Articles by PEN International
U.S.-based Chinese scholar Gao Zhan detained, WiPC fears for her safety
(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC is seriously concerned for the safety of scholar Gao Zhan, whose whereabouts are unknown following her detention on 11 February 2001. International PEN fears that Gao may be detained solely for her legitimate research activities, and therefore in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. […]
Women writers in prison – 2001
(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a WiPC report about women writers in prison on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2001: International PEN Writers in Prison Committee International Women’s Day 8 March 2001 Women Writers in Prison – 2001 When Flora Brovina, the Kosovo-Albanian doctor, women’s rights activist and writer, was released in […]
Editor and journalist released on bail
(WiPC/IFEX) – Amal Abbas and Hassan Ibrahim, who were given three-month sentences on 4 February 2001, are reported to have been released on bail on 19 February pending appeal. The two staff from the independent daily newspaper “Al Raï el Akhar” had been fined 15 million Sudanese pounds (approx. US$5,800) each in connection with an […]
WiPC concerned for detained writers as police storm prisons
(WiPC/IFEX) – The storming of twenty prisons by Turkish security police on 19 December 2000 has reportedly led to the deaths of up to twenty prisoners and two policemen. Many more have been injured. The police operation was aimed at ending a hunger strike being staged by some 200 prisoners, who are protesting their imminent […]
Court returns books to writer Boban Miletic
(WiPC/IFEX) – On 7 December 2000, the Zajecar District Court summoned writer and satirist Boban Miletic to court to inform him that all copies of his confiscated book “Weep, Mother Serbia, Weep” would be returned to him. Bapsi was sentenced to five months in prison in June 2000 for comments he made at a reading […]
Writer, editor and human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar diagnosed with breast cancer; three new charges brought against her
(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC is seriously concerned for the health of writer, editor and human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and has reportedly been denied permission to seek medical treatment overseas. She has undergone a mastectomy and a course of chemotherapy in Iran. Kar was arrested with publisher Shahla Lahiji […]
Journalist Yehude Simon Munaro released after eight years’ imprisonment
(WiPC/IFEX) – The former director of “Cambio” magazine, Yehude Simon Munaro, was released on Saturday 2 December 2000 after serving over eight years of a twenty-year sentence. Simon, a former leftwing member of congress, had been arrested on 11 June 1992 and subsequently convicted of supporting terrorism through his writings in “Cambio”. Despite the fact […]
Afghan writer Esmat Qaney and his publisher Mustafa Sahar under threat
(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC is seriously concerned for the safety of Afghan writer Esmat Qaney and his publisher Mustafa Sahar following their identification as “apostates” by Taliban religious leaders for the publication of a collection of Qaney’s short stories. This has led to death threats against the two men. International PEN is seriously concerned about […]