Muhammad Bekjanov, Yusif Ruzimuradov, Ragip Zarakolu elected Honorary Members of PEN American Center
Members of PEN American Center's Freedom to Write Committee elected Uzbek journalists Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov and Turkish writer and publisher Ragip Zarakolu as Honorary Members at their June meeting.
Both Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov wrote extensively for Erk ("Freedom"), the newspaper of Uzbekistan's first official opposition party, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Bekjanov was sentenced to 13 years in prison and Ruzimuradov was sentenced to 8 years
for their alleged involvement in the Uzbek opposition movement.
In a statement signed by Ruzimuradov and five others associated with the Erk arrests, the journalists allege that, during their pretrial detention, they had been suffocated, beaten with rubber truncheons and plastic bottles filled with water, and given electric shocks.
Ragip Zarakolu and his wife Ayse Nur Zarakolu founded Belge Publishing
House to challenge censorship in Turkey. Since its inception, Turkish
authorities have brought a barrage of charges against the two over
the years, resulting in imprisonment, the wholesale confiscation
and destruction of books, and the imposition of heavy fines. Ragip is currently on trial for an article published in March 2003.
PEN American Center believes that Muhammad Bekjanov, Yusif Ruzimuradov, and Ragip Zarakolu have been imprisoned in violation of their right to freedom of expression, and is campaigning for their immediate and unconditional release.
To read more about Muhammad Bekjanov, Yusif Ruzimuradov, and Ragip Zarakolu, please visit the
Honorary Member
section of the Freedom to Write website by clicking here.
|
HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO: |
Please write polite letters to the Uzbek authorities on behalf
of Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov calling for
their immediate and unconditional releases
and the dropping of all charges against them, and to the Turkish authorities on behalf
of Ragip Zarakolu calling for the immediate discontinuation of further legal processes against him.
You may copy the suggested text for your appeal or write your own.
|
*****
UZBEKISTAN
*****
[Date]
His Excellency President Islam Abduganievch Karimov
Rezidentsiya prezidenta
Tashkent 70000
Republic of Uzbekistan
Fax: + 998 71 139 5625
H. E. Rashidjon Hamidovich Kodirov
Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Ul. Yahyo Gulomov 66
Tashkent 70000
Republic of Uzbekistan
e-mail: prokuratura@lawyer.com
Your Excellencies,
I am writing to express my serious and urgent concern about the continued
imprisonment of Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov. I understand
that both gentlemen were convicted in 1999 uafter judicial proceedings that
included allegations by the defendant and lead witnesses of coerced testimony and torture. I fear that their trials were unfair and that they are being held merely for exercising their right to free expression. I am especially worried for their safety in prison. I therefore urge the Uzbek authorities to release Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov immediately
pending an independent review into their trials and the sentences against them.
Sincerely,
[Your name and signature]
Cc:
H.E. Shavkat S. Khamrakulov
Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary
1746 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036
Fax (202) 293-6804
*****
TURKEY
*****
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Easbakanlik
Bakanlikir
Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 417 0476
Cemil Cicek
Minister of Justice
TC Adalet Bakanligi
Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 417 3954
Your Excellencies,
I am writing to express my serious concern for writer and publisher
Ragip Zarakolu, who has been subject to decades of harassment
by the Turkish authorities and who has faced numerous trials and
prison sentences. I understand that Mr. Zarakolu is currently
being tried under Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code
and that the charges carry up to two years' imprisonment.
I respectfully ask that all charges against Mr. Zarakolu be
dropped immediately.
Furthermore, I urge your Excellencies to review Turkish law
and to amend Article 312 and other provisions that can lead to the imprisonment of writers and journalists solely for the practice of their right to freedom of expression.
Sincerely,
[Your name and signature]
Cc:
H.E. Osman Faruk Logoglu
The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
2525 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
fax: (202) 612-6744
|
Back to Contents
|
|
Conviction of "George T" for Writing Dark Poems Overturned
The following press release is courtesy of the First Amendment Project and the ACLU of Northern California.
SAN FRANCISCO In a resounding victory for students' First Amendment rights of creative expression, the California Supreme Court today unanimously overturned the conviction of a 15-year old Santa Clara County student who was imprisoned for writing a disturbing poem. The student, "George T," had been convicted of violating the state's criminal threat statute after writing and sharing a poem that explored "dark themes."
Drawing on an amicus brief submitted by the ACLU of Northern California, the First Amendment Project and The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the court held that the poem "Faces" was too ambiguous and equivocal to constitute a criminal threat. The brief, submitted on behalf of Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee, Pulitizer Prize winner Michael Chabon, and a raft of other distinguished writers and poets, emphasized the literary importance of "dark" or "confessional" poetry and argued that George's poem fit within that genre. The high Court agreed.
"The Court's decision makes clear that students' creative works deserve the same high level of First Amendment protection as that accorded to established poets, authors, and artists," said Ann Brick, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California and one of the co-authors of the brief. "This case provides much-needed guidance to both school officials and law enforcement in responding in a sensible and measured way when confronted with student work that raises questions about safety. As the Court so rightly noted, school safety and protecting freedom of expression need not be 'antagonistic goals,'" she added.
"We hope that law enforcement will show as great an appreciation for the subtlety, complexity and legitimacy of artistic expression as was shown today by the California Supreme Court," said Attorney David Greene of the First Amendment Project.
(Click here to read the amicus brief that PEN joined on George T.'s behalf.)
Back to Contents
|
|
Rio Rancho School District Settles First Amendment Law Suit with Poetry Teacher
Rio Rancho School District will pay $205,000 to settle the Federal
First Amendment law suit filed on behalf of poetry teacher
Bill Nevins, who was fired after his poetry students read poetry
critical of U.S. military spending on the eve of the Iraq war.
The settlement was announced on August 2, 2004.
Nevins, who now teaches at the University of New Mexico and the
Technical Vocational Institute, was suspended from his job as a
teacher at Rio Rancho High School in March 2003.
Two months later, he was told his contract wouldn't be renewed the
following year. Nevins challenged the actions, contending his firing was the result of controversial poems his students read in class and in public. Much of their work challenged U.S. priorities about military spending. One poem that a student read over the school intercom prompted a protest from the school's military liaison, who called it "disrespectful speech," the lawsuit said.
The poem read, in part, "You drive by a car whose bumper screams God Bless America. Well, you can scratch out the B and make it Godless because God left this country a long time ago."
Nevins filed a lawsuit in September, 2003. The lawsuit challenged the
district's attempts to curb free speech in the schools. Nevins
also helped found the Alliance for Academic Freedom, a broad-based
citizens' group supporting teachers attacked on free
expression issues in New Mexico. In the spring of 2003,
a number of New Mexico teachers lost their jobs, allegedly as a
result of the Albuquerque Board of Education controversial issues
policy. The controversial issues policy was designed
"to prevent subjugating anyone to a particular view." It
assumes that neutrality is the most appropriate position
on controversial issues and assures parents that teachers
are not trying to convert students to their views.
The policy applies not only to teachers, but to students, their speech and their posters as well.
Nevins and his attorney, Eric Sirotkin, said the case clarified the district's free-speech policies for students through discussion during court depositions. The settlement sends a message to other teachers that free speech in the schools will be protected, they said.
In the settlement, the school district acknowledges no liability in
the case, which was scheduled to go to trial in November. Jerry Walz,
a lawyer representing Rio Rancho Public Schools, said Nevins'
teaching credentials, not free speech, were the central issue and
the reason that his contract was not renewed in May 2003, and insisted
the school district hasn't changed any of its policies regarding
freedom of speech for students.
At a news conference On Monday, August 2nd, Sirotkin wrote a check for $3,500 from Nevins' portion of the settlement to fund a poetry team at Rio Rancho High School. Sirotkin said another $3,500 would follow next year.
Back to Contents
|
U.S. Cuts Aid to Uzbekistan Over Rights Concerns
Citing its disappointment about the lack of progress on democratic reform in Uzbekistan, the U.S. State Department announced in July that it would cut nearly $18 billion in funding to the Central Asian nation. The government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov had been the first in the region to allow the United States to use its military bases in the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
In 2002, President Karimov met with top U.S. officials in Washington to discuss terms for the inauguration of a "strategic partnership" between the two countries. In exchange for billions of dollars in aid, Mr. Karimov signed an agreement to begin implementing democratic reforms in Uzbekistan, which were to include political liberalization and an improvement of its human rights record. Since Mr. Karimov's visit to Washington, however, the imprisonment of prominent writers and journalists has continued, allegations of torture in Uzbek prisons abound, and not a single genuine opposition political party has been allowed to register.
PEN American Center and other human rights organizations have trained their attention on the dire situation in Uzbekistan in recent years. Journalists such as Muhammad Bekjanov and Yusif Ruzimuradov, both members of the outlawed
Erk ("Freedom") party, are serving lengthy prison sentences for
exercising their right to free expression. Two other incarcerated
writers, Mamadali Mahmudov and Ruslan Sharipov, have written harrowing letters detailing an array of physical and psychological torture. In recognition of the persecution and imprisonment they have faced, all of these writers have been elected honorary members of PEN American Center. Uzbekistan is second only to Iran in its number of honorary PEN members.
Despite the freezing of aid to the former Soviet republic, Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed that the U.S. would continue to engage Uzbekistan. "This decision does not mean that either our interests in the region or our desire for continued cooperation with Uzbekistan has changed," Secretary Powell said. "Uzbekistan is an important partner with the United States in the war on terror." The United States will keep nearly 1,000 military personnel in Uzbekistan, most of them contributing to humanitarian operations in Afghanistan.
The picture above is courtesy of UzLand, www.uzland.uz.
Back to Contents
|