PEN America

In a victory for freedom of expression, a Chilean lower court in Santiago threw out a claim for “usurpation of identity” for Twitter user Rodrigo Ferrari, a blogger and lawyer who operated a parody account that lampooned a billionaire businessman.

Chinese authorities have reportedly arrested Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo; the arrest may be an attempt to increase pressure on Liu Xiaobo’s wife who is under house arrest.

Send a letter to the Cameroonian authorities telling them to free writer and political activist Enoh Meyomesse, sentenced to 7 years in prison, and banned from writing. His next hearing is 18 July.

PEN American Center denounced a Supreme Court ruling that scuttles a challenge by PEN and other human rights groups to the government’s secret telephone and Internet surveillance programme.

PEN American Center is asking the Department of State and Justice Department to explain US involvement in disclosing the identity of a Chilean Twitter user who is now standing trial for tweets parodying the country’s wealthiest businessman.

As the global reach of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook expands, important questions of digital freedom and free expression arise; PEN American Center examines some recent cases.

Nine human rights NGO’s, including IFEX members Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and PEN American Center, came together to urge Uzbek President Islam Karimov to demonstrate a genuine commitment to Uzbekistan’s much-touted reform process by including political prisoners in an anticipated amnesty for Constitution Day.

The charges filed against Dr. Jiao Guobiao are believed to stem from an online article where he criticised the Chinese government for focusing on a territorial dispute with Japan rather than political reform.