PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
PEN Canada’s April 2019 gala tribute to Graeme Gibson, co-founder of PEN Canada in 1984, president of PEN Canada 1987-89.
London, August 27, 2019 – The Nicaraguan government’s policies towards media outlets and journalists demonstrate the crisis for freedom of expression and information which journalists, editors and writers face, said PEN International and PEN Nicaragua today, after daily newspapers LA Prensa and El Nuevo Diario announced a reduction to their print edition due to the authorities’ refusal to […]
PEN International and PEN Ukraine welcome the release of prominent Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was freed on September 7, 2019 as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. ‘Oleg Sentsov’s release comes as a great and long overdue relief after five gruelling years away from his loved ones in Crimea spent […]
London, August 29, 2019 – The detention of journalists Ricardo Fernández Izaguirre and Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces demonstrate the deterioration of Cuban policies related to the freedoms of thought, access to information, expression and belief, said PEN International and PEN Cuban Writers in Exile today as it called on the Cuban authorities to end the […]
The following remarks were made by Richard Stursberg at the unveiling of the Liu Xiaobo Statue in Ottawa on August 13, 2019. Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto that Liu Xiaobo drafted, and the main reason for his subsequent persecution, argues that “freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values [and] democracy and constitutional government are […]
On August 16, 2019, Rita Wong, an award-winning Vancouver poet and an associate professor in Critical and Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, was sentenced to 28 days of incarceration at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, BC. She had participated in a peaceful protest on behalf of […]
On July 30, 2019, a court in northern Kyrgyzstan upheld the life sentence of journalist and human rights activist Azimjon Askarov. Responding to the news, Salil Tripathi, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, said: ‘This trial was a mockery of justice and exposed once again Kyrgyzstan’s broken judicial system. According to reports, Azimjon […]
On August 13, 100 people attended the unveiling ceremony of the Liu Xiaobo Empty Chair Memorial outside Amnesty International Canada’s Ottawa headquarters.
The attack on writer, journalist and activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro on 21 July 2019 exposes once again the dangers of being a journalist in Mexico, as well as the urgent need to combat impunity.
The 26 press freedom and human rights organisations and media outlets named below strongly condemn the recent wave of attacks and threats against the investigative news website The Intercept Brasil. We call on the authorities to ensure respect for the constitutionally guaranteed right of journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources. The attacks began on 9 June after The Intercept […]
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules