Book Bans and Justice of the Imagination
Censorship of 2SLGBTQ+ writing “justice of the imagination,” the critical responsibility of showing all kids that any kid can be the hero of a story.
News
Mexico: Pegasus Spyware used on Journalists and Citizens
A recent investigation has revealed shocking evidence of the illegal use of surveillance tools by the military to spy on its own people
Guatemala: Authorities Must Stop Legal Harassment of Journalists
The court order to investigate nine elPeriódico journalists for alleged disinformation, sets a serious precedent for freedom of expression in Guatemala and is evidence of systematic persecution of the press by the authorities, PEN International said today.
Türkiye: Persisting crackdown on free expression
Türkiye: Persisting crackdown on free expression one month since devastating earthquakes March 6, 2023 – Today marks one month since devastating earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria, resulting in the deaths …
Belarus: Nobel Peace laureate sentenced to prison
On March 3, 2023, a court in Minsk sentenced writer, Nobel Peace Prize winner and PEN Belarus member Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison on trumped up charges of smuggling, and organizing and financing actions that grossly violate public order. Bialiatski was tried alongside two colleagues from the Viasna Human Rights Centre (Viasna)
What I Have Learned from Exiled Journalists
Anneli Andre-Barrett is a senior volunteer for the PEN Canada Writers in Exile (WiE) community, a Refugee Integration Mentor, and Skills Development Team member of Ontario’s Private Refugee Sponsor Network …
Farewell, Asmara
Aaron Berhane was a beloved leader of our centre’s Writers in Exile community and a valued member of PEN Canada’s Board of Directors before his untimely death, due to Covid-19, in May 2021. He fled Eritrea in 2002, following a draconian crackdown on the independent press. The following extract from his posthumously published memoir The Burden of Exile: A Banned Journalist’s Flight from Dictatorship, recounts his early days hiding from government agents in Asmara.
PEN PROTEST / DAY OF THE DEAD 2022
From 2 to 7 November, to mark PEN International’s PEN Protest/Day of the Dead Campaign and the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
Special Event Oct 23: Hot Docs & Ageless International Film Festival — Freedom of Expression Screenings
The event opens with a screening of the short film, Codename Sally, documenting the extraordinary efforts of a handful of PEN Canada members to bring Salman Rushdie in total secrecy and under heavy security, to the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto for the PEN Benefit thirty years ago.
Luis Horacio Nájera wins 2022 Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship
TORONTO, ON, October 12, 2022 – Award-winning journalist and crime analyst Luis Horacio Nájera is the recipient of the 2022 PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship, which provides peer mentorship to …