PEN launched its Campaign for Core Freedoms in 2004 to address the impact of post-9/11 antiterrorism laws and policies on freedom of expression and the freedom to write in the United States. The Campaign works to reverse or correct:

>> policies that threaten the personal privacy necessary for the free exploration of information and ideas

• restoring safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act

• ending the abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) and surveillance by the FBI

>> policies that restrict access to governmental information and to a full range of voices from the United States and around the world

• raising awareness about threats to press freedom and public access to vital information

• protesting ideological exclusion

>> policies that violate basic human-rights protections and norms

 • fighting against torture, arbitrary detentions, and extraordinary rendition

• advocating for writers in Iraq and Afghanistan