Home > Core Freedoms > Press Archive 2008 April 7, 2008 | Bloomberg | Horsley, U.K.'s Incorrigible Memoirist, Finds Advocates at PEN Sebastian Horsley, the British bad- boy memoirist accused of moral turpitude and possible fashion crimes, hopes to participate next month in the PEN American Center's World Voices Festival in New York. >> More April 2, 2008 | New York Times | PEN Rallies Behind Ousted Author When it comes to publicity, being denied entry into the United States may be the best thing that ever happened to Sebastian Horsley, right, unless you count being hung on a cross in the Philippines. >> More April 1, 2008 | FOXNews | Writers' Group Appeals U.S. Exclusion of UK Author An advocacy group for writers appealed to U.S. officials Monday to review the exclusion of a British author whose most recent book chronicles his years of heavy drug use and frequent visits to prostitutes. >> More 2007 October 22, 2007 | New York Times | Say What You Like, Just Don't Say It Here The American commitment to free speech is the most robust in the world. But these days that tolerance stops at the border. >> More September 30, 2007 | San Francisco Chronicle | Promoting democracy while suppressing ideas This spring, the U.S. State Department sent a message to the Association of American Publishers announcing new procedures for expediting business visas for U.S. companies' foreign employees, customers and potential clients traveling to the United States. >> More September 26, 2007 | New York Times | Free Speech Groups Sue Over Visa Denial The government is increasingly using secret evidence allowed under new antiterrorism laws to prevent certain critics from entering the United States, according to a group of civil rights and academic organizations. >> More 2006 August 25, 2006 | Chronicle of Higher Education | Government Declines to Appeal Ruling In a case considered a bellwether of United States policy toward foreign scholars, the government has decided not to appeal a court ruling ordering it to either issue a visa to Tariq Ramadan or provide good reasons for not doing so. >> More August 18, 2006 | New York Times | Ruling for the Law Ever since President Bush was forced to admit that he was spying on Americans’ telephone calls and e-mail without warrants, his lawyers have fought to keep challenges to the program out of the courts. >> More June 26, 2006 | The Progressive | Tariq Ramadan Wins One While denying that Ramadan was excluded on ideological grounds, Jones said, “Professor Ramadan, tomorrow, could endorse or espouse terrorism.” >> More June 26, 2006 | Publishers Weekly | PEN Fights Good Fight for Int'l Writer When prominent Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan was denied a U.S. visa because of statements he'd made against the U.S. government, the PEN American Center joined the crusade supporting the scholar. >> More June 24, 2006 | New York Times | Judge Orders U.S. to Decide If Muslim Scholar Can Enter A federal judge in New York yesterday ordered the Bush administration to decide by September whether to grant an entry visa to a prominent Muslim scholar. >> More May 11, 2006 | Christian Science Monitor | Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You Why have prominent foreign scholars had their visas to speak or teach in this country denied or revoked? Many, including the academic institutions who invited them, are baffled. >> More May 2, 2006 | IPS News | A Chill in the Air "Thanks in large part to the Patriot Act, our government is once again excluding foreign writers and scholars from the country simply because of their political beliefs." >> More April 14, 2006 | New York Times | Hearing For Muslim Barred by U.S. Government lawyers clarified some mysteries yesterday and deepened others in the case of Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Muslim scholar and leading European theologian of Islam who has been barred by the Bush administration from traveling to the United States since July 2004. >> More February 21, 2006 | Christian Century | Religion scholars join suit vs. Patriot Act The ACLU and three other groups, including the large American Academy of Religion, have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to strike down a USA Patriot Act clause they say is applied wrongly to stifle academic debate. >> More January 26, 2006 | New York Times | Lawsuit Filed in Support of Muslim Scholar Barred From U.S. Citing the case of a prominent Muslim scholar who has been barred from the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking to strike down a clause of the USA Patriot Act that bars foreigners who endorse terrorism from entering to this country. >> More 2005 November 25, 2005 | Christian Science Monitor | When US bars its door to foreign scholars Concern is mounting that the US government is using antiterror laws--namely, the Patriot Act--to revive a now-discredited practice common during the cold war: the prevention of foreign intellectuals who are critical of administration policies from entering the country and sharing their views with Americans. >> More November 11, 2005 | Inside Higher Ed | New Challenge on Visa Denials To many academics, one of the most fearsome parts of the Patriot Act is section 411, which allows the government to deny visas to prominent individuals from abroad who have used their positions to endorse terrorism. >> More November 6, 2005 | New York Times | Lawmakers call for limits on F.B.I. power "We should not ever give up freedom on the basis of fear, and any freedom that we give up should be limited in time and limited in scope," Senator Tom Coburn. >> More November 6, 2005 | Washington Post | The FBI's Secret Scrutiny The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. >> More September 10, 2005 | New York Times | Abu Ghraib Unresolved Ever since the world learned of the illegal detentions and brutal behavior at American military prisons, the Bush administration has bet it could outlast public outrage with phony investigations and stonewalling. >> More October 8, 2005 | New York Times | Binding the Hands of Torturers When the Senate voted this week to bring America's chain of military prison camps under the rule of law, President Bush threatened a veto. >> More October 6, 2005 | New York Times | Senate Moves to Protect Military Prisoners Despite Veto Threat In a sharp rebuke to the White House, the Senate overwhelmingly agreed Wednesday to regulate the detention, interrogation and treatment of prisoners held by the American military. >> More 2004 December 26, 2004 | Pioneer Press | Ruminating on a troubled future The government is going to tell us what we are going to read and can't read. If these authors are really enemies, wouldn't it be better to understand them instead of keeping their books out? >> More December 11, 2004 | Washington Post | Will her voice ever be heard? Ever