PEN International

(WiPC/IFEX) – Asiye Güzel Zeybek, a former editor of a radical newspaper, is to be released on the evening of 5 June 2002, after spending five years and four months in prison. On 5 June, at Zeybek’s trial hearing, which was attended by PEN representatives, the court announced that she was acquitted. PEN is awaiting […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – Burak Bekdil, a journalist for the “Turkish Daily News” and several western publications, has been found guilty of “insulting the judiciary” and sentenced to an 18-month suspended prison term. International PEN considers the conviction to be a direct breach of the right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by the European Convention on […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC of International PEN welcomes the release on 5 May 2002 of Vladimiro Roca Antúnez. The dissident writer was released 70 days before the completion of his five-year sentence. An honorary member of English PEN, Roca Antúnez, aged 59, was the best-known political prisoner in Cuba. He was arrested on 16 July […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC of International PEN is gravely concerned for the health of veteran journalist and film critic Siamak Pourzand, who is reported to have suffered a heart attack in prison. Pourzand, aged 72, was sentenced to eight years in prison on 3 May 2002, and has been detained incommunicado since 24 November. On […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a WiPC, International PEN press release: INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM DAY 3 May 2002 Today over seventy writers and journalists are incarcerated in prisons around the world serving sentences several years long. Most are accused only for practising their rights to freedom of expression and association. Many are held in countries […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – Between 26 March and 20 April 2002, International PEN members world-wide staged a campaign aimed at highlighting the huge number of trials under way against writers and journalists in Turkey. PEN has on its records over 100 trials believed to be ongoing against those whose only act has been to write critically of […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC of International PEN is deeply concerned at the death threat received by Hugo Gonzales Henostroza and calls on the Peruvian authorities to safeguard the journalist’s life. According to information received by International PEN, Gonzales received a phone call on 11 April 2002. The anonymous caller threatened Gonzales and told him to […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The writers and artists belonging to the Initiative of Intellectuals and Artists (IIA) were all acquitted. The fourteen individuals appeared before the Ankara State Security Court on 8 April 2002 charged under Article 169 of the Penal Code with “supporting an illegal organisation”. The IIA protested against the prosecution of photographer Mehmet Özer […]