Journalist Sentenced to Three Years’ Imprisonment
International PEN strongly protests the three-year prison sentence given to Habana Press director Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet, reportedly for “disrespect for authority,” on May 12, 2009. More
On World Press Freedom Day, PEN Launches Americas Campaign
PEN American Center is marking World Press Freedom Day today by launching the “Freedom to Write in the Americas” campaign which will run through the rest of 2009, and… More
Sick Cuban Writer Gonzales Is Back in Raul CastroŸ??s Fetid Jail
One year after Cuban President Raul Castro promised “more openness” in dealing with dissidents, journalist and poet Normando Hernandez Gonzalez has been taken from a hospital ward back to… More
Five Years After ‘Black Spring,’ Pen Calls for Release of Writers
International PEN applauds Cuba’s February 28 signature of two key international human-rights conventions, which explicitly guarantee the right to freedom of expression, health, and freedom from torture and ill… More
It’s same old repression in a new package
As shoppers in Havana mobbed electronic stores looking for DVD players, writer and independent journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez was quietly returned to Kilo 7 prison in Camaguey, Cuba. More
Cubans Send Sick Dissident Writer Gonzalez to ‘Subhuman’ Jail
Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, a gravely ill dissident Cuban writer, was secretly returned three weeks ago from a Havana military hospital to solitary confinement in Kilo 7, a backwater prison,… More
Normando Hernández González Removed from Hospital, Returned to Prison
In what PEN has called a “shocking and very discouraging turn of events,” writer and independent journalist Normando Hernández González has been removed from a hospital where he was… More
On Fifth Anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring, 28 Writers Still Imprisoned
Five years after Cuba jailed 75 prominent dissidents in what has been called that country’s “Black Spring,” PEN American Center today appealed for the release of 28 imprisoned writers,… More
Mother of Jailed Writer to Sit With First Lady at Bush Speech
Blanca Gonzalez, whose son, Normando Hernández González, has become an international symbol of Cuban human-rights abuses, is scheduled to join Laura Bush in the first lady's gallery tonight when… More
Day of the Imprisoned Writer
In any given year, International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) monitors around 1,000 attacks against writers, journalists, poets, publishers and editors worldwide. These range from persistent harassment and… More