PEN America Speaks: How We Defended And Celebrated Free Expression the Week Of July 22

By: Lisa Tolin

July 26, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • With just a couple of days left before her forced summons to Evin prison, Sepideh Rashnu, an Iranian writer and graduate student who was arrested after an altercation with another woman who tried to force her to wear a hijab, shared a message with PEN America and gave us permission for it to be widely distributed. “As a writer, I have never thought that literature and narration are separate from the struggle and resistance for human rights.”

  • PEN America hosted its Free Expression Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C., where high schoolers studied the theories, law, histories, and methodologies behind free expression advocacy. The institute featured presentations by PEN America’s legal and policy experts, interactive workshops, and discussions sessions. 
  • Alongside press rights organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Knight First Amendment Institute, PEN America signed a letter that asked President Joe Biden to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect journalists and uphold press freedom. 
  • PEN America criticized Russian courts for sentencing editor and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to 6.5 years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian military. “We condemn the sentencing of Alsu Kurmasheva for the basic act of exercising her right to free speech which is rapidly becoming criminalized in Putin’s Russia,” said Polina Sadovskaya, advocacy and Eurasia director at PEN America.
  • PEN America condemned a Russian court’s sentencing of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison in a high-security penal colony on charges of espionage and called for Gershkovich’s immediate and unconditional release. “We condemn the cruel and outrageous 16-year prison sentence for Evan Gershkovich, based completely on unfounded and manufactured espionage charges,” said Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America
  • PEN America expressed concern about The Wall Street Journal’s dismissal of journalist Selina Cheng shortly after she was elected to chair the Hong Kong Journalists Association. “Any appearance that a reporter might be discouraged from or disciplined for supporting press freedom research and documentation is deeply concerning,” said James Tager, director of Research at PEN America. 
  • Mina Haq, consultant with PEN America’s journalism and disinformation program, spoke with David Silva Ramirez about how he pulls back the curtain for Dallas residents on how decisions are made, and launched the Documenters program, which pays and trains Dallas residents to attend and take notes at public meetings before publishing the results. 
  • Freedom to Learn Program Director Jeremy C. Young, Campus Free Speech consultant Neijma Celestine-Donnor, and Freedom to Learn Program Coordinator Jacqueline Allain wrote about Diversity, Free Expression, and Higher Education in the journal Metropolitan Universities.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended And Celebrated Free Expression The Week Of July 15

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • After learning of his sentencing to 16 years, PEN America called for Evan Gershkovich’s immediate and unconditional release and urged the international community to hold the Russian government accountable for violations of freedom of expression.
  • PEN America held its first annual Unified Voices Summit: Protecting Educational Freedom in Florida on July 12-13. The summit sought to fight against education censorship and book bans and featured a number of presentations from authors and activists including Jodi Picoult, Stacey Abrams, and George Emilio Sanchez. Read coverage of the summit here
  • PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel spoke to The New York Times’ By the Book columnist about reading and working with authors.
  • PEN America condemned the assault and detention of author and President of PEN Palestine Dr. Hanan Awwad by Israeli soldiers and demanded an immediate investigation into the incident. “The assault is not just an attack on an individual, but on free expression at a moment when it is most needed in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” PEN America wrote in a statement.
  • Digital safety expert Viktorya Vilk weighed in on how surveillance of press by law enforcement curtails press freedom in a recent Los Angeles case.
  • In a new PEN America survey, 10 journalists provided suggestions about how community members can approach journalists, pitch stories to them, and form long-lasting relationships with them. The journalists’ responses can be found in a blog post here
  • After the Russian-America writer Masha Gessen was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for remarks they made about Ukraine, PEN America criticized the Russian government and urged it to overturn the decision. “With this conviction, the court is sending a strong message that the Russian government will continue to impose its repressive authority unchecked, punishing any critics who speak against it, no matter where they are,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center.
  • Freedom to Read Program Assistant Madison Markham and Freedom to Read Program Consultant Tasslyn Magnusson penned a new blog post about the dangerous rhetoric of “parental rights” and the classroom censorship it has fueled in Wisconsin. 
  • Our digital safety experts, Viktorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed, talked about their report with Columbia University’s Susan McGregor that focused on using peer support to reduce harm and increase resilience against the online abuse of journalists in the U.S. 

