December 10, 2007:
Writers Demand Release of Jailed Colleagues Before Beijing Olympics
World-renowned writers from China and North America marked International Human Rights Day today by launching 40:242 – We are Ready For Freedom of Expression, a campaign that challenges the Chinese government to release all of the writers and journalists it is holding in prisons before the August 8, 2008 opening of the Olympic Games. >> More
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November 15, 2007:
Day of the Imprisoned Writer
Each year, PEN monitors around 1,000 attacks against writers, journalists, poets, publishers, and editors worldwide. These threats range from persistent harassment to prison sentences and killings. The past year has been no different, with hundreds of writers and journalists detained, and over 40 killed in the practice of their professions.>> More
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November 15, 2007:
Yahoo Settles Civil Lawsuit with Families of Chinese Cyber-dissidents
PEN American Center today welcomed the news that Yahoo has settled a lawsuit brought by families of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, two Chinese cyber-dissidents who were jailed for their writings after Yahoo revealed their identities to the Chinese government.
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November 12, 2007:
Announcing $10,000 Award for First Amendment Defender
PEN American Center and the Katherine Anne Porter Foundation today unveiled a new $10,000 prize for ordinary people who take extraordinary stands to defend the First Amendment in the United States.>> More
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October 31, 2007:
PEN Urges Senators to Insist on Clear Rejection of Abusive Interrogations
Disturbed by the reluctance of attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey to speak clearly and forcefully against torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment during his confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, PEN is urging senators to demand clarifications and insist that approval of his nomination be contingent on a repudiation of illegal, abusive interrogations.
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October 29, 2007:
China Releases Tibetan Monk from Prison After 18 Years
PEN American Center today hailed the release of Ven. Ngawang Phulchung, a senior monk of Drepung Monastery in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa who was jailed in 1989 for publishing literature critical of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
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October 24, 2007 | Bloomberg | Abused Cuban Journalist, Spirit Strong, Worsening in Hospital
Imprisoned Cuban journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, hospitalized last month, faces medical procedures today that family members said could further imperil his already fragile health. >> More
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October 23, 2007:
House Foreign Affairs Committee Unanimously Passes Global Online Freedom Act
PEN American Center today praised the House Foreign Affairs Committee's unanimous vote in favor of the Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, and urged Congress to move swiftly to
enact a bill it says is essential to ensure American internet service
providers do not assist regimes that suppress free expression on the internet and persecute cyber-dissidents. >> More
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October 17, 2007:
House Passes Historic Federal Shield Law: Bill Protects Public’s Right to Know
PEN American Center reacted with elation to yesterday’s bipartisan 398-21 vote in the House of Representatives in favor of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007, calling the House’s action an essential clarification of the right of journalists to protect confidential sources and an overwhelming affirmation of our country’s bedrock commitment to freedom of the press. >> More
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October 12, 2007:
China Cracks Down on Media on Eve of Party Congress
PEN American Center today expressed alarm over tightening controls on the media in advance of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which opens Monday in Beijing. >> More
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October 1, 2007:
PEN, Co-Plaintiffs Settle OFAC Lawsuit
PEN joined publishing industry co-plaintiffs today in announcing that they have successfully resolved their lawsuit against the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). >> More
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September 25, 2007: PEN Applauds Introduction of NSL Reform Act
The Campaign for Reader Privacy, a coalition of organizations representing librarians, booksellers, publishers, and authors, cheered the introduction today of legislation to safeguard the privacy of ordinary Americans and curb the FBI’s abuse of the National Security Letter power granted under the USA Patriot Act. >> More
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September 21, 2007:
Iran Frees Scholar Kian Tajbakhsh
PEN American Center welcomed the release of Kian Tajbakhsh, a social scientist and urban planner who was arrested at his home in Tehran on or about May 11, 2007, and held in Evin prison. >> More
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August 21, 2007:
PEN Welcomes Release of Haleh Esfandiari in Iran; Awaits News of Kian Tajbakhsh
PEN American Center welcomed today’s release on bail of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East program for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and also a dual U.S. and Iranian citizen. >> More
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July 26, 2007:
PEN Hails Release of Tunisian Writer Who Denounced Torture
PEN American Center hailed the release this week of Mohammed Abbou, an Internet writer, lawyer, and human rights activist who was arrested on March 1, 2005, for an article published on the Internet nine months earlier that denounced torture in Tunisia. >> More
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June 22, 2007:
PEN Honorary Member Nguyen Vu Binh Released in Vietnam
PEN welcomes the early release on June 9, 2007 of Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Vu Binh. >> More
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June 22, 2007:
PEN American Center Urges Rejection of Academic Boycotts
PEN has released a statement of principle opposing academic and cultural boycotts, saying such actions threaten the internationally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. >> More
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June 19, 2007:
PEN Praises Senate Bill on Iraqi Refugees
PEN applauded the introduction of legislation to accelerate and expand programs to resettle threatened Iraqi translators, journalists, and other vulnerable refugees in the United States, calling the Senate’s Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act “an important affirmation of our most basic values and the kind of approach the United States needs to take to this urgent and growing crisis.” >> More
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May 25, 2007:
PEN Condemns New Arrests in Iran
PEN American Center has expressed alarm over the arrests of two prominent international scholars in Tehran. >> More
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April 11, 2007:
Campaign for Reader Privacy Welcomes Testimony by 'Gagged' Librarian
Following dramatic testimony from a Connecticut librarian who successfully challenged an abusive FBI National Security Letter (NSL), the Campaign called on Congress to restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act. >> More
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April 10, 2007:
Jailed Cuban Journalist to Receive PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award
PEN named Normando Hernández González, a Cuban writer and journalist who was arrested along with 74 other journalists and democracy and human rights activists in a March 2003 crackdown, as recipient of its 2007 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. >> More
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April 2, 2007:
Philip Roth Wins Inaugural PEN/Saul Bellow Award
Novelist Philip Roth will be the first recipient of a major new literary prize, the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. With a stipend of $40,000, the Award is the largest of PEN’s literary prizes and will be conferred biennially. >> More
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March 29, 2007:
In Congress, PEN Presses for Action on Iraqi Refugees
In
testimony presented to Congress this week, journalist and PEN Trustee
George Packer urged the U.S. government to clarify and streamline the
process for resettling Iraqis targeted for death for perceived
“collaboration” with American and western organizations. >> More
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March 20, 2007:
PEN American Center Elects Francine Prose as New President
PEN announced today the election of Francine Prose, the acclaimed novelist, short-story writer, and essayist, as its next president. >> More
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March 8, 2007:
International Women’s Day
Over 60 women writers and journalists have come under attack for the practice of their right to freedom of expression in the past year. On March 8, 2007, International Women’s Day, PEN commemorates those women who have come under attack for the practice of their professions. >> More
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February 28, 2007:
PEN, Co-Plaintiffs File New Challenge to “Ideological Exclusion”
Responding to the United States government’s most recent explanation for denying a visa to Tariq Ramadan, PEN American Center has joined with the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors, and the ACLE in filing a new motion in federal court to strike down a Patriot Act provision that allows the government to refuse entry to foreign scholars because of their political views. >> More
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January 19, 2007:
PEN Alarmed by Murder of Armenian-Turkish Journalist
PEN is appalled by the news of the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist and PEN Honorary Member Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul on January 19. >> More
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2006
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November 30, 2006:
Free Speech Groups Urge Court to Reject FCC Censorship
New standards adopted by the Federal Communications Commission to censor “indecency” on the airwaves are overly vague and unconstitutional, a coalition of 20 free speech organizations, community broadcasters, filmmakers, performers and writers argued in a legal brief filed today. >> More
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November 28, 2006:
Call for a repeal of Article 301 in Turkey
To ensure that PEN’s concerns are heard at this stage of the debate, International PEN issued a joint statement with Article 19 and the International Publisher’s Association calling for the repeal of Article 301. >> More
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November 15, 2006:
Day of the Imprisoned Writer
PEN marks the the 26th Writers in Prison Day with a campaign in defense of nearly 100 writers and journalists around the world who are in prison or facing custodial sentences for alleged defamation or "insult." >> More
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October 13, 2006:
PEN alarmed at recent crackdown on writers in China
Three writers, Zhang Jianhong, Yang Maodong, and Chen Shuqing, all members of Independent Chinese PEN center (ICPC), have been detained in recent weeks. >> More
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October 7, 2006:
PEN Statement on the Murder of Anna Politkovskaya in Russia
PEN is appalled by the news of the murder of renowned Russian journalist and author Anna Politkovskaya, who was found shot dead in an elevator in her apartment building in Moscow. >> More
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October 3, 2006:
PEN delivers press freedom petition to Congress
Ron Chernow brought PEN’s concerns over surveillance and threats against the press to Washington last week, opening a National Press Club program that revealed how far government is reaching into the lives and work of journalists, writers, and librarians. >> More
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October 3, 2006:
Announcing the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
This biennial prize will go to the author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction. >> More
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September 26, 2006:
United States closes door again on Tariq Ramadan
The U.S. government has again blocked Tariq Ramadan from visiting the United States, this time after being ordered by a Federal District Judge to act on a visa application the Swiss-born Oxford University professor submitted last September. >> More
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September 21, 2006:
PEN sounds alarm on threats against press in the U.S.
Troubled by recent attacks on newspapers and reporters for breaking stories on controversial antiterrorism programs, more than 1,100 PEN Members and supporters have signed a petition expressing concern over the climate for press freedom in the United States. >> More
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September 21, 2006:
Author Elif Shafak acquitted in Turkey
Shafak was acquitted of charges at a hearing held in the Beyoglu Court of First Instance in Istanbul, bringing to a close one of the most prominent cases in a surge of legal proceedings against literary figures in Turkey. >> More
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September 14, 2006:
Program to celebrate First Amendment champions
Eight individuals who have taken risky, at times harrowing stands on behalf of the First Amendment in recent months will discuss their experiences at an upcoming program in Washington, DC. >> More
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September 14, 2006
PEN announces new Festival director after worldwide search
PEN announced today that Caro Llewellyn of Australia had been appointed Director of PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature. >> More
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August 30, 2006:
PEN Welcomes Release of Ramin Jahanbegloo in Iran
PEN welcomed today’s release of Ramin Jahanbegloo, an Iranian writer and intellectual who was arrested at Tehran airport on April 27, 2006. >> More
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Turkey Background Briefing: July 2006
Sometime in the next several months, Elif Shafak will appear before an Istanbul court on charges of “insulting Turkishness.” She will be the third prominent novelist to be hauled into court in Turkey in just over a year. >> More
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July 24, 2006:
Akbar Ganji on Writing and Freedom of Expression in Iran
PEN welcomed Akbar Ganji, one of Iran's most prominent champions of human rights and freedom of expression, to New York City today to discuss writing, free expression, and recent developments in Iran. >> More
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June 14, 2006:
PEN Welcomes Release of Algerian Newspaper Publisher, Mohammed Benchicou
Benchicou, who received one of two 2006 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards, was released this morning from El-Harrach Prison in Algiers. >> More
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June 23, 2006:
PEN praises ruling in lawsuit challenging visa denials
PEN hailed a ruling challenging the U.S. government’s refusal to issue a visa to a prominent Muslim scholar, calling the court’s order to process Professor Tariq Ramadan’s visa application “a clear and articulate affirmation of the First Amendment rights of Americans. >> More
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May 27, 2006:
PEN Congress reasserts the role of literature in a world without peace
Horst Köhler, Federal President of Germany, welcomed more than 450 writers from PEN Centres around the world to Berlin at the opening ceremony of International PEN’s annual Congress. >> More
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May 3, 2006:
World Press Freedom Day
A free media helps to promote transparency and accountability in governance which are central to countering the corruption that is prevalent in so many countries around the
world. >> More
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April 17, 2006:
Turkmen Writer Defeats Travel Ban, Arrives in United States to Receive PEN Prize
Capping a week of high diplomatic drama, prominent Turkmen novelist and dissident Rakhim Esenov boarded a plane last night in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to travel to the United States. >> More
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April 14, 2006:
Turkmen Authorities Threatening to Prevent Writer from Accepting PEN Prize
PEN is protesting an attempt by the government of Turkeminstan to prevent prominent novelist and dissident Rakhim Esenov from traveling to New York to receive a 2006 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. >> More
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April 4, 2006:
PEN expresses alarm over detention of Gambian independent paper editor & manager
We are writing to express our alarm over the continued detention of Musa Saidykhan and Madi Ceesay, who have now been in custody for one week without being informed of the reasons. >> More
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March 31, 2006:
Andrej Dynko released on expiry of sentence; prison diary published
Writer and journalist Andrej Dynko, arrested with hundreds of other protestors in the days surrounding the March 19th presidential elections, was freed today after serving a 10-day sentence. >> More
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March 29, 2006:
PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Winners
PEN named Mohammed Benchicou and Rakhim Esenov as recipients of its 2006 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. >> More
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March 29, 2006:
2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award
PEN has named Sibel Edmonds, a translator who was fired from her job at the FBI after complaining of intelligence failures and poor performance in her unit, as the recipient of this year’s prestigious PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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March 29, 2006:
Russian PEN at risk
PEN is deeply concerned about recent charges brought against Russian PEN that could force the center to close. >> More
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March 28, 2006:
Egyptian Publisher to Receive Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award
Egyptian publisher Mohamed Hashem, whose commitment to publishing works of critical thinking has brought him into conflict with civil and religious authorities, will receive this year’s Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award. >> More
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March 8, 2006:
International Women's Day
To mark International Women's Day on March 8, International PEN Writers in Prison Committee is focusing on the case of the Mexican writer and journalist Lydia Cacho. >> More
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March 4, 2006:
International PEN Writers in Prison Committee meets in Istanbul
At meetings focusing on PEN's global program, the members planned the launch of a campaign against insult and criminal defamation laws under which writers and journalists are imprisoned worldwide, including Article 301 in Turkey. >> More
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February 7, 2006:
PEN Protests Action Against Russian PEN Center
PEN American Center expressed alarm today that a Russian court has frozen all assets of the Russian PEN Center under allegations that the organization failed to pay land tax. >> More
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January 25, 2006:
PEN Goes to Court to Challenge Patriot Act Exclusions of Foreign Scholars
PEN has joined in filing a lawsuit challenging a Patriot Act provision that can be used to bar prominent writers and scholars who are critical of U.S. policies from visiting the United States. >> More
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January 25, 2006:
Campaign for Reader Privacy Sends Open Letter to Congress
PEN joined organizations representing booksellers, librarians, publishers, and writers today in delivering a letter to members of the House and Senate urging them not to re-authorize the sections of the USA PATRIOT Act that are due to expire on Feb. 3 without adding additional safeguards for the privacy of bookstore and library records. >> More
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January 23, 2006:
PEN, Rushdie: Extend Pamuk Victory to Other Turkish Writers
PEN welcomed the news today that Turkish prosecutors will not proceed with a court case against novelist Orhan Pamuk, but cautioned that more than a dozen other writers and publishers are still being prosecuted under the same insult law. >> More
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2005
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December 23, 2005:
Patriot Act reauthorization blocked
Senate approved the U.S. House of Representative's last-minute changes to the Patriot Act reauthorization bill, reducing the Patriot Act extension from six months to five weeks. >> More
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December 16, 2005:
PEN denounces postponement in Orhan Pamuk trial
PEN decried the suspension of trial proceedings against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, calling the delay another way to prolong pressure on Pamuk and dozens of other writers and publishers currently being prosecuted in Turkey. >> More
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Nov. 10, 2005:
Tenth anniversary of the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Writers around the world in International PEN are commemorating today the life and death of Nigerian writer Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed ten years ago on November 10, 1995. >> More
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November 10, 2005:
PEN Goes to Court for Documents on Visa Denials
PEN filed a lawsuit today to compel the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security and the CIA to release documents on whether the United States bars prominent international figures from visiting the United States because of their political views. >> More
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November 9, 2005:
Statement on sentencing of International PEN Vice President Predrag Matvejevic
The Writers in Prison Committee condemns the use of criminal defamation laws that led to the conviction of its vice president, Croatian writer Predrag Matvejevic. >> More
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October 14, 2005:
PEN Writes to Senate Appropriations Committee
We are writing to you and your colleagues on the Defense Appropriations conference committee to urge you to ensure that the Senate amendment prohibiting the torture of prisoners in U.S. military custody remains in the final military spending bill. >> More
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October 11, 2005:
PEN Launches Mexico Campaign
As agreed at the 71st International PEN Congress held in Bled in June 2005, the PEN Writers in Prison Committee is staging a campaign in October focusing on freedom of expression issues in Mexico.>> More
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September 14, 2005:
Yahoo! information used to convict Chinese journalist
PEN is alarmed by evidence that information supplied by the Internet Service Provider Yahoo! Inc. was used to convict journalist, poet and dissident writer Shi Tao. >> More
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September 2, 2005:
PEN Protests Charges Against Turkish Author Orhan Pamuk
PEN expressed shock today that world-famous Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk will be brought before an Istanbul court on December 16 and that he faces up to three years in prison for a comment published in a Swiss newspaper earlier this year. >> More
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August 8, 2005:
PEN Hails Release of Saudi Reformers
PEN hailed the release today of Ali Al-Domaini, a leading Saudi literary figure who was one of three prominent intellectuals imprisoned for criticizing the pace and reach of human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia. >> More
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July 25, 2005:
Writers condemn sentences against Saudi reformers, call for increased pressure
PEN expressed deep disappointment that an appeals court has upheld the harsh jail sentences against Saudi poet Ali Al-Domaini and two other reformists accused of petitioning for a constitutional monarchy in the conservative Muslim kingdom. >> More
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June 16, 2005:
House passes Freedom to Read Amendment
Yesterday the House passed Rep. Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) Freedom to Read Amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State (CJS) Appropriations Bill by a vote of 238-187. >> More
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June 3, 2005:
PEN Calls for the Permanent Release from Prison of Journalist Akbar Ganji
Now that Ganji has been released from Evin Prison, we urge that his freedom from incarceration be made permanent and that he not be returned to prison next week. >> More
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May 16, 2005:
International PEN statement on the recent events in Uzbekistan
International PEN is alarmed by recent days' events in Uzbekistan and calls for a lifting of the clamp down on the media reporting from cities affected by unrest, and urges that there be no further killings. >> More
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May 15, 2005:
Writers Condemn Conviction of Poet, Two Other Reform Advocates In Saudi Arabia
PEN reacted with shock to the announcement that Saudi poet Ali Al-Domaini has been sentenced to nine years in prison for criticizing the pace of political reforms in Saudi Arabia. >> More
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May 6, 2005:
Verdict Imminent In Trial Testing Saudi Tolerance For Reform
PEN joined Saudi and international human rights groups in calling for the unconditional release of the reformers, calling the proceedings a key test of whether Saudi citizens will have a voice in shaping their country's political future. >> More
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May 3, 2005:
World Press Freedom Day
To mark this year's May 3rd World Press Freedom Day, PEN is focusing on three cases of attacks on writers and journalists who use the Internet. >> More
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April 28, 2005:
PEN Centers join campaign to end murder of Mexican journalists
PEN Canada, PEN Québec, PEN American Center, and Danish PEN have joined forces with PEN Mexico and other Mexican media and free expression organizations, converging under the banner of Ni Uno Más (Not One More). >> More
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April 4, 2005:
Turkish Publisher to Receive Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award
Abdullah Keskin, the courageous publisher of Avesta, has been selected as the 2005 recipient of the Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award. >> More
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April 4, 2005:
Librarian Who Fought FBI Search to Receive 2005 PEN/Newman’s Own Award
PEN named Joan Airoldi, a librarian and library director in rural Washington State who challenged an FBI effort to search patron records, as the recipient of this year’s prestigious PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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April 4, 2005:
Jailed Saudi author, murdered Gambian publisher to receive 2005 PEN Award
PEN named Ali Al-Domaini, one of three prominent intellectuals currently imprisoned for criticizing the pace and reach of human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia, and Deyda Hydara, a newspaper publisher and press freedom champion, as recipients of its 2005 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. >> More
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March 9, 2005:
Freedom to Read Protection Act Reintroduced in Washington
PEN cheered the reintroduction of the Freedom to Read Protection Act, promising to mobilize readers and book lovers all over the country to press for the restoration by the end of 2005 of privacy safeguards stripped by the USA PATRIOT Act.
>> More
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March 8, 2005:
International Women's Day
This year PEN is focusing on three women under attack for using the Internet to disseminate information and ideas. >> More
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January 5, 2005:
Freedom to Write Award recipient Aung Myint released in Myanmar
PEN welcomed reports that poet and journalist Aung Myint and three other journalists were among more than 50 political prisoners released in Myanmar on January 3. >> More
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January 4, 2005:
PEN urges Senate to examine Gonzales's record on torture policies
PEN asked members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today to use this Thursday's hearings on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as an opportunity to reassert United States commitment to an international ban on torture. >> More
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2004
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December 15, 2004:
Treasury Department Changes Regulations
OFAC issued new regulations today which explicitly permit Americans to engage in "all transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to the publishing and marketing of manuscripts, books, journals, and newspapers in paper or electronic format." >> More
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December 14, 2004:
PEN Condemns Detention of Chinese Writers
PEN expressed alarm that Chinese authorities detained three prominent intellectuals yesterday, including two writers who helped found a new PEN Center to promote the free exchange of literature and ideas in China. >> More
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December 10, 2004:
PEN Welcomes Release of Two Cuban Journalists
PEN welcomes the release of journalists Edel José García Díaz and Jorge Olivera Castillo on health grounds. However, PEN remains concerned that they have only been freed on parole and that they could both still be returned to prison. >> More
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December 9, 2004:
PEN/Newman's Own Award recipient Barbara Parsons Lane given parole
The state has granted parole to a woman who won a $25,000 writing award with the help of best-selling author Wally Lamb. >> More
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December 2, 2004:
Raúl Rivero Castañeda and Oscar Espinosa Chepe released on health grounds
PEN welcomes the release of Raúl Rivero Castañeda and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, reportedly on health grounds. However, PEN remains concerned that they have only been released on parole and that they could both still be returned to prison. >> More
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October 26, 2004:
Nobel Peace Prize winner joins battle for free speech
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has filed suit against the U.S. Treasury Department. >> More
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Oct. 22, 2004:
Uzbek journalist, human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov obtains asylum in the U.S.
PEN is delighted to announce that Uzbek journalist and human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov has obtained political asylum in the United States and is now with members of his family in California. >> More
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October 8, 2004:
PEN protests the recent denial of entry visas to Cuban scholars
We register our profound concern over the recent denial of entry visas to 61 Cuban scholars who were scheduled to participate in this week's congress of the Latin American Studies Association in Las Vegas. >> More
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September 29, 2004:
PEN presents signatures to Congress in support of amending Patriot Act
Organizations representing booksellers, librarians, publishers and authors went to Capitol Hill today to seek an amendment to Section 215 of the Patriot Act to restore due process and confidentiality to bookstore and library records. >> More
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September 27, 2004:
PEN, publishers file suit to overturn information restrictions
PEN joined publishing groups in filing suit in a challenge to regulations governing the publication of informational materials from countries subject to U.S. trade embargo. >> More
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July 20, 2004:
PEN and CPJ protest U.S. decision to revoke Cuban journalist's visa
We express our shock and extreme concern that the U.S. State Department recently revoked Cuban independent journalist Bernardo Arévalo Padrón's refugee visa, just over one month before he was scheduled to travel to the United States. >> More
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July 19, 2004:
International PEN Writers in Prison Committee Cuba Campaign
Thirty-two writers, journalists, and librarians were sentenced during one-day trials held in early April 2003 under laws governing the protection of the Cuban state. >> More
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July 8, 2004:
PEN to intensify Reader Privacy efforts after controversial House vote
PEN vowed to continue the drive to restore reader privacy protections after an effort to halt the funding that allows the government to conduct searches of bookstore and library records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act fell just one vote short of passing in the House today. >> More
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June 18, 2004:
PEN welcomes release of Vietnamese Internet dissident Lê Chi Quang
PEN hailed the releaseof Lê Chi Quang, an Internet activist whose critical essays about the Vietnamese government earned him a four-year prison term followed by three years of house arrest. >> More
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May 21, 2004:
Fifth biennial conference of Writers in Prison Committee
Delegates attending the conference recognised that these are dark days for the right to freedom of expression, but reaffirmed their belief that the role of the writer is more important than ever.
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May 3, 2004:
PEN calls on President to abandon Patriot Act politics
PEN is calling on President Bush to lead an open, bipartisan evaluation of individual provisions of the Act that are scheduled to sunset in 2005. >> More
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April 14, 2004:
Vaclav Havel and Nobel laureates call For release of imprisoned Burmese writers
Nobel laureates are joining Vaclav Havel to urge Senior General Than Shwe of the Burmese Military Junta to immediately release Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other Burmese writers. >> More
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April 14, 2004:
PEN welcomes developments in prison writing suit, workshop suspension
Yesterday's meeting resulted in assurances from the Commissioner that the program would be allowed to resume, that reports that some computer files had been erased would be investigated, and that Lamb and Griffith would continue to lead the program. >> More
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April 13, 2004:
Letter demands release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other writers
We are profoundly disturbed by the open, unchecked, and accelerating suppression of the internationally acclaimed peaceful movement for democracy in the Union of Myanmar. >> More
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April 5, 2004:
First Amendment problems remain in wake of latest OFAC pronouncement
A letter sent by the director of OFAC to the IEEE leaves many questions unanswered with respect to Treasury Department regulations governing the publication of informational materials from countries subject to U.S. trade embargo. >> More
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April 5, 2004:
PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award recipient announced
PEN has named Barbara Parsons Lane, one of eight incarcerated writers who were sued by the State of Connecticut after contributing to Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters, as the recipient of this year's PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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April 5, 2004:
PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Recipients Announced
Nasser Zarafshan, a writer serving a five-year prison term in Iran, and Le Chi Quang, whose essays about the Vietnamese government earned him a four-year prison term, have reeceived the 2004 Awards. >> More
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March 4, 2004:
PEN protests Treasury Department regulations that interfere with publishing
PEN requests an immediate review of OFAC regulations that could be interpreted to bar or restrict in any way the publication of literature-and indeed any information and informational materials-originating in countries subject to U.S. trade embargo. >> More
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February 17, 2004:
Book, library groups launch Patriot Act petition campaign
PEN joined booksellers and librarians and writers to launch a nationwide effort to obtain one million signatures in support of legislation to amend Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. >> More
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2003
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December 4, 2003:
International PEN´s Mexico City Congress condemns attacks on writers worldwide
Attacks on writers and journalists around the world was central to the discussions at PEN´s 69th International Congress, held in Mexico City in November. >> More
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November 19, 2003:
PEN hails releases of Tunisian e-zine writer and Cuban journalist
PEN hailed the release of Zouhair Yahyaoui, an Internet activist whose popular electronic magazine earned him a two-year prison term in Tunisia. >> More
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September 30, 2003:
Bryant Park event reflects on the freedoms to write and read
PEN sponsored this reading to reflect on the freedoms to write and read seventy years after the Nazi book burnings. >> More
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September 25, 2003:
PEN sounds alarm over court appearance of Uzbek activist
PEN is expressing serious alarm over reports that Uzbek journalist and human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov appeared at an appeal hearing today with suspicious facial injuries. >> More
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September 19, 2003:
PEN protests Ashcroft comments on librarians, urges repeal of Patriot Act
PEN protests in the strongest possible terms the recent speech deriding the concerns that librarians, booksellers, and other organizations have expressed over Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. >> More
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May 22, 2003:
Letters protest disciplining teacher for assigning Russell Banks book
We are interested primarily in seeing a resolution to this situation that respects First Amendment and academic freedom interests of students and teachers, and high quality education at Brooklyn Tech. >> More
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May 15, 2003:
Congress must safeguard Americans' freedom to read, book community says
PEN joined colleagues from the publishing, bookselling and library communities in calling upon Congress to safeguard the right of every American to read freely, without the government's knowledge or intervention. >> More
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April 9, 2003:
PEN to present impunity cases at UNESCO Press Freedom Day observance
International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee will press the case of an Iranian writer and lawyer jailed for his crusade to win justice for the families of murdered writers in Iran. >> More
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April 2, 2003:
Texas librarian to receive PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
PEN named Jerilynn Adams Williams, a Texas librarian who successfully turned back an attempt to remove books from circulation at Montgomery County public libraries, as the recipient of this year's PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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April 2, 2003:
Cuban Journalist, Tunisian Writer to Receive PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Awards
PEN named Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, an independent journalist serving a six-year prison term, and Zouhair Yahyaoui, a Tunisian Internet activist whose electronic magazine earned him a two-year prison term, as recipients of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. >> More
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January 23, 2003:
Grigory Pasko Released
Grigory Pasko, a journalist imprisoned in December 2001, was freed today, following a parole hearing. >> More
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2002
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Dec. 10, 2002:
PEN announces year-long freedom of expression and impunity campaign
The campaign includes direct actions throughout the year and will culminate with the release of a PEN report on the problem of impunity and a series of public programs during International PEN's 69th World Congress. >> More
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October 22, 2002:
PEN protests U.S. treatment of Turkish rights champion
PEN demands that the State Department re-issue a visa to Haluk Gerger, a prominent Turkish writer and human rights activist who was denied entry by immigration officials at Newark International Airport. >> More
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August 19, 2002:
Book groups protest secrecy on bookstore, library subpoenas
Groups representing authors, book publishers, and booksellers have criticized the Justice Department for refusing to reveal how many times it has used its power under the Patriot Act to force bookstores, libraries and newspapers to reveal confidential records. >> More
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June 25, 2002:
Risking retribution, Iranian lawyer pleads for jailed husband's release
PEN issued an urgent appeal for the release of four prominent writers and translators imprisoned in Iran. >> More
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April 11, 2002:
Vanessa Leggett to receive 2002 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
PEN named Vanessa Leggett, the freelance writer who was jailed in a federal detention center in Texas for 168 days for refusing to bow to a sweeping subpoena of confidential source materials, as the recipient of this year's PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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April 11, 2002:
