May Featured Case: Çayan Demirel and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu
This case is one more sign of the growing crisis for Turkish arts and culture in recent years. The Turkish government’s sprawling crackdown on its real and suspected opponents,… More
Turkish Constitutional Court’s Ruling Ignored as Mehmet Altan Remains in Detention
The failure of the judiciary to uphold the rulings of the Constitutional Court is a transgression of Mehmet Altan’s intrinsic rights, and calls into question the independence of the… More
Turkey: Kurdish PEN member held on terror charges
PEN is concerned at the arrest and detention of writer and Kurdish PEN member Hasip Yanlıç who was charged on July 6, 2017, with “aiding and abetting a terrorist… More
DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression
Trump talks politics and lashes out in front of 30,000 youth at a Boy Scout jamboree. Snopes fact-checking website locked in a dispute with a vendor/business partner that has… More
TURKEY: Uphold freedom of expression
A year ago, a bloody coup attempt in Turkey left over two hundred people dead and over a thousand others injured. While we recognize the right of the Turkish… More
DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression
Key first amendment case and travel ban reach Supreme Court, senior CNN journalists resign after story retracted, writers in Turkey face more and more nebulous threats from the state,… More
Ahmet and Mehmet Altan | Status: Convicted | Turkey
Mehmet and Ahmet Altan were arrested in a dawn raid on September 10, 2016, as part of a wave of arrests of thinkers and writers following the July 15,… More
Eşber Yağmurdereli | Status: Released | Turkey
Blind playwright, poet, short story author, screenwriter, and lawyer, Eşber Yağmurdereli has been in and out of prison since 1978 and was the 1999 recipient of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith… More
Ayşe Nur Zarakolu | Status: Deceased | Turkey
Founder of Turkey’s Freedom to Publish Committee, Ayşe Nur Zarakolu was a political essayist, the director of Belge Publishing House, and the only woman publishing director in Turkey at… More
TURKEY: Cumhuriyet Daily Web Editor Arrested
PEN is deeply concerned about the arrest of Cumhuriyet daily web editor Oğuz Güven, bringing the number of Cumhuriyet staff currently jailed pending trial to 13. Güven was arrested… More
Alert Us
To any writer artist who is at risk, or is in need of assistance, including those denied entry into the U.S. as a result of the latest Trump Administration travel ban. 
