PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
PEN International and Moscow PEN deplore today’s decision by the Moscow Meshchansky Court to convict Kirill Serebrennikov of large-scale fraud in relation to his alleged embezzling of state funds. He was convicted to a three-year suspended prison sentence as well as a sizeable fine and restitution of the alleged damages. ‘Serebrennikov’s conviction is an affront […]
PEN International joins PEN Delhi in concerns over reports of a First Information Report (FIR) being lodged on 18 June 2020 against senior journalist Supriya Sharma, executive editor at Scroll.in, and its chief editor, Naresh Fernandes, who is not named in the FIR. Ms. Sharma recently wrote a series of articles about the impact of the nationwide lockdown […]
PEN International, English PEN and Turkish PEN joined the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and five other international human rights organizations in calling on the international community to take action and pressure Turkey to release tens of thousands of political prisoners who have been deliberately left out of COVID-19 prison releases: Amidst this pandemic, […]
The undersigned organizations and media outlets support the petition presented on June 8, PEN in Cuba before the National Assembly, the State Council, the Supreme Court, the Office of the Attorney General, and the President of the Republic declaring 2019’s Decree-Law 370 unconstitutional.[1] The 64 people who signed the petition did so on behalf of […]
The sentence served today, June 15, against journalist and writer Maria Ressa, is a severe blow to freedom of expression in the Philippines, PEN International said today. Maria Ressa was sentenced by the Manila Regional Court to a prison term of between six months to six years on charges of ‘cybercrime’ for an article published […]
PEN International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of poet, lawyer and independent journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces. In April 2019, he was detained while he was covering a trial for news website CubaNet. Quiñones Haces was released five days later and fined for conduct during his detention allegedly constituting ‘disobedience’ and ‘resistance’. After refusing […]
Mass protests have broken out in every state following the killing of security guard George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. During these protests, police forces have arrested more than a dozen journalists, and at least 140 attacks against journalists, perpetrated overwhelmingly by police forces, have been reported. We urge President Donald Trump to condemn these acts […]
Today, PEN International, Danish PEN, English PEN, German PEN, Norwegian PEN, PEN America, PEN Canada, Swedish PEN and PEN Turkey joined the International Press Institute (IPI) and 10 other international press freedom and freedom of expression groups in a joint public letter sent to the General Director of Turkey’s Public Advertising Agency (BIK), which is […]
Aaron Berhane, an award-winning journalist and publisher, is the recipient of the 2019 PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship and acting Chair of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Committee. He was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Setit, Eritrea’s first and largest independent newspaper, until September 2001 when it was shut down during a government crackdown. Berhane lived […]
London, May 18, 2020.- The assassination of Jorge Miguel Armenta Ávalos, director of El Tiempo newspaper; threats against the newspaper Reforma; the recent investigations of Notimex; and stigmatizing comments about media and journalists by the authorities demonstrate the insecurity in which journalists live in Mexico, said PEN International and PEN Centres in Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende. On […]
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules