The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is calling on PEN Members and Friends of PEN worldwide to focus on the plight of their colleagues in Turkey throughout the month of June 2003. PEN members, supporters and friends are urged to take part in this campaign by sending appeals to the Turkish authorities: urging the release of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish politician and writer who is in prison; urging that the charges facing Ömer Asan for his book The Culture of the Pontus be dropped; highlighting the Turkish government's international freedom of expression obligations; urging that the repressive legislation giving rise to violations of free expression be abolished. Turkey underwent profound political changes in 2002 and adopted several measures to improve its human rights record. As a result, the country is now on course to join the European Union - an outcome it has long desired. In the 1980s and 1990s, the then government's repression of human rights and freedom of expression was extremely severe and seemed almost intractable. PEN recorded dozens of writers in prison at any one time, some serving sentences of over a hundred years, such as PEN Honorary Member Ismail Besikci . However, the quest for EU membership resulted in a set of democratization measures being recently implemented and today there is only one writer - the Kurdish politician and journalist Leyla Zana - to PEN's certain knowledge who is in prison for exercising the right to freedom of expression. Despite the decreased use of imprisonment to silence dissent, a country free from censorship is still far from being realized. Writers, editors, journalists and publishers continue to face protracted prosecutions, fines and possible imprisonment if they wish explore certain topics that remain 'taboo'. The country's ethnic minorities, its relations with its neighbors, Marxism, and human sexuality are among subjects that, if broached, routinely result in court proceedings and book bannings. PEN is mounting a campaign to urge Turkey to take its democratization process one important stage further, and to allow the free discussion of these and other hitherto censored subjects. It argues that democracies thrive when unfettered debate is encouraged, not proscribed, and that societies without censorship gain much from hearing the multifaceted views of all its members. In particular, it is urging that the many legal charges still facing writers, journalists and publishers be dropped and that Leyla Zana in particular be freed. More information on the campaign and how you can take action can be accessed by clicking on the links below. Please contact ftw@pen.org if you have any questions. Photo above courtesy of www.photomann.com LINKS: Repressive Legislation Background Information Leyla Zana's Case Ömer Asan's Case