minds. Njawe was first arrested in 1976 for his reporting while still a teenager, aged 19. Just three years later, he founded the newspaper Le Messager, for which he was still editor when he died, aged 57. Throughout the 80s and 90s, the newspaper suffered censorship and closures. Its staff were arrested, fined and tortured. Njawe himself was arrested 126 times throughout his more than three decades career. By the 2000s, this pressure had abated and Njawe was able to continue to work for a free press in Africa as President of the Central Africa Press Editors' Union and a member of the UNESCO Consultative Group on Press Freedom. His death is added tragedy for his family. His wife, Jane, also died in a traffic accident some years ago, leading him to set up the Jane-Justice Foundation that works towards accident prevention.
The death of Njawe, described as a press hero, is an enormous loss to press freedom in Africa and worldwide. International PEN joins other press freedom organisations in sending its condolences to his family and colleagues.
RAN 43/10
TURKEY: Publisher Ragip Zarakolu Back on Trial Again, Alongside Writer Mehmet Güler
Ragip Zarakolu, publisher and free expression activist is on trial again for publishing another book by author Mehmet Güler. Both Zarakolu and Güiler are accused under the Anti Terror Law for Güler's The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds Without a State. Zarakolu was acquitted last month for publishing another book by Güler, More Difficult Decisions Than Death, for which the author received a 15 months sentence. Once again the two men are charged with publishing statements seen to support the banned Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK). The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is disappointed to learn that Ragip Zarakolu is once again being tried in contravention of international standards safeguarding the right to freedom of expression, and that Mehmet Güler faces further charges.
Click here for the full WiPC alert.
Sara Whyatt writes. .....Last month, the Writers in Prison Committee Programme Director, spoke at the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) AGM in Frankfurt on the theme of the 50 years of WiPC work and exiled writers. Read the speech on the ICORN linked Shaharazade website
6 July, 2010
Chair's Notebook #4
Marian Botsford Fraser
Thoughts on celebrations and campaigns and a CONGRESS REQUEST to centres
Celebrations-We are now halfway through the 50th anniversary year of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International. (See the end of this piece for thoughts about this small but important name change.)
The exact date of founding: 24 July 1960. Happy anniversary!
Inspired by Because Writers Speak Their Minds, the 50th anniversary campaign pages on the website, which includes a page for each of the 50 writers/50 years, and a Facebook hookup, and updates full of links, PEN centres around the world have undertaken wonderful, original activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary-some literary, some for fundraising, some for campaigns; some are taking the form of publications, others will culminate in a major event on November 15th, Day of the Imprisoned Writer. Two centres have chosen to build their marking of the anniversary on the tradition of the Empty Chair [See here for Scottish PEN and Sydney PEN chairs] Do keep checking on the updates page; it's a great rolling record of this year.
Georgi Markov' eloquent memoir; South African crime writer Deon Meyer reading from Ugandan editor/essayist, Rajat Neogy's memoir; and Indian poet Sujata Bhatt reading the poems of Vietnamese Nguyen Chi Thien. We've put these seven selections, edited as scripts for reading on the website for centres who might wish to use them.
Congress Request: I hope that as many centres as possible will be able to attend the Tokyo Congress; the Japan Centre has a wonderful program in celebration of the 50th anniversary.
As a way of marking that Congress, I'd like to ask each WIPC to write no more than 200 words, on one Honorary Member, someone who has been most memorable for your centre, someone who exemplifies your work as a centre. Ideally, I'd like to collect these BEFORE the Congress; please send something to me at mbf@internationalpen.org.uk
Campaigning-In addition to performances and conversations and writing, this is also a year of serious campaigning. In my third notebook entry, I wrote about the Iran campaign; here are two other issues we're working on this year, in collaboration with various centres; both of these will be up for discussion and possibly the subject of resolutions in Tokyo:
Dawit Isaak: Since a 2001 crackdown on the independent press, Eritrea has become a nation that can place independent journalists and opposition figures into death camps with complete impunity. Since September, 2001, 15 of the 35 journalists and opposition politicians held at Eira Eiro prison camp in Eritrea have died. One of the prisoners who remains alive is a Swedish citizen, the journalist, playwright and author and International PEN WIPC main case, Dawit Isaak, who is also our emblematic case for 2002.
While Isaak and his colleagues have been detained without trial, or even formal charges, the European Union has agreed to transfer €122 million euros of unconditional aid to Eritrea between 2009-2013. But the EU agreement with Eritrea makes no mention of safeguards that will prevent aid money being used for other purposes, nor does it set out expectations which Eritrea must meet in order to remain eligible for further aid.
