Nizametdin Akhmetov | Status: Released | Russia
Nizametdin Akhmetov, a Bashkir poet, was sent to a labor camp at age 18. After 20 years of imprisonment in labor camps and psychiatric hospitals, Akhmetov was released on… More
Matsemela Manaka | Status: Deceased | South Africa
Matsemela Manaka was a writer, director, actor, poet and cultural theorist. His career in playwriting was spurred much in part by the Soweto uprising in 1976. Manaka received the… More
YEMEN: Death sentence against prominent writer
PEN is deeply concerned about the death sentence issued by a Houthi court in Sana’a against Yahya al-Jubaihi, a prominent Yemeni writer and journalist, after a grossly unfair trial.… More
Nizar Nayouf | Status: Displaced/In Exile | Syria
Nizar Nayouf is a writer, sociologist, and human rights activist who, at the time of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, was serving a 10-year prison sentence with… More
China: New Regulations Increase Control over Both Internet and Media
Recently-released Chinese internet regulations represent the Chinese Communist Party’s newest attempt to assert control over both the media and the internet. More
Mauritania: Publishing and rights groups demand justice for imprisoned blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkheitir
This letter was sent by the International Publishers Association and additional signatories, including PEN America, to the Mauritanian authorities in their respective countries. Mauritania: Publishing and rights groups demand justice for… More
United States: PEN America Urges Arkansas House of Representatives to Reject Proposed Howard Zinn Ban Bill
PEN America sent this letter to every member of the Arkansas House of Representatives on March 28, 2017 Arkansas House of Representatives State Capitol 500 Woodlane St. Suite 350 Little… More
ISRAEL: Poet Dareen Tatour Should Be Acquitted For Protest Poem and Facebook Posts
NEW YORK—Ahead of upcoming hearings in the trial of poet Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who has been charged with incitement to violence and support of terrorism,… More
China: Order to Restrict Children’s Books a Troubling Step Toward Ideological Conformity
NEW YORK - The Chinese government’s reported introduction of new measures to restrict children’s access to books written by foreign authors is the next step in China’s growing restrictions… More
Thailand: Amended Computer Crime Act a Step Backward on Free Expression
NEW YORK - PEN America reacted with dismay today to the news that Thailand’s legislature has approved recently proposed amendments to the 2007 Computer Crime Act, saying that the… More
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