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Arrest of Another Journalist in Egypt Casts Further Doubt Over Country’s Commitment to Free Expression
"The arrest of Karim Asaad and ongoing detention of Hisham Kassem once again spotlight Egypt’s dire record on freedom of expression and cast serious doubts on the government’s broader… More
PEN America: Calls to Remove a Book from Princeton U Syllabus Are “Highly Misguided”
If we scrubbed college campuses of any book that could cause any offense, we would be left with a fairly barren environment for academic inquiry. More
Turkey: International groups condemn fifth imprisonment order against journalist Barış Pehlivan
The undersigned media freedom, freedom of expression, human rights, and journalists’ organisations strongly condemn the latest incident of judicial harassment against journalist Barış Pehlivan and reiterate calls to the… More
PEN America: Removing Block Button on Twitter/X Puts Another Nail in the Coffin of the Platform
“Elon Musk seems determined to make X (formerly known as Twitter) the least safe and least equitable social media platform on the internet. Before Musk acquired the platform, PEN America worked closely for years with Twitter's human… More
Unsealed: On That Old Rock Pile Prison Quilt Project
In this essay, Jeff Elmore explains his process of making paper collage quilts in prison, which he sends to anyone interested in receiving them. More
PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of August 14
PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out. More
Introducing The Freewrite Project Zine
PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program presents a zine featuring work from creative writing workshop participants in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The workshops were framed around curriculum developed… More
Turning Sentences Around
In this Works of Justice exclusive, Robert Lee Williams reflects on how PEN America's "The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer's Life in Prison" (Haymarket Books, 2022) helped… More
Prison Sentence Against Iranian Filmmaker Saeed Roustayi Effort to “Asphyxiate” Vibrant Ideas and Silence Creative Voices
“The Iranian regime strategically wields the term 'propaganda' as a potent tool, skillfully harnessing it to asphyxiate the vibrant exchange of ideas within society. This calculated manipulation transforms the… More
Following Russian Journalist Elena Kostyuchenko’s Account of Being Poisoned in Germany, PEN America Raises Concern About Transnational Attacks
“The apparent poisoning of journalist Elena Kostyuchenko is a threat against anyone writing and speaking truthfully—from anywhere—about the Russian government,” said Polina Sadovskaya, PEN America’s Eurasia and advocacy director.… More