New Report: Troubling Rise in Restrictions on Artistic Freedom and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean
“In the last few years, political and social tensions have risen dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean amid the confluence of grave crises and dramatic changes. Authoritarian governments… More
Colombian Journalist Surveilled, Stalked by Her Government Security Detail Assigned to Protect Her
The illegal surveillance and stalking of journalist Claudia Duque exposes the imminent danger that independent journalists in Colombia face for their work, PEN America said today. More
Jineth Bedoya Lima | Status: Under Threat | Colombia
Jineth Bedoya Lima is a Colombian journalist who reports on law enforcement, paramilitary groups, and abductions within Colombia. Bedoya Lima was abducted twice while reporting—once on May 25, 2000,… More
Jineth Bedoya Lima
Bedoya has been abducted twice while reporting: she was kidnapped, raped, and tortured while preparing for an interview with a paramilitary group leader in 2000; and was abducted in… More
Julio César González Matador
González is a cartoonist whose work satirizes Colombian politicians. In April 2018, he announced that due to death threats he received from supporters of former president Alvaro Uribe, who… More
Juan Pablo Barrientos
In October 2019, after he published Let the Little Children Come to Me, Barrientos was accused of defamation by members of the Catholic Church. During two trials, sales of… More
One Journalist Killed, Two Threatened
PEN International protests the murder of El Heraldo de Urabá and Urabá al Día journalist Luis Eduardo Gómez, who was shot dead in front of his wife in Arboletes,… More
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?
PEN America On 
Another bit of sound legal judgement this week, from TX, where a judge found that conservative library board members had likely exercised unconstitutional content-based restrictions when banning books from the Llano public library. The books ordered back.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/31/texas-llano-library-books/
Talking to @AliVelshi, historian @TimothyDSnyder likens book bans in #Florida to Communism: “All this stuff is supposed to be anti-communist but as a historian of communism, that reminds me of some of the basic things that were wrong about communism.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/yale-professor-ron-desantis-book-bans_n_642696c7e4b02a8d518df5a9
Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” was convicted today of the charge of Conspiracy Against Rights. Mackey sent fraudulent messages encouraging supporters of Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media which was legally invalid. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/social-media-influencer-douglass-mackey-convicted-election-interference-2016