Even though the European Commission has expressed "concern over the human rights and governance situation in Eritrea," and even specified "the continued detention without trial or visitation rights of prisoners of conscience, the absence of a free press, severe restrictions on freedom of expression..." the Commission has recently argued that putting conditions on aid is inadvisable because of likely ill effects on the country's poorest citizens. Eritrea is one of the poorest countries in Africa. No reasonable person disputes its right to receive assistance for purposes of rebuilding its food supply, health care and infrastructure. So this is a conundrum.
The Swedish Centre (which collected 20,000 signatures on behalf of Isaak in 2009) has asked the EU to scale back economic aid to Eritrea "until the death camp in Eira Eiro has been closed, and prisoners of conscience handed over to the Red Cross, released or given fair and open trials for their alleged crimes."
I think it would be very helpful if other PEN centres would ask their own governments to raise human rights concerns, and especially the case of Isaak and others, directly with the government of Eritrea. At International PEN, in consultation with WiPC staff, our President and International Secretary, we are considering what position International PEN might take, and have already had a meeting with the EU on this case.
Religious Defamation: In recent years, the WIPC of PEN International and many other nongovernmental organizations have expressed concern about efforts to make the criticism of someone's religion a criminal offence. Since 1999, Religious Defamation has been the subject of resolutions at both the UN General Assembly in New York, and at meetings of what is now called the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The most recent such resolution was narrowly passed at the UNHRC in March 2010. We're also concerned about the efforts of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards, established in 2007 by the Islamic Conference (OIC) and a group of African countries, to draft a treaty that would ban religious defamation.
PEN International represents writers, artists and journalists of all faiths and none. We favour respectful discussion across nations and between religious groups and believe that Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights already cover religious hate speech and threats to public order that may arise from public expression of religious insults. In June, 2008, PEN made an oral submission to a meeting of the UNHRC in Geneva, which contains these words: International PEN believes that legal prohibitions on ‘defamation of religion' can easily pit one religion against another, as history has too often shown. Free criticism of governments, organizations, and institutions is essential for the advancement of societies. Rights rest within individuals, not in the groups and institutions with whom they are affiliated or associated.
In September, 2008, the Bogota Congress passed a resolution concerning UNHRC religious defamation resolutions. In March 2009, the WIPC was one of 200 civil society organizations from 46 countries, including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, secular, humanist and atheist groups, endorsing a statement jointly sponsored by IHEU, UN Watch, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom.
The Norwegian and American centres are currently working on a proposal for a panel discussion in Geneva at the UNHRC this autumn, chaired by John Ralston Saul. I'll be writing directly to centres in countries that have either supported or abstained on the religious defamation resolutions, hoping that you will express your support of PEN International's position. I also hope to set aside time during the WIPC meetings at the Tokyo Congress for discussion.
For a useful overview: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/discrimination/pdf/3-2010-focus-paper-defamation-of-religions.pdf
I'd love to hear from you; please write to me at mbf@internationalpen.org.uk>
16 June 2010
Liu Xiaobo (2009) writes ... A Little Mouse in Prison, a poem by Liu Xiaobo
A Little Mouse in Prison
- For Little Xia
A little mouse crawled through the iron bars
And paced nervously on my windowsill.
The worn walls watched him
The mosquitoes full of blood watched him.
He drew even heaven's silver light
And seemed to fly.
This kind of beauty is rare.
Tonight, the mouse is a dapper gentleman.
Not eating.
Nor drinking.
Nor aimlessly chattering.
His wide-eyed stare is that of a traitor as
He walks in the moonlight.
26.5.1999
16 June 2010
News from ... Scottish PEN: The Empty Chair comes to life! Scottish PEN and students and staff at Lomond School in Helensburgh have created an Empty Chair which will tour Scotland over the summer to promote and highlight the WiPC 50th anniversary campaign.
Scottish PEN's Empty Chair will be launched publicly at Glasgow's West End Festival on Wednesday, 23 June, where Scottish PEN will be running an event around the WiPC 50th Anniversary. From there the chair will move to the Edinburgh Book Festival where it will reside in the authors' yurt for three weeks. The Empty Chair has been created by students and staff at Lomond School in Helensburgh. Watch out for news of the Empty Chair's travels in this newsletter over the coming months.
Click here to view photos of Scottish PEN's Empty Chair
16 June 2010
News from ... Tunisia: International PEN in joint mission to Tunisia
From 26 April to 6 May 2010, International PEN took part in a Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) fact-finding mission to Tunisia. Since its inception in 2004 TMG has documented a range of worrying violations to the rights of free expression and association in Tunisia. The report from this mission identifies Sihem Bensedrine (2001), General Secretary of the Tunisia PEN Centre featured in the WiPC 50th Anniversary campaign, as one of a few specifically named journalists who have been victims of a defamation campaign against them in the media. She continues life under acute harassment and threat of imprisonment, forcing her to spend much of her time living outside Tunisia. She currently resides in Barcelona as a guest of the International Cities of Refuge Network
Click here to read Behind the Façade : How A Politicised Judiciary & Administrative Sanctions Undermine Tunisian Human
16 June 2010
Mike Exon writes ... 26:50 - Writing for Freedom: Mike Exon, editor and journalist reflects on the WiPC 50th Anniversary and project 26:50.
Exon writes: "It is 2010. In some parts of the world writers are kept under surveillance, threatened, thrown in prison and even assassinated for their work. For those of us living in the West this is hard to believe and easily forgotten. For those of us who write for a living there is always the lurking thought that it could have been us. International PEN campaigns for the right to write and for freedom of expression. Once a year they remember the plight of the persecuted at Free the Word! in London. This year for the 50th anniversary of its Writers in Prison Committee, a group of us from the writers collective 26 took it upon ourselves to mark the occasion with some words of our own. We called the project 26:50."
Click here to read 26:50 - Writing for Freedom
10 June 2010
News from ... English PEN: the inaugural English PEN student group, based at King's College London, performed Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World on 30 March 2010.
Students from King's College London performed extracts from English PEN's anthology Another Sky, a collection of writings from prison around the world, first performed at the National Theatre, on 30 March 2010. The English PEN student group at King's College London work in collaboration with English PEN, campaigning and letter writing on behalf of persecuted Sri Lankan journalists all year.
Click here for more information
Click here to see pictures from the performance
10 June 2010
News from ...Sydney PEN: Sydney PEN ran two events at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May 2010, PEN Gives Voice, hosted by John Ralston Saul, and The Painted Chairs.
John Ralston Saul, President of International PEN, led an all-star line-up of authors reading works by writers imprisoned for their words. PEN Gives Voice featured Colm Tóibín, Eric Lax, Yiyun Li, Thomas Keneally, Frank Moorhouse, Larissa Behrendt and Peter Carey. The Painted Chairs is an installation of fourteen empty chairs painted by major Australian Artists, including Ken Done and Cressida Campbell.
Click here to view The Painted Chairs
Click here to read more about PEN Gives Voice
10 June 2010
News from ... Suisse Romande PEN: Suisse Romande PEN collected hundreds of signatures at their stand at the Geneva International Books and Press Fair on behalf of imprisoned writers in China and Vietnam, including Nguyen Chi Thien (1971).
At the Geneva International Books and Press Fair (28 April - 2 May 2010) Suisse Romande PEN used their information stand to collect signatures in support of Trân Khai Thanh Thuy and Pham Thanh Nghiên in Viêt Nam, and He Depu and Liu Xiaobo in China and to promote the work of imprisoned Vietnamese and Chinese writers including the Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien (1971). Honorary members of Suisse Romande PEN include Sihem Bensedrine (2001).
Suisse Romande PEN petition
Suisse Romande PEN profile of Sihem Bensedrine.
27 May 2010
News from ... Ragip Zarakolu (1991): Zarakolu, publisher and human rights activist, on trial in Turkey since May 2009, expects a verdict at his next trial hearing on 10 June 2010.
Ragip Zarakolu, who has been subject to harassment, trials and periods of imprisonment since the 1970s, faces a prison sentence of more than seven years for publishing the novel More difficult decisions than death written by N. Mehmet Güler. If Zarakolu is convicted on 10 June, International Pen will consider Turkey to be in breach of its obligations under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Click here to find out what you can do to appeal to the Turkish authorities on Ragip's behalf
24 May 2010
News from ... Dawit Isaak (2002): Esayas Isaak, Dawit Isaak's brother, published an article in The Guardian, appealing for ‘efforts at the EU level' to free Dawit, a Swedish journalist who Eritrea has held without charge for eight years.
