Press Releases
PEN America experts are available for interviews with the press. Please direct inquiries to Suzanne Trimel, Senior Advisor, Communications and Media, at [email protected].
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Health of Jailed Iranian Brothers Worsens in the Face of Mistreatment and Abuse
The Rajabian brothers began their hunger strike to protest conditions at Evin prison. More
New PEN America Report Sets Out Principles to Defuse Campus Free Speech Controversies
NEW YORK—Addressing concerns that recent campus controversies may lead a rising generation to grow alienated from core American values of free speech, PEN America today released the “PEN America… More
‘GUANTÁNAMO DIARY’ AUTHOR FINALLY RELEASED
Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been released from Guantánamo Bay and transferred to Mauritania by U.S. authorities, where he is set to be reunited with his family. More
Another Journalist Assault Signals No End to Russian Repression
Journalist Grigory Pasko was accosted by two muscular men in dark glasses. One of the men punched Pasko in the head, knocking him to the ground as the other… More
PEN America Continues to Broaden Leadership and Address New Challenges to Expression
UPDATED March 9, 2017 NEW YORK—PEN America has named to its Board of Trustees Lauren Embrey (President and CEO, Embrey Family Foundation), Saeed Jones (Culture Editor, BuzzFeed), Zachary Karabell (author, The Leading Indicators: A… More
Banned Books Week: Book Challenges May Deprive Students of Critical Life Lessons
Censorship in schools and libraries is more prevalent than you think, says new report NEW YORK—A persistent pattern of attempts to remove certain books from public schools and libraries, combined… More
New PEN America Report Shows Growing Pressure on Foreign Correspondents to Bias Coverage in China
NEW YORK—Foreign journalists are operating under intensifying pressure in China during the tenure of President Xi Jinping, impeding transparency and the flow of information essential to the global public… More
Hasan Minhaj and Negin Farsad Counter Muslim Stereotypes with Laughter at PEN America’s ‘The M Word’
"The only way to break that narrative is to write it ourselves." More
Israel: Charges Against Poet Dareen Tatour Should be Dropped
NEW YORK—PEN America calls on Israeli authorities to drop the charges against the poet Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel whose trial on charges of incitement to violence… More
Egypt: In Wake of Legal Setback, PEN America Renews Call for Release of Ahmed Naji
NEW YORK—The denial this weekend of Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji’s motion to stay his two-year sentence perpetuates the injustice of punishing a writer for the exercise of free expression,… More