wonder what happened to the State Department's chief of propaganda? The head of public diplomacy was supposed to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim street. >> More November 24, 2004 | Edwidge Danticat | A Very Haitian Story When the international and combined Haitian forces left Bel-Air, gang members came to my uncle's home, told him that 15 of their friends had been killed and said he had to pay for the burials or die. >> More November 19, 2004 | Contra Costa Times | At the library In case you have ever wondered about the power of words, writers and books, this amazing situation may answer your question. >> More November 16, 2004 | New York Times | Bound But Gagged I learned, sometimes in the face of tragedy, that the written word is often the most powerful—and only—tool that we have to protect those who are powerless. >> More November 12, 2004 | Chronicle of Higher Education | Illegal Trafficking Most American scholars remain blissfully ignorant of the risks of international collaboration. Yet simply publishing in the United States an article co-written by a colleague from Cuba, Iran, or Sudan could subject the editor or publisher to criminal liability and fines of up to $500,000 or 10 years in prison. >> More November 1, 2004 | Wall Street Journal | Nobel Laureate sues U.S. When Ms. Ebadi sought to publish her memoirs in the U.S., she was startled to discover that doing so would be illegal, under a trade embargo intended to punish repressive governments such as the regime in Tehran that once sent her to jail. >> More September 30, 2004 | Baltimore Sun | Curb the Thought The Treasury Department's bone-headed decision not to allow U.S. publishers to edit the works of writers from trade-sanctioned countries has ended up in court. >> More September 30, 2004 | New York Sun | Trade groups sue Treasury on Freedom of Speech issues Two publishing trade organizations have jointly filed suit against the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in a New York federal court. >> More September 29, 2004 | New York Times | Ending Editorial Oversight at the Treasury Department No matter how the Treasury Department's ruling is framed, denying editorial cooperation of this kind deprives us as much as it does the sanctioned countries. >> More September 27, 2004 | Chronicle of Higher Education | Publishers will sue U.S. government A group of publishers' and authors' associations expects to file suit today against the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces regulations against countries under a U.S. trade embargo. >> More September 27, 2004 | Star-Ledger | Suit pits free speech vs. 'trading with the enemy' A geology journal spiked a paper by Iranian scientists on methods for predicting earthquakes. The reason: Fear of whopping fines and jail time for "trading with the enemy." >> More August 10, 2004 | Salman Rushdie | Terrorism, Intellectual Freedom, and the Patriot Act Will we become our enemy or not? Will we become repressive as our enemy is repressive? Will we become intolerant as our enemy is intolerant? Or will we not? >> More February 17, 2004 | Publisher's Weekly| Patriot Act petition Groups seeking to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act launched a campaign today to obtain one million signatures in support of legislation that would protect the privacy of bookstore and library records that were eliminated by the act. >> More August 10, 2004 | Paul Auster | We're in the Process of Losing Our Country The PEN Club has rules that prohibit support for a political candidate, however, it's an organization that has always fought for freedom of expression in different countries, and, as Salman Rushdie reminded us during that meeting, it's important not to ignore a problem when it knocks on our own door. >> More August 10, 2004 | Le Monde | American artists in a campaign against 'liberticidal' laws In an initiative led by Salman Rushdie, writers challenge the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorist legislation adopted in the wake of September 11, 2001. >> More August 9, 2004 | Liberation | Rushdie mobilizes American writers against Bush For fifteen years, Salman Rushdie had to hide for having written what some refused to read. These days, he wishes to denounce another form of censorship in his adopted country, the United States. >> More August 9, 2004 | Newsday | The FBI Shouldn't Be Reading Over Our Shoulders Last month, a majority of the members of the House of Representatives voted to deny funding for FBI searches of bookstore and library records under Section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. >> More July 9, 2004 | Washington Post | House GOP defends Patriot Act The House rejected a proposed change to the USA Patriot Act that would have barred the Justice Department from searching bookstore and library records. >> More March 9, 2004 | Boston Globe | Reading Over Your Shoulder "It's the most naked form of intrusion into one's life -- to get into a person's mind, what they are reading, what their literary interest is," said Ciaran McCabe. >> More February 28, 2004 | New York Times | Treasury Dept. is warning publishers of the perils of editing Writers often grumble about the criminal things editors do to their prose. The federal government has recently weighed in on the same issue — literally. >> More February 23, 2004 | Portsmouth Herald | Bookstores join to fight Patriot Act A local bookstore owner is hoping that a national petition drive will encourage lawmakers to amend a section of the USA Patriot Act that allows the FBI to view the buying and borrowing histories of customers. >> More February 18, 2004 | Boston Globe | Book Groups Seek Privacy Three book organizations kicked off a national signature drive yesterday to amend a federal law that allows the FBI to inspect library and bookstore records surreptitiously. >> More February 22, 2004 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Take action to amend 215's abuses Lost in the current furor over missing National Guard duty and misread intelligence was President Bush's demand last month that Congress extend the U.S.A. Patriot Act. >> More February 22, 2004 | The Oregonian | A Day and a Deed for Gorgeous I hate to break in on your Washington's Birthday celebration, especially if you've just gotten to the cherry pie part. >> More February 21, 2004 | Los Angeles Times | U.S. Embargo Extended to Editing Articles For U.S. publishers, changing so much as a comma in an author's work can be more than a delicate process. >> More February 18, 2004 | People's Weekly World | Petition drive against Patriot Act This isn’t about stripping law enforcement of the power to investigate terrorism. It’s about confidence that our reading choices aren’t being monitored by the government. >> More Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.