(WAN/IFEX) – The following is the full text of a press release issued by WAN on 17 March 1998: Writers, artists and musicians who have been banned, beaten and imprisoned will emphasize that culture is impossible without freedom of expression when the world’s culture ministers gather in Stockholm later this month. Among more than a […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is the full text of a press release issued by WAN
on 17 March 1998:
Writers, artists and musicians who have been banned, beaten and imprisoned
will emphasize that culture is impossible without freedom of expression when
the world’s culture ministers gather in Stockholm later this month.
Among more than a dozen personalities who will participate in the “No
Freedom…No Culture” conference is a Chinese “delegation” of renowned
exiled dissident writers — Wei Jingsheng , Lui Binyan and Yang Lian.
Mr Wei, China’s best-known dissident who was released from jail and exiled
last November, is to receive the Olof Palme Prize, awarded while he was in
jail in 1994. It will be presented at the start of the 31 March 1998
conference by Lisbet Palme, the widow of the slain Swedish Prime Minister.
The Chinese participants will be joined by a veritable United Nations of
creative personalities who share the common experience of suffering
censorship, imprisonment and exile because of their art and their promotion
of free expression.
The World Association of Newspapers, along with Index on Censorship, is
giving them the opportunity to speak in the same conference center where
some of the governments that tried to silence them are expected to
participate in the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for
Development sponsored by UNESCO and the Swedish government 30 March – 2
April 1998.
“We believe it is important to remind all governments that culture can only
thrive if artists and writers are free to express themselves, and we are
grateful to UNESCO and the Swedish Government for giving us this
opportunity”, said Timothy Balding, Director General of the Paris-based WAN.
The conference is part of the association’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Among the other scheduled participants are Algerian journalist Salima
Ghezali, whose paper was suspended at least nine times before being shut
down; Kenyan writer Wahome Wa Mutahi, whose use of humor to soften his
biting commentary failed to keep him out of jail; and award-winning Croatian
editor Victor Ivancic, the bete noire of President Franco Tudjman.
WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry, groups more than
15,000 newspapers in over 90 countries. Index on Censorship, a publication
of the Writers & Scholars Trust, is a bi-monthly magazine which publishes
the works of banned writers and information and analysis on various
censorship issues.
