PEN Petitions China
With its annual World Voices Festival of International Literature coming to town next week, PEN American Center, the human rights organization for writers, is focusing on China as the… More
PEN Calls Press Conference to Announce Delivery of China Petition
Salman Rushdie, Francine Prose, Edward Albee, Rick Moody and Ma Jian will be among the writers attending a press conference Thursday, May 1, at which the PEN American Center… More
Billy Collins Reads Shi Tao’s “June” as Part of Free Expression Poem Relay
As the Olympic torch reached the U.S., PEN American Center today released a recording of former U.S. Poet Laureate and PEN American Center Vice President Billy Collins reading imprisoned… More
Tracking Olympic Torch Relay, PEN Poem Relay lands in North America
Raising awareness of rights violations in China through poetry, the PEN Poem Relay is crossing the globe, touching down in North America on April 9. More
Protest poem “relay” tackles China on human rights
Canada will take part in a virtual demonstration against China's human rights policies on Wednesday via a poem "relay" organized by an international writers' association as tensions brew worldwide… More
‘If the Games Fail, Human Rights Will Suffer’
With the Olympic Games rapidly approaching, more attention than ever is being focused on China's handling of protests in Tibet and on the state of human rights in the… More
Will Chinese Regime Silence Media’s Coverage?
The Chinese regime sought first to silence the protest of the monks in Lhasa with a violent crackdown on March 14 that reminded the world of Tiananmen Square in… More
No time to close our eyes
If there has been any lesson in all my years as an activist for democracy and human rights in China, it is that only international pressure coupled with internal… More
PEN to China: Let Free Press Tell True Story in Tibet
Writers from Canada, the United States, and China joined today in denouncing “suffocating restrictions” on the press and on the flow of information from Tibet, where a week of… More
Two Releases, One Conviction, One Indefinite Detention
PEN today welcomed the release on parole of Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong from prison in Gangzhou, southern China, where he was serving a five-year sentence for espionage. The… More
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