Iran: Release Writer and Film Producer Mostafa Azizi
On August 3, 2015, Azizi’s son Arash reported that his father’s appeal would be heard in Branch 54 of Iran’s Revolutionary Appeal Court by judge Poor Arab. No date has been set for the hearing.
Tag: writers in prison
On Eritrea’s Future
On January 6, 2015, 6 Eritrean journalists were released on bail after being imprisoned in 2009, when the government conducted a raid on journalists. Brendan de Caires interviewed Eritrean journalist and member of the PEN Writers in Exile Committee Aaron Berhane about the release and the implications for the country’s future.
From the Archives: Prisoner Without a Name
Tonight, a guard, not following the rules, leaves the peephole ajar. I wait a while to see what will happen but it remains open. Standing on tiptoe, I peer out. There’s a narrow corridor, and across from my cell I can see at least two other doors. Indeed, I have a full view of two doors. What a sensation of freedom!
From the Archives: An Interview with Christiana Anyanwu
In September 1998, months after her release, Anyanwu visited Toronto to speak at the annual meeting of the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists.
Marco Antonio López Ortiz
Marco Antonio López Ortiz, a news editor for the daily newspaper Novedades Acapulco, was assaulted and abducted by unidentified men on the night of June 7, 2011.
RAPID ACTION NETWORK Appeal | September 26, 2012
VIETNAM: Three bloggers jailed for ‘anti-state propaganda’ PEN Canada’s Writers in Prison Committee is shocked at the sentences handed down to bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), Ta Phong …
The Stamp Collector: A Story Inspired by Work with PEN
How the advocacy work of one PEN member became a children’s picture book Jennifer Lanthier’s new book tells the story of two young boys, one that grows up to be …
Connecting and Sharing Stories in the Community
I’ve placed an empty chair for the imprisoned Uighur writer Nurmuhemmet Yasin – sentenced to ten years in a Chinese prison in 2004 for writing a short story. I tell them The Stamp Collector grew out of advocacy work I was doing on his behalf for PEN Canada.
Same Message, Different Medium
This year, PEN International is celebrating the rights of all citizens on Press Freedom Day. As always, we champion the rights of media organizations and journalists to safe, uncensored reporting and publication and pay tribute to those who have been killed and disappeared. But we celebrate especially the rights of all citizens to untrammelled access to information and truth…
Zarganar Freed in Political Amnesty
PEN Canada welcomes the release of Maung Thura – the Burmese poet and comedian better known as ‘Zarganar’ – in an amnesty for several hundred prisoners in Myanmar. Zarganar is an Honorary Member of PEN Canada and the recipient of our 2008 One Humanity Award.