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of July 8

By: Lisa Tolin

July 12, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • Educators, authors, and activists are gathering in Orlando for the “Unified Voices Summit on Educational Freedom,” hosted by a nonpartisan coalition of organizations including PEN America. Featuring Jodi Picoult, Lauren Groff, and Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, among others, the summit seeks to push back against Gov. Ron DeSantis censorship agenda and protect public education and free speech. 
  • PEN America announced its 2024 Emerging Voices Fellows, all of whom will participate in a five-month immersive mentorship program and receive $1,500, a professional headshot, and one-year complimentary PEN membership. 
  • High schoolers attended PEN America’s Free Expression Advocacy Institute in New York City this week, where they studied the theories, law, histories, and methodologies behind free expression advocacy at no cost. The institute featured presentations by PEN America’s legal and policy experts, interactive workshops, and discussions sessions. Over the course of the week, all attendees simulated advocacy campaign projects, which they will present at the closing session.
  • PEN America convened its Higher Education in Democracy Summit 2024 in Washington, DC, bringing together higher education and civil society organizations to discuss practical, community-level ways to combat educational gag orders.
  • PEN America and the Artists at Risk Connection condemned a Moscow court for sentencing theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of “justifying terrorism.” “Today’s sentencing of Berkovich and Petriychuk will go down in history as a blatant attack on artistic freedom by Russian authorities who have targeted them as part of a broader campaign of suppression of any public dissent against government policies,” said Polina Sadovskaya, PEN America director for Advocacy and Eurasia.
  • PEN America called a federal judge’s ruling that rap artist B.G. must turn over his written lyrics to probation officials before they are released a “slap in the face” to the right to free expression. “Monitoring the lyrics of a musician is a gross violation of artistic freedom; no artist’s creative work should be subjected to scrutiny by the law,” said Julie Trébault, managing director of Artists at Risk Connection. 

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of July 1

By: Lisa Tolin

July 5, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • PEN America joined an amicus brief to support a federal lawsuit challenging the law that would ban TikTok across the United States in January 2025. The lawsuit argues that the ban, adopted this year by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, violates the First Amendment. The Knight First Amendment Institute led the brief, which the advocacy group Free Press has also joined. “This act is exactly the kind of suppression of thought and ideas across borders that our organization was created to combat,” said Eileen Hershenov, deputy chief executive officer and counsel. 

  • At the 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, PEN America sponsored “Based on a True Story” with PEN International, the Permanent Mission of Poland to the UN in Geneva, and the Permanent Mission of Estonia to the UN in Geneva. At the event, PEN Eurasia Director Polina Sadovskaya spoke alongside writers and human rights defenders including Ma Thida, Iryna Kozikava, and Fatemeh Ekhtesari about the necessity of protecting writers at risk across the globe. 

  • PEN America called on the Israeli government to reject the Knesset bill that would allow communication minister Shlomo Karhi to shut down any foreign news network in Israel if it is perceived as a threat to the state. “This effort to silence voices that are critical of Israeli government decisions sets a dangerous precedent that not only compromises the watchdog role of the press, but also undermines democratic principles and the public’s right to be informed,” PEN America wrote in a statement. 

  • PEN America welcomed the Supreme Court’s rejection of Florida and Texas laws that intended to restrict the power of social media companies to engage in content moderation. All nine justices concurred on the decision to vacate and return the cases to the lower courts.

  • PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection signed onto a letter organized by PEN Belarus to stop the extradition of Belarusian filmmaker Andrej Hniot from Serbia to Belarus, where he faces serious risks of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of June 24

By: Lisa Tolin

June 28, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

Anh-This Vo, PEN America’s NYC-based Manager of Research and Advocacy for the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center, speaks to our 40+ Free Expression Advocacy Institute students about PEN America’s work supporting writers and artists at risk around the world.

Anh-This Vo, PEN America’s NYC-based Manager of Research and Advocacy for the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center, speaks to our 40+ Free Expression Advocacy Institute students about PEN America’s work supporting writers and artists at risk around the world.

 

  • PEN America held its summer 2024 Free Expression Advocacy Institute in Los Angeles, educating high school students about theories, law, histories, and methodologies behind free expression advocacy. The programming included presentations by experts on legal and policy matters, interactive workshops, and facilitated discussion sessions that allowed students to dive deep into these issues. 

  • PEN America hosted its Emerging Voices Workshop in Los Angeles, an in-person craft intensive that provides 15 writers the opportunity to develop a manuscript-in-progress with peers and expert instructors, culminating in a celebratory public reading of works-in-progress.
  • PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel was interviewed on the Battles We Pick podcast with David Shorr about schools, libraries, and efforts to ban books as a key battlefront in the struggle to preserve freedom. 
  • In a new blog post, Jeffrey Sachs and Jeremy C. Young break down jawboning, a chilling censorship tactic that happens behind closed doors. “Over the last year, public officials have aggressively (but often covertly) bullied university leaders into censoring faculty, shuttering university programs and offices, and firing unpopular employees,” they explain. “This sort of behavior rarely receives the public attention that comes with a new law or executive order, but it is no less damaging, and it can be even more difficult to combat.”

  • The Free Narges Coalition condemned an Iranian revolutionary court for sentencing 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi to an additional year of prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the state.” PEN America recently joined with Reporters Without Borders, Front Line Defenders, and the Narges Mohammadi Foundation to form the coalition.

  • In a CityLimits op-ed, Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs Jonathan Friedman urged against proposed budget cuts to New York’s libraries, which would lead to reductions in staff, weekend service, library materials, building renovations, and programming.

  • PEN America called for India to drop the case against writer Arundhati Roy for comments she made about Kashmir in 2010. “This case demonstrates all too clearly how protracted legal harassment, now coupled with the threat of charges under the repressive UAPA law, can be used to inflict great professional and personal suffering for the simple act of free expression,” said Karin Karlekar, Director of Writers at Risk at PEN America.

  • PEN America welcomed the reported plea deal between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the U.S. government. “It is critical that his guilty plea on the single count not be construed as setting a precedent for further prosecutions or convictions of journalists under the Espionage Act,” PEN America stated.

  • PEN America criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after he vetoed the entire state arts budget — nearly $32 million in funding — without explanation. “DeSantis is taking his war on culture to a new level,” said Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America’s Florida office. “This decision will not only devastate the arts but add to his legacy of censorship and disregard for art, literature, and knowledge.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of June 17

By: Lisa Tolin

June 21, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • PEN America announced that Hadar Harris, a human rights lawyer with experience in over 25 countries, has been appointed the managing director of PEN America’s Washington, D.C. office. Harris has served in the role in an interim capacity since January and has previously worked on a number of human rights issues, including the freedom of expression and association, protecting civil society space, gender equality, and domestic implementation of international norms. 

  • The Free Narges Coalition strongly condemned the additional sentencing of 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi by an Iranian revolutionary court for charges of “propaganda activities against the state.” PEN America joined the coalition last week with Reporters Without Borders, Front Line Defenders, and the Narges Mohammadi Foundation. 

  • PEN America held its third installment of the U.S. Election Safety Summer, a free webinar series co-hosted with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation. A recording of the most recent installation, which focused on protecting against hacking and doxing, will be available next week. 

  • Senior Program Manager Kurt Sampsel, along with Marlissa Collier of the Dallas Weekly and Edwin Robinson of the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, hosted a webinar discussing how community members and news consumers could engage productively with local media. 

  • PEN America criticized the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill for dismissing Professor Larry Chavis, a decision Chavis believes was based on comments he made in support of indigenous and LGBTQ+ rights that were secretly recorded. “This case is positively Orwellian,” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Sims director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “This is an alarming violation of due process and academic freedom. Chavis deserves an explanation — and the university owes one to the public.” 

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of June 10

By: Lisa Tolin

June 14, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • PEN America joined with Reporters Without Borders, Front Line Defenders, and the Narges Mohammadi Foundation to create the Free Narges Coalition, which is urgently calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Iranian writer Narges Mohammadi. Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has been detained in Iran’s Evin prison since November 2021 — and a new case against her may further elongate her sentence.

  • PEN America launched U.S. Election Safety Summer, a free webinar series—co-organized with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation—that aims to empower journalists covering the U.S. elections with concrete strategies to protect themselves and one another. If you missed these sessions, you can still catch recordings of Risk Assessment and Planning for Journalists in the Field and Online Abuse Self-Defense

  • PEN America also launched an #ElectSafely campaign as part of our extensive engagement with the Coalition Against Online Violence (CAOV), a network of 85+ organizations worldwide. The campaign will provide crucial resources and guidance from members of the Coalition to protect and defend journalists against online abuse and other safety challenges.

  • Hadar Harris, Washington Managing Director,  joined a discussion at the American Society of International Law (ASIL) on challenges to freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. The event provided an opportunity to elevate and amplify the findings of the Freedom to Write Index along with some of our cases of concern.

