News
On the 13th of June 2013, The Griffin Poetry Prize 2013 was awarded to Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan for his latest poetry collection ‘Like a Straw Bird it Follows Me, …
TURKEY: One writer released; two more face three further months in prison as trial drags onRAN 23/13 Update #1 12 June 2013 As demonstrations in Istanbul and other cities in Turkey continue, several trials against writers and journalists are still ongoing, some of which opened …
PEN International concerned about attacks against the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) processGeneva, 10 June PEN International today voiced concern over current attacks on the format of the UPR Working Group Report yesterday to the UN Human Rights Council in a joint …
Human Rights summer school in Central AsiaSince 2011 Central Asian PEN, based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, has worked with the Ural-Altay network (a grouping of PEN Centres from Japan to Finland) to run annual Human Rights Summer …
Turkey: Letter to Sadullah Ergin, Minister of Justice, On Trials Against Writers, Journalists and Academics06 June 2013 As anti-government demonstrations continue in Turkey, scores of writers, academics and journalists are among hundreds more who are in prison or on trial. Some of them have …
Interview with Peter Florence, founder of HAY FestivalYou have been running Hay Festival now for 26 years – How much has it changed in that time? Well, in lots of ways it’s exactly the same as it …
Syria: Increasing concerns about the deteriorating health of arbitrarily detained writer and human rights lawyer Khalil Ma’touqJoint Statement 4 June 2013 New information obtained by human rights organizations has heightened concerns about the secret detention and failing health of a prominent Syrian human rights lawyer who …
Lack of media freedom evident as peaceful protests are violently suppressed in TurkeyJune 4, 2013 PEN International is shocked by the heavy-handed attacks on demonstrators and the widespread restriction in the media in Turkey in recent days. The excessive use of gas …
ITALY: Three Journalists Convicted and Sentenced in Criminal Defamation TrialRAN 24/13 31 May 2013 The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International is deeply concerned by the draconian sentences handed down by a Milan court on 22 May 2013 …
PEN International President, John Ralston Saul and Novelist, Elif Şafak at Hay-on-Wye Festival“The Kurdish people have the right to be educated in their mother tongue” – Elif Şafak, Hay-on-Wye. May 2013. This week PEN International has been at the Hay-on-Wye Festival in …