Burmese poet, Uighur historian to receive PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Award
PEN named Aung Myint, a Burmese poet, and Tohti Tunyaz, an ethnic Uighur historian and writer, as recipients of its 2002 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. >> More
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March 7, 2002:
PEN fights Bush executive order on presidential papers
PEN has joined the legal battle to reverse President Bush's executive order limiting access to presidential papers and to authorize the National Archives to administer the Presidential Records Act of 1978 as Congress intended. >> More
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February 7, 2002:
PEN applauds release of Mexican general
Writers throughout North America hailed the release of a Mexican general jailed for more than eight years for essays advocating human rights reforms for the armed forces in Mexico. >> More
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January 3, 2002:
PEN American Center deplores sentencing of Russian military journalist
PEN expressed deep disappointment over the news that Grigory Pasko, the Russian military journalist who has been on trial for reporting on the dumping of nuclear waste by the Russian Navy, has been sentenced to serve an additional two years and four months in prison. >> More
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2001
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November 16, 2001:
PEN seeks quick action by Fox administration following IACHR ultimatum
PEN called on President Vicente Fox to comply with the two-day deadline the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has issued for the release of José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez. >> More
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October 11, 2001:
PEN American Center protests prison transfer for Iranian translator
PEN expressed deep concern over the news that Khalil Rostamkhani, an Iranian translator sentenced to 8 years in prison, has been transferred to Bandar Abbas prison in southern Iran. >> More
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May 14, 2001:
PEN opposes preliminiary injunction halting publication of The Wind Done Gone
PEN called on a Federal Appeals Court to reverse a lower court decision enjoining publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone. >> More
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April 5, 2001:
Iranian publisher, Uzbek novelist to receive 2001 Freedom to Write Awards
PEN named Shahla Lahiji, a publisher prosecuted for participating in a conference in Berlin last year, and Mamadali Mahmudov, a renowned novelist and opposition activist serving a 14-year prison term in Uzbekistan, as recipients of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. >> More
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March 26, 2001:
High school librarian, theater director receive PEN/Newman's Own Awards
PEN named Deloris Wilson and Alberto Sarraín as co-recipients of this year’s PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. >> More
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The Campaign for Reader Privacy today declared that progress is being made in the fight to restore the safeguards for the privacy of bookstore and library records that were eliminated by Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
PEN American Center today expressed outrage that writer Liao Yiwu was removed from a plane he had boarded in Chengdu, southwestern China, to travel to a literature festival in Cologne, Germany and placed under house arrest.
Organizations supporting journalists, writers and publishers in Iran have called on Tehran officials to open the door to the United Nations’ special rapporteurs on human rights, including its expert on freedom of expression, Frank la Rue.
A coalition of leading international journalists, writers, and publishers organizations today launched a campaign to press the government of Iran to release their colleagues imprisoned in the wake of last year’s disputed presidential election in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
PEN American Center President Kwame Anthony Appiah has issued this statement following reports that a Beijing court rejected writer and PEN member Liu Xiaobo's appeal of his “subversion” conviction and 11-year prison sentence:
PEN American Center President and Professor of Philosophy Kwame Anthony Appiah on Friday sent his nomination of Chinese colleague Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, noting Liu’s “distinguished and principled leadership in the area of human and political rights and freedom of expression.”
PEN American Center has learned that Zhao Shiying, Secretary-General of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), has been allowed to return home after nearly two weeks in police custody. Meanwhile, PEN expressed outrage over reports that ICPC's web site was the target of a cyber attack over the weekend.
PEN American Center welcomed the news today that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has signed orders effectively ending the exclusion of Swiss Scholar Tariq Ramadan from the United States, calling the move “a step towards restoring the First Amendment right of American citizens to seek a full range of information and ideas.”
PEN American Center today condemned the detention of Zhao Shiying, Secretary General of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, who was taken from his home and had his personal computers seized on Monday evening.
PEN American Center welcomes the release on bail of Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam (J. S.) Tissainayagam from Welikada Prison in Colombo, Sri Lanka on January 11, 2010.
E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, A.M. Homes, Edward Albee and dozens of other members of PEN American Center staged a New Year’s Eve rally this morning on the steps of the New York Public Library to protest the imprisonment of writer Liu Xiaobo in China.
PEN American Center President Kwame Anthony Appiah issued the following statement in response to the conviction of writer and fellow PEN member Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced today by a Beijing court to 11 years in prison for his writings
Writer Liu Xiaobo pleaded not guilty to subversion charges in a trial that lasted less than three hours this morning in Beijing.
PEN American Center denounced the formal indictment today in Beijing of renowned literary critic and PEN member Liu Xiaobo, calling the move “extremely troubling” and urging supporters and governments around the world to step up the pressure on Beijing to free him immediately.
Writers in the United States and China today renewed their appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo, who was arrested one year ago and is facing a possible 15-year prison term, calling the continued detention of the renowned dissident writer and PEN member “a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression” that “only reinforces doubts about China’s commitment to the rule of law.”
The Campaign for Reader Privacy today urged its supporters to contact members of the House of Representatives in support of a bill that would effectively ban the government from using the Patriot Act to engage in fishing expeditions to identify the books that people borrow or purchase.
On the eve of Barack Obama’s first state visit to China, PEN American Center has sent a letter urging the president to intervene on behalf of the more than 40 writers imprisoned in that country because of their work.
The Campaign for Reader Privacy today welcomed a new House bill that will restore important reader privacy protections that were eliminated eight years ago by the USA Patriot Act.
Canadian-Iranian journalist and playwright Maziar Bahari was released from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on bail Saturday after spending nearly four months virtually incommunicado.
Groups representing librarians, booksellers, authors, and publishers, who have been working together for five years to restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act, are urging Congress to expand proposed protections for library records to encompass all books, whether borrowed or purchased.
Writers took the stage with lawyers and former interrogators last night to read from the mounting public record documenting the torture of detainees in U.S. custody since September 11, 2001.
Calling yesterday’s near-unanimous vote approving a Congressional resolution demanding the immediate release of critic and writer Liu Xiaobo “a critical show of solidarity from the U.S. government at a critical time,” PEN American Center urged the Obama administration to press for the prominent dissident’s release in advance of the President’s visit to Beijing on November.
PEN American Center today issued a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano urging them to review the decision to revoke the visa of German publisher and PEN member Karl-Dietrich Wolff, who was denied entry to the United States on Sunday, September 25.
The Campaign for Reader Privacy, a coalition of organizations representing librarians, booksellers, authors, and publishers, welcomed the introduction of legislation that will safeguard the First Amendment reader privacy rights of ordinary Americans by reforming provisions of the USA Patriot Act, some of which are due to expire at the end of 2009.
PEN American Center has been awarded a $25,000 grant from amazon.com to further develop its online communication resources and mobilize forces for freedom of expression throughout the world.
PEN American Center has sent a letter to the President of Yale University and the Board of the Yale Corporation urging the University to review a decision to remove all images of the Prophet Muhammed from Jytte Klausen’s book The Cartoons That Shook the World, which is forthcoming from Yale University Press.
PEN welcomes the release of journalist Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, who had originally been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, and Ilham Tohti, a member of the Uighur PEN Center who was detained in Beijing during the unrest in Xinjiang Province.
PEN American Center today issued a letter to Guatemalan authorities protesting the conviction against Raúl Figueroa Sarti, owner of the publishing house F & G Editores, on “spurious charges” of copyright infringement.
PEN American Center today hailed a federal appeals court ruling in its case challenging the exclusion of the Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan from the United States, and expressed the hope that the Obama administration would now act quickly to issue him a visa and permit him to visit the United States.
PEN American Center and PEN Canada today sent an open letter signed by over 100 of the world’s most prominent writers calling for the release of Canadian-Iranian journalist and playwright Maziar Bahari, who has been held incommunicado in Tehran since June 21, 2009.
PEN American Center today expressed outrage over the murder of journalist and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was found dead today in the Russian republic of Ingushetia.
After spending more than six months in detention without charge or trial, prominent writer and literary critic Liu Xiaobo was formally arrested in Beijing on June 23 and charged with “inciting subversion of state power.”
PEN American Center protested the continued detention of prominent writer Liu Xiaobo today with a letter to Chinese authorities, citing the clear violation of international and Chinese law.
PEN American Center is marking World Press Freedom Day today by launching the “Freedom to Write in the Americas” campaign which will run through the rest of 2009, and by releasing the “Declaration in Defense of the Freedom to Write in the Americas.”
On a night that held the spotlight on China’s human rights record, PEN American Center on Tuesday honored Liu Xiaobo with the 2009 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
PEN American Center today named Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s preeminent dissident writers and activists and a leading figure in the PEN movement internationally as the recipient of its 2009 PEN/BarbaraGoldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
The following statement was released by PEN American Center upon the passing of Judith Krug on April 11, 2009.
Book groups launch latest phase in their five-year campaign to restore the reader privacy safeguards that were stripped away by the USA Patriot Act.
Independent Chinese PEN Center Vice President Dr. Jiang Qisheng was detained and interrogated by police in Beijing today in what PEN American Center and the Independent Chinese PEN Center believe is a “campaign of intimidation against Charter 08 activists” in advance of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
One week before an Appeals Court hears its challenge to the exclusion of Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan from the U.S., PEN joined 59 other organizations in sending a letter to members of the Obama administration urging an end to the practice of refusing visas to foreign writers, intellectuals, and activists based on their ideas and political views.
Writers reacted angrily to reports that members of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and other leading Chinese intellectuals have been confined to their homes or had their movements and activities restricted in connection with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing this weekend.
PEN American Center expressed relief today at the news that imprisoned writer, historian, and winner of the 2002 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, Tohti Tunyaz, was released from prison in China last week after serving an 11-year sentence for “stealing state secrets” and “inciting national disunity.”
PEN American Center praised President Barack Obama’s quick action in signing executive orders closing Guantanamo Bay and other secret detention facilities and explicitly banning torture
Over 300 members of International PEN, the world writers’ association, have joined together to protest the ongoing detention of prominent Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo
PEN American Center expressed extreme dismay today over the detention of prominent dissident and leading PEN Member Dr. Liu Xiaobo on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” a criminal charge that could result in a lengthy prison term.
Every year on November 15, PEN marks the Day of the Imprisoned Writer to honor the courage of all writers who stand up against repression and defend the principle of freedom of expression and the right to information.
International PEN urges worldwide protection of cultures and indigenous languages, and a review of UN resolutions on religious defamation during its 74th Congress in Bogotá, Colombia.
As the temporary regulations for foreign journalists working in the People’s Republic of China expire today, PEN issued a report highlighting the vulnerable position writers and journalists are in two months after an Olympics that was supposed to usher in greater freedoms and human rights in China.
PEN American Center today hailed a federal court ruling ordering that 17 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay be released into the United States.
Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Kiran Desai, Siri Hustvedt, Joseph Lelyveld, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, and George Packer shared the stage of the Great Hall of Cooper Union last night with the Venerable U Gawsita, one of the leaders of last year’s “Saffron Revolution,” and more than a dozen other monks as PEN American Center paid tribute to the thousands of writers, monks, and ordinary Burmese citizens who have risked their lives to further freedom of expression in Burma.
On August 7, 2008, celebrated PEN Members gathered to read banned and censored work by writers in China, including new and never-before translated writings by Tsering Woeser, Yang Tongyan, and other leading dissident writers and testimonials and letters from jailed writers and their families.
The International Olympic Committee apparently agreed to allow the Chinese government to censor the Internet at the Olympic Village press center in Beijing.
Less than three weeks before the Olympic Games open in Beijing, Chinese authorities have re-arrested writer, former political prisoner, and PEN member Du Daobin and filed formal charges against writer and human rights activist Huang Qi.
PEN American Center today joined the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other leading international human rights organizations, journalists, and attorneys in filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the newly-enacted FISA Amendments Act, a law that grants the Administration the power to carry out and expand the illegal eavesdropping activities it has engaged in secretly since 2001.
PEN gives China a failing grade on free expression one month before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games on August 8, 2008.
PEN centers expressed disappointment today over the sentencing of journalist Sun Lin in Nanjing and the detention and harassment of several writers and PEN members to prevent them from meeting visiting U.S. Congressmen this week in Beijing.
PEN American Center today called on the Bush Administration and Congress to step up pressure on the People’s Republic of China to release 44 imprisoned writers and journalists and end press censorship in the 50 days remaining before the Olympic Games open in Beijing.
PEN American Center and the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers today denounced the “clearly wrongful” and “anachronistic and discouraging” conviction of Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu.
PEN expressed alarm over the disappearance of leading cyber-dissident Huang Qi, who was last seen being forced into a car by three unidentified men in Chengdu on the evening of June 10.
Feng Zhenghu, a Shanghai-based rights defender, online writer and freelance journalist, has been detained in a week that has seen significant backsliding in the climate for freedom of expression in China.
Writer and independent journalist Normando Hernández González has been removed from a hospital where he was receiving essential medical treatments and returned to Kilo 7 Prison in Camagüey, Cuba, where he is reportedly now being held in complete isolation in life-threatening conditions.
Beijing-based Tibetan writer Woeser is apparently the target of serious cyber-attacks aimed at disrupting her personal communications and suppressing her voice.
Guo Quan, a writer and former associate professor of literature at Nanjing Normal University, has been detained for his articles on the government response to the May 12th earthquake in Sichuan Province and may face subversion charges.
Chen Daojun, a freelance writer and journalist, has been detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” the second writer jailed on subversion charges in a week in what PEN is calling “an intensified effort to silence dissent” as the Olympic Games approach.
Zhou Yuanzhi, a writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, has been detained in connection with his writings and could face trial for inciting subversion.
101 days before the Olympics, Hong Kong officials refused to allow distinguished Chinese journalist Dr. Yu Zhang, Secretary-General of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, into the country, where he was invited to chair a session at a World Press Freedom Day Conference.
Salman Rushdie, Francine Prose, Edward Albee, Rick Moody and Ma Jian will be among the writers attending a press conference Thursday, May 1, at which PEN will announce the delivery later that morning of a petition to the Chinese Mission to the United Nations.
Jamyang Kyi, a prominent Tibetan writer, reporter, activist and singer, has been detained in Qinghai Province, raising the number of writers imprisoned in China to 39.
PEN American Center today named Chinese dissident writer Yang Tongyan, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence, as recipient of its 2008 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
PEN American Center has named Laura Berg, a Veterans Administration nurse who faced a sedition investigation after writing a letter to the editor of her local paper criticizing the Bush Administration’s handling of the disaster and the Iraq War, as the recipient of this year’s prestigious PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award.
Nine months after trying and sentencing internet writer and activist Zhu Yufu to two years in prison for “obstructing the police from carrying out their public duty,” a Chinese court has re-tried the dissident and added two years, four months and 26 days’ deprivation of political rights after release to his original sentence.
As the Olympic torch reached the U.S., PEN American Center today released a recording of former U.S. Poet Laureate and PEN American Center Vice President Billy Collins reading imprisoned Chinese writer Shi Tao’s poem “June,” a meditation on the 1989 protests and massacre.
Leading Chinese human rights, environmental, and AIDS activist Hu Jia was today sentenced to three and a half years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” A freelance journalist and blogger, Hu was tried in a four-hour proceeding on March 18, 2008 in the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. Hu Jia, his two defense lawyers, and his wife and mother were present at this morning’s sentencing hearing.
PEN American Center is appealing to the Departments of Homeland Security and State to review the exclusion of British author Sebastian Horsley from the United States, calling the decision of Customs officials to bar him from entering the country on grounds of “moral turpitude” a “dangerous precedent that could be extended to bar scores of literary figures from a number of countries.”
PEN American Center today called reports of the trial of prominent activist and writer Hu Jia “extremely troubling and discouraging,” saying the proceedings apparently did nothing but underscore the fact that Hu is being prosecuted for his writings and public statements in clear violation of Chinese and international law.
Five years after Cuba jailed 75 prominent dissidents in what has been called that country’s “Black Spring,” PEN American Center today appealed for the release of 28 imprisoned writers, journalists and librarians, saying Cuba’s decision to sign key human rights treaties last month should quickly be matched by tangible human rights improvements.
Writers from Canada, the United States, and China joined today in denouncing
“suffocating restrictions” on the press and on the flow of information
from Tibet, where a week of protests and repression has reportedly
resulted in as many as 100 deaths in Lhasa and other Tibetan cities. 
After having spent the large majority of the past two years in exile, novelist, historian, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent and 2006 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award winner Rakhim Esenov has been allowed to return home to Turkmenistan. 
International PEN is marking International Women’s Day on March 8 by celebrating the work of three women writers under threat in China: Zeng Jinyan, Tsering Woeser and Li Jianhong. [
PEN American Center welcomes the early release of Yu Huafeng, Deputy Editor-in-chief and general manager of the Guangzhou-based 
President Bush has signed PEN-supported legislation that requires the United States to expand programs to resettle Iraqi refugees in the U.S., removing some of the major barriers that have left thousands of Iraqi writers, journalists, and translators stranded and vulnerable in Iraq and neighboring countries. 
PEN today welcomed the release on parole of Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong from prison in Gangzhou, southern China, where he was serving a five-year sentence for espionage. The Singapore Straits Times reporter’s release, two years before his sentence was due to expire, was the second within the past week.
PEN American Center today expressed concern over reports that Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist has been issued a subpoena in an effort to compel him to reveal confidential sources for information published in his 2006 book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. 
Kemal Kerincsiz, the lawyer who tried to prosecute Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink, Elif Shafak, and several other writers for “insulting Turkishness,” has been arrested with 32 others following an investigation into a weapons cache discovered in Istanbul last year. 
Blanca González, whose son, Normando Hernández González, has become an international symbol of Cuban human-rights abuses, is scheduled to join Laura Bush in the first lady's gallery tonight when President George W. Bush delivers his final State of the Union address. 
PEN is supporting the “Hrant Için, Adalet Için” (For Hrant, For Justice) campaign organized by a consortium of Turkish organizations staging events in Istanbul in commemoration of Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish journalist who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007. 
After one month in detention, Chinese internet writer and dissident Wang Dejia (pen name Jing Chu) was released on January 12, 2008 after agreeing not to write anything political for one year.
The arrest last week of high-profile activist and blogger Hu Jia in Beijing is raising concerns that the Chinese government may be ratcheting up its efforts to control internal dissent in the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 