  • PEN America co-presented a Right to Read Celebration organized by The New Republic that featured writers whose books were banned, including Lauren Groff, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ellen Hopkins, George M. Johnson, Ashley Hope Perez, and Jacqueline Woodson, along with teachers, librarians, and students who have been directly impacted by the bans that are sweeping the country.

  • PEN America criticized the Vietnamese government for arresting writer Trương Huy San, demanding that he be released and that all charges against him be dismissed. “These oppressive tactics targeting free expression do great harm not only to the brave people who dare share opinions contrary to the government line but to society as a whole,” said PEN America research and advocacy manager Anh-Thu Vo.

  • PEN America condemned South Carolina’s decision to eliminate college credit and statewide funding for AP African American Studies. In an email that the state’s Department of Education sent to district superintendents, it cited “significant controversy surrounding the course” and “pending permanent legislation” as reasons for its choice. “This irresponsible decision cannot be separated from a national context in which Black history is under attack,” said Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America. 

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of June 3

By: Lisa Tolin

June 7, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • PEN America joined hundreds of authors as well as advocacy groups and publishing houses to urge South Carolina lawmakers to block regulations that could restrict access to countless works of literature. The regulations, which are slated to take effect on June 25, “pose a threat to the freedom to read, to the detriment of students across South Carolina,” the letter states. Among the signatories are writers including Jodi Picoult, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Katherine Paterson and organizations including ACLU of South Carolina, Hachette Book Group, and MacMillan Publishers. 
  • Summer Lopez, chief program officer of Free Expression Programs at PEN America, criticized Georgia’s new foreign agent bill, which puts writers, artists, and others who express beliefs at odds with those of the government at risk. The law mandates that organizations that receive over 20 percent of their funding from abroad register as “agents of foreign influence,” thereby stigmatizing individuals and groups who may not be able to secure funding within the country. “The foreign agent law is the latest sign of a decline in Georgia’s adherence to international human rights and democratic norms,” Lopez said. “We urge the Georgian government to overturn the foreign agent law.” 
  • PEN America called upon DePaul University to reinstate an adjunct faculty member who was fired after using terms such as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” while discussing Palestine in an optional course assignment. PEN condemned DePaul’s decision to fire the professor, which represents an unambiguous violation of academic freedom. 
  • Moira Marquis, senior manager at the PEN America Freewrite project, spoke to The Washington Post about the decline in access to books in prison as well as the book she co-edited, Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement, which details the history of prison book programs. 
  • Florida Director Katie Blankenship criticized new instructions to “err on the side of caution” when it comes to books in the state’s schools. 

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of May 20

By: Lisa Tolin

May 24, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of May 13

By: Lisa Tolin

May 17, 2024

Advocacy, News & Analysis

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

  • At our annual Literary Gala, we honored the indelible songwriting of icon Paul Simon with the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award for his bountiful and unparalleled songs and lyrics over a half century. Simon came to the stage, acoustic guitar in hand, and played and sang “American Tune,” which he wrote in 1972 after the re-election of Richard Nixon and with the Kent State shootings of student protesters fresh in his mind. “The mood today is uncomfortably similar to that time,” he said. 

  • Other honorees included Dow Jones CEO and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal Almar Latour, who has been at the forefront of efforts for more than a year to secure the release of Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from a Russian prison; mother-daughter Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who successfully sued to vindicate their reputations after being vilified and falsely accused of  election-related malfeasance in 2020, and Vietnamese writer Pham Doan Trang, imprisoned for her ideas about democracy and critiques of state repression.

  • Anh-Thu Vo wrote about this year’s Freedom to Write honoree, Pham Doan Trang, the imprisoned Vietnamese author and dissident, in Just Security, saying Tran “epitomizes the relentless struggle of many writers and activists for free expression in Vietnam.”
  • A delegation of PEN America staff held two very effective days of meetings in Washington with six congressional offices, the State Department, and civil society partners to advocate on Trang’s behalf.

  • PEN America signed a statement from the American Council of Learned Societies expressing concern about university leaders’ response to recent campus protests. “While administrators have every right and duty to secure the safety of their campus communities,” the statement reads in part, “suppressing the expression of unpopular or uncomfortable ideas by students or faculty engaged in peaceful protest does not do justice to the values at the heart of the university.”
  • CEO Suzanne Nossel spoke to The New York Times for a piece about PEN America grappling with dissent about the war in Gaza. “Defense of free speech, openness to wide-ranging views, faith in dialogue and a willingness to reckon with complexity — those for me are hallmarks of how we’ve gone about our work,” she said. 

See previous PEN America updates