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].
At a time of unprecedented attacks against the free press, PEN America Members are taking action. Join us today.
PEN and CPJ protest U.S. decision to revoke Cuban journalist’s visa
Dear Secretary Powell, We are writing to express our shock and extreme concern over reports that the U.S. State Department recently revoked Cuban independent journalist Bernardo Arévalo Padrón's refugee… More
International PEN Writers in Prison Committee Cuba Campaign
Thirty-two writers, journalists, and librarians were sentenced during one-day trials held in early April 2003 under laws governing the protection of the Cuban state. They were arrested as part… More
PEN to intensify Reader Privacy efforts after controversial House vote
PEN American Center vowed to continue the drive to restore reader privacy protections stripped in post-9/11 antiterrorism legislation after an effort to halt the funding that allows the government… More
PEN welcomes release of Vietnamese Internet dissident Lˆ Chi Quang
PEN American Center hailed the release this week of Lê Chi Quang, an Internet activist whose critical essays about the Vietnamese government earned him a 4-year prison term followed… More
Fifth biennial conference of Writers in Prison Committee
"Many of us have been asking, is this what we went to jail for? What has all our struggle come to? A mere clearing of the path for another… More
Law enforcement & reader privacy
In September 2003, when book community concerns over section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act were beginning to receive national attention, Attorney General John Ashcroft delivered a speech at… More
PEN calls on President to abandon Patriot Act politics
In a letter made public today, PEN American Center is calling on President George W. Bush to lead an open, bipartisan evaluation of individual provisions of the Act that… More
Vaclav Havel and Nobel laureates call For release of imprisoned Burmese writers
Fourteen Nobel Literature Laureates are joining Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic and renowned playwright, and Jiri Grusa, acclaimed Czech writer and President of International PEN, to… More
PEN welcomes developments in prison writing suit, workshop suspension
Assurances that Connecticut's Department of Corrections will continue Wally Lamb's Creative Writing Program at the York Correctional Institution and that the State of Connecticut will soon announce a successful… More
Letter demands release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other writers
Your Excellency: We would like to address you on a matter that is important to all our hearts and minds. When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the… More
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