Sentencing of Poet Wang Zang and His Wife to Prison in China Shows “Repressive Environment” for Free Expression, as PEN America Calls For Their Release
“We condemn the sentencing of Wang Zang for exercising his freedom to write, and of his wife Wang Liqin whose only apparent ‘crime’ was advocating for her husband’s rights,”… More
Grave Concern for Poet Zhang Guiqi, Sentenced to Six Years in Prison, for Calling on Xi Jinping to Step Down
PEN America and the Independent Chinese PEN Centre condemn the conviction of poet Zhang Guiqi and calls for his immediate release. More
China: PEN Centers Call for Xu Zhiyong’s Immediate Release
PEN America, PEN International, and the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) call on the Chinese government release Xu Zhiyong. More
Proceeding with Trial of Xu Zhiyong is a “Grave and Shameful” Mistake by China
Xu faces a potential punishment of life in prison if convicted. His lawyer will reportedly plead his innocence of the crimes at trial. Trials involving government critics in China—including… More
Truth-Telling And Its Dire Consequences: PEN America Hosts Conversation with Writers Targeted by Authoritarians Around the Globe
The difficult plight of writers living under authoritarian rule has been well-documented over decades, with some enduring impossibly harsh treatment for their truth-telling and resistance to repression. More
PEN America 2021 Freedom to Write Index: Myanmar Joins China and Saudi Arabia as World’s Top Jailers of Writers
During 2021, Myanmar accounted for the single-largest increase of writers and public intellectuals newly jailed for exercising free expression, due to the military junta’s crackdown on influential voices. More
Li Liqun Li Huizi
Li Liqun was an esteemed blogger and writer well-known by his pen name Li Huizi who blogged about fairness and justice and wrote poetry. Li took his own life… More
Luo Changping
Author, blogger, and former investigative reporter Luo Changping was arrested in October 2021 for “defaming martyrs” after posting on Weibo a critical review of a film depicting a battle… More
Ou Biaofeng
Activist and online commentator Ou Biaofeng was detained on December 3, 2020 in relation to his tweets about an activist who splashed ink on a poster of President Xi… More
Qiu Ziming La Bi Xiao Qiu
In February 2021, author and blogger Qiu was detained for questioning on Weibo the Chinese government-reported casualty numbers in an India-China border dispute. In May 2021, he was sentenced… More
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According to @PENamerica book bans are increasing and evolving to keep even more books out of the hands of our children. But why do other people get to tell our kids, they can't read certain books? #BookBanBusters
Loved last night’s celebration of books and reading at the Utah State Capitol. #LetUtahRead #utpol
"While no Republican members of Congress have directly addressed the Santos drag allegations, drag has become a hot-button issue in the party.
At least 8 states have introduced... legislation to restrict or censor drag shows, according to Pen America." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64388524