"While we cannot be sure that there is a heaven, three weeks ago we received partial confirmation that hell is a reality with a known location. Its address is the infamous Eiraeiro prison in Eritrea, 10 miles north of the capital city Asmara, where 35 high-level political prisoners of the Eritrean regime have been held captive in recent years. Fifteen of these prisoners are known to have died, nine are suffering from serious medical problems and the others are enduring brutal prison conditions. One of them is the journalist Dawit Isaak, a Swedish citizen, who was first detained in 2001. He was briefly released in 2005, only to be rearrested again within days. In all of his eight and a half years of detention, he has never been formally charged with a crime. Isaak and nine journalist colleagues were arrested seemingly for nothing more than criticising the lack of press freedom and democratic debate in Eritrea." On 15 November, PEN's Day of the Imprisoned Writer, Isaak was awarded the 2009 Tucholsky Award by Swedish PEN. Isaak is an Honorary Member of American PEN, PEN Canada and Swedish PEN.
Click here to read Esayas Isaak's article
20 May 2010
News from ... Sydney PEN: Sydney Writers' Festival features excerpts from Nurmuhemmet Yasin's The Wild Pigeon and writing by Liu Xiaobo (2009)
A twist on Sydney PEN's The Empty Chair campaign on behalf of imprisoned writers, 15 of Australia's leading artists have created original artworks from chairs of their choosing in an installation called The Painted Chairs. Accompanying the exhibition is a haunting sound installation by Gregory Ferris featuring words by writers imprisoned in the Asian and Pacific region, including Liu Xiaobo, and Nurmuhemmet Yasin's fable The Wild Pigeon - a short, tragic and beautiful tale of a bird that is captured by humans - for which Yasin received 10 years in prison and his publisher three years. Ughur PEN has launched a campaign for Yasin, which includes arranging public readings of his fable across the world
Click here for more information on Uyghur PEN's The Wild Pigeon Campaign
Click here for more information on The Painted Chairs
13 May 2010
News from ... Free the Word! Literary Reading Texts Now Available.
The International Pen Writers in Prison Committee hosted three events over the course of Free the Word! 2010. Speakers included Nawal El Sadaawi (1981) and Irakli Kakabadze. Featured authors included Georgi Markov (1978), Shahrnush Parsipur (1974), Rajat Neogy (1968) and Martha Kuwee Kumsa (1984).
Click here for Literary Reading Texts
13 May 2010
To see the festival in photographs, including Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee and Nawal El Sadaawi (1981), click here!
29 April 2010
Xose Luis Mendez Ferrin (1972) writes ... thank you International PEN!: Xose Luis Mendez Ferrin (1972) in a letter to PEN sent 19 April 2010 remembers Peter Elstob, former General Secretary of International PEN, visiting him during his trial in Spain and thanks PEN for their help and support
In 1972, Xose Luis Mendez Ferrin was arrested and sentenced to two years imprisonment because an unpublished manuscript found in his house by the police had been considered to be a criticism of the Spanish Government. A letter signed by the then Chairman of the Writers in Prison Committee had been sent to the then Foreign Minister Lopez Bravo appealing for clemency on his behalf. There had been no reply. Peter Elstob, the historian, publisher and writer who would go on to become General Secretary of International PEN two years later, and Vice-President of International Pen in 1981, visited Méndez Ferrín in prison and represented International PEN at the hearing of the appeal later that year. Elstob said "Senor Méndez was a very brave man who had considered it his duty to his country, Galicia, to serve his prison sentence, although he could easily have escaped from Spain."
Read Elstob's obituary in The Independent
Read Mendez Ferrin's letter (Spanish)
Read Mendez Ferrin's letter (in Spanish with English translation)
29 April 2010
Elise Valmorbida writes ... Murder in the Margins: A review of Free the Word! literary festival (14th-18th April 2010) and 26:50, a creative partnership between 26 and International PEN
"The 50 poems, prose pieces, musings and reflections that came out of 26:50 highlight how words can have such powerful impact to inspire and continue important stories beyond their original telling. PEN feels very privileged and fortunate to have the ongoing support of 26, especially in 2010 as it's a very significant year for us." Emily Bromfield, Communications Director, International PEN
Excerpt from Murder in the Margins: We wrote 50 free words inspired by those 50 suppressed writers [...]The last 50 words were dedicated to the unnamed writer. This is the most prolific author of all: Anonymous. This person may have fought and failed. Or is fighting now for the right to write. Or this is the person who, tomorrow, somewhere, noiselessly, will be silenced.
Read Murder in the Margins in full
Visit the 26 website
21 April 2010
News from ... Free the word!: International PEN's third literary festival got under way in London last Thursday. Speakers included Nawal El Saadawi (1981) who spoke to a full house and created great media coverage:
Free the Word! 14 - 18 April 2010 presents the great writers you know and the great writers you don't, including Nobel prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, Cuban Noir novelist Leonardo Padura and a rare appearance by US author Richard Ford in conversation with Blake Morrison. In the run up to the festival, 26 - an association for writers and editors - and PEN have joined forces to mark 50 years of the International PEN Writers in Prison Committee. Read Frances Booth's piece about 26:50 and Free the Word! in the Guardian.
