Visitors: 185 May 8, 2011 (Kampala) – The Ugandan government should conduct a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation into the use of lethal force by security forces to counter recent demonstrations and rioting throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The violence took place over several days in April when demonstrators protested against wasteful […]
Visitors: 166 World Press Freedom DayStrasbourg/London, 02.05.2011 – The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the President of PEN International, John Ralston Saul, today made the following joint statement to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. They added that they are making this joint statement to express their concern […]
Visitors: 159 World Press Freedom DayStrasbourg/London, 02.05.2011 – The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the President of PEN International, John Ralston Saul, today made the following joint statement to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. They added that they are making this joint statement to express their concern […]
Visitors: 157 World Press Freedom DayStrasbourg/London, 02.05.2011 – The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the President of PEN International, John Ralston Saul, today made the following joint statement to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. They added that they are making this joint statement to express their concern […]
Visitors: 154 27 April 2011 PEN International strongly supports the repeal of Ireland’s Defamation Act of 2009 and an amendment to the Irish Constitution’s requirement that blasphemy be prohibited under Irish law. PEN is an organization whose members pledge to promote good understanding and mutual respect between nations and to do their utmost to dispel […]
Visitors: 185 27 April 2011 PEN International strongly supports the repeal of Ireland’s Defamation Act of 2009 and an amendment to the Irish Constitution’s requirement that blasphemy be prohibited under Irish law. PEN is an organization whose members pledge to promote good understanding and mutual respect between nations and to do their utmost to dispel […]
Visitors: 178 27 April 2011 PEN International strongly supports the repeal of Ireland’s Defamation Act of 2009 and an amendment to the Irish Constitution’s requirement that blasphemy be prohibited under Irish law. PEN is an organization whose members pledge to promote good understanding and mutual respect between nations and to do their utmost to dispel […]
Visitors: 151 28 March 2011, the body of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia‘s son, Juan Francisco Sicilia, and five others were found in a car in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City. Media reports indicate that their bodies bore signs of torture and were accompanied by a note signed by the Gulf cartel, accusing the victims of […]
Visitors: 180 28 March 2011, the body of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia‘s son, Juan Francisco Sicilia, and five others were found in a car in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City. Media reports indicate that their bodies bore signs of torture and were accompanied by a note signed by the Gulf cartel, accusing the victims of […]
Visitors: 176 London, UK, 31 March 2011-PEN International praises the U.N. Human Rights Council for its recent unanimous vote on the right of all individuals to practice religion, which ended a thirteen-year campaign by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to make blasphemy a crime. “Freedom of expression may cause discomfort, but it is […]
Visitors: 181 London, UK, 31 March 2011-PEN International praises the U.N. Human Rights Council for its recent unanimous vote on the right of all individuals to practice religion, which ended a thirteen-year campaign by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to make blasphemy a crime. “Freedom of expression may cause discomfort, but it is […]
Visitors: 157 London, UK, 31 March 2011-PEN International praises the U.N. Human Rights Council for its recent unanimous vote on the right of all individuals to practice religion, which ended a thirteen-year campaign by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to make blasphemy a crime. “Freedom of expression may cause discomfort, but it is […]
Visitors: 166 14 March 2011 On 10 March 2011, Ragip Zarakolu, publisher and free expression activist, was sentenced to a fine, and author Mehmet Güler to a 15-month suspended prison term. The two were convicted of spreading propaganda seen to support the banned Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), following the publication of Mehmet Güler’s book The […]
Visitors: 165 14 March 2011 On 10 March 2011, Ragip Zarakolu, publisher and free expression activist, was sentenced to a fine, and author Mehmet Güler to a 15-month suspended prison term. The two were convicted of spreading propaganda seen to support the banned Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), following the publication of Mehmet Güler’s book The […]
Visitors: 205 14 March 2011 On 10 March 2011, Ragip Zarakolu, publisher and free expression activist, was sentenced to a fine, and author Mehmet Güler to a 15-month suspended prison term. The two were convicted of spreading propaganda seen to support the banned Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), following the publication of Mehmet Güler’s book The […]
Visitors: 146 Recent events following the flawed presidential elections in Belarus have seen the continued detention, maltreatment and impending prosecution of a number of writers and journalists, including members of the Belarus PEN Centre. In response to this situation, the President of PEN International, John Ralston Saul, PEN’s International Secretary, Hori Takeaki, and the Chair […]
Visitors: 149 31 January, 2011-In the wake of the welcome and peaceful move towards democracy in Tunisia, PEN International notes with great concern the violent response to antigovernment protests elsewhere in the region, notably Egypt, but also in Yemen. “PEN International warmly welcomes the democratic developments in Tunisia,” said John Ralston Saul, President of PEN […]
Visitors: 177 LONDON, 15 November 2010-The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International commemorates its fiftieth year in 2010, on the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer, and pays tribute to 41 writers around the world who have been killed in the last year. “The Writers in Prison Committee has played a leading role in […]
Visitors: 565 CUBA The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN is delighted at the news of the release of three more Cuban journalists imprisoned since 2003. Fabio Prieto Llorente and Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta touched down in Madrid on 19 August 2010 while Juan Adolfo Fernández Saínz (pictured below) arrived the next day, […]
Visitors: 196 Singapore officials should cease using criminal defamation and contempt laws to silence government critics, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrest of Alan Shadrake, the 75-year-old British author of Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, a critical review of Singapore’s death penalty law and its administration, further narrows the space […]
Visitors: 188 The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC) protests in the strongest possible terms the murder of Jean Leonard Rugambage, deputy editor of the banned newspaper Umuvugizi, who was shot dead outside his home on 24 June 2010. Rugambage had reportedly been followed and threatened prior to his death and it is […]
Visitors: 165 The Writers for Peace Committee follows the Lugano Declaration in condemning individual terrorism as well as State terrorism; we declare that those who resort to violence, even for a good cause, “annull the missions to which they are dedicated and lose all claims to legitimacy” (quoted from the Statement of the 50th Congress […]
Visitors: 224 The Government of West Bengal must drop false charges against Kirity Roy and other human rights defenders and hold the State police accountable for harassment and intimidation, Amnesty International said today. Kirity Roy, Secretary of the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) – a human rights organization in West Bengal – was arrested by […]
Visitors: 170 I. Freedom of Expression or Owners’ Orders? The Western world thinks that media in Ukraine are relatively free, and that Ukraine is the most democratic country in the CIS space in the information and media sphere. But in reality there is a big difference between the way democratic rules and standards are applied […]
Visitors: 177 London International PEN announced today the launch of a year-long campaign in celebration of the Writers in Prison Committee’s 50th anniversary. The campaign-Because Writers Speak Their Minds-marks 50 years of defending freedom of expression around the world.“International PEN was created out of the scars of World War I to bring societies back together […]