Read the inspiring interview with Nawal El Saadawi in the Guardian
Read more about Free the Word!
Look out for more material on the Festival in our bulletin next week.
21 April 2010
News from ... Maureen Freely: Radio 4 broadcasts The Ambassador's Reception, an examination of the situation for writers in Turkey
"Being thrown out of the US embassy in Ankara with Arthur Miller - a voluntary exile - was one of the proudest moments of my life." In March 1985 Harold Pinter and American playwright Arthur Miller took a trip to Turkey that culminated in their being thrown out of the American Ambassador's dinner party held in Arthur Miller's honour. They were not in Turkey for a play or a literary event but to draw attention to the ruthless limits being set on freedom of expression in Turkey at that time, and the many writers languishing in prison. 30 years after Pinter and Miller's famous visit, Maureen Freely examines the current situation for writers in Turkey
Read more about the broadcast
21 April 2010
Lucina Kathmann writes ... Lucina Kathmann, Vice President of International Pen reflects on 50 years of the Writers in Prison Committee
"I remember my hands shaking as I faxed Fujimori's office in Peru, knowing that probably nobody else was telling them that a journalist in a remote province had been taken away by an army officer right as he was in the office of the constabulary denouncing this very officer. There wasn't a moment to spare. Days later I heard the colleague had been released. Whew! I no longer remember his name. Absurdly, I remember the name of the army officer who was trying to kill him..."
Read more
31 March 2010
News from ... Ragip Zarakolu (1991): Zarakolu faces prison sentence of over seven years
Publisher Ragip Zarakolu and author Mehmet Güler, on trial in Turkey since May 2009, face prison sentences of up to seven and half years for Güler's novel More Difficult Decisions than Death. Both are accused under article 7/2 of the Anti Terror Law of "spreading propaganda" for the banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). A verdict is expected to be given at the next trial hearing, due 10 June. International PEN considers the charges against Zarakolu and Güler to be in violation of their right to freedom of expression.
Read more
31 March 2010
Lucy Popescu, San Miguel PEN writes ... Freedom of Expression in Mexico - From Jose Revueltas to Lydia Cacho
Lucy Popescu is a member of San Miguel PEN. She recently wrote an article on Freedom of Expression in Mexico: "José Revueltas was imprisoned by the state for his political activities, his beliefs and his writing. PEN's Writers in Prison Committee lobbied both the Mexican government for his release and sent appeals to the directors of Mexican prisons, which sometimes resulted in better treatment for the political prisoners. Today, writers and journalists in Mexico are facing an insidious, subtle and, some would say, far more deadly form of persecution..."
Read more
31 March 2010
Azar Mahloujian, Swedish PEN writes ... Faraj Bayrakdar (1988): A Guide Through the Labyrinth of Evil
Azar Mahloujian, Swedish PEN has written A Satanic Comedy from the Prisons of the Syrian Security Police. This article, translated from the Swedish, is a Swedish Radio P1, OBS item first published in 2007: "I begin to read Faraj Bayrakdar and I feel what he describes inside me. My eyes darken when I read about a chair which sits on a human being and not the contrary. I feel sick by imagining a dead rat which stops in the throat of a prisoner. I feel suffocating. No, I do not want to be part in this humiliation, it is too laborious, demands too much of me. I am no masochist, why should I give me in this world of humiliation? I say to myself, and put the book aside..."
Read more
2 March 2010
News from ... Taslima Nasrin (1996): Article by Nasrin causes violent unrest in Karnataka
Police have been put on alert in India's Karnataka state after violence over an article by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin left two people dead.
Read more
February 2010
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman writes ... Because Writers Speak Their Minds: 50 Years Defending Freedom of Expression
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Vice-President of International PEN and former chair of the Writers in Prison Committee, wrote about Because Writers Speak Their Minds in her blog in February: "During 25 years of working on freedom of expression, I've had the privilege of knowing and working with committed writers around the world who advocate on behalf of their threatened colleagues. It is a global network. If one were to map it, one would see intricate, criss-crossing corridors ... "
Read more
26 February 2010
News from ... Aung San Suu Kyi (1990): Latest appeal to Burma's Supreme Court is rejected
The Supreme Court in Burma has rejected an appeal by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against an extension of her house arrest.
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