Articles by PEN International
Poet Xiong Jinren freed; poet Xue Deyun charged and undergoing trial
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC has received official confirmation that poet Xiong Jinren (also known as Xiong Xiang) was freed sometime after February 1998 (exact date not known). Poet Xue Deyun, who was arrested with him, was reportedly charged in February 1998 under Article 105.2 of the Chinese Penal Code with attempting to “overthrow…the socialist system” by […]
Journalist Cornel Sabou pardoned
(WiPC/IFEX) – On 29 January 1999 it was reported that President Emil Constantinescu has pardoned journalist Cornel Sabou who had been sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment for libelling a judge. **Updates IFEX alerts of 22 January and 20 January 1999, 16 October and 25 August 1998** Sabou told a Romanian national daily newspaper: “In this […]
Fears for the safety of journalists in Peshawar
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC is seriously concerned for the safety of journalists in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, following a series of attacks by unknown individuals who are thought to have links with the Taleban army in Afghanistan. The following journalists based in northern Pakistan have been repeatedly threatened or attacked in the past six months, apparently for […]
Writer and academic freed
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC has received confirmation that writer and academic Munawar Ahmad Anees was released on 18 January 1999, after serving four months of his six-month sentence. Anees was sentenced to six months in prison on 19 September 1998 for alleged homosexual relations with the former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim. It is […]
Two Serb journalists released; one remains missing and feared dead
(WiPC/IFEX) – International PEN has learnt that Serb journalist Nebojsa Radosevic and photographer Vladimir Dobricic were released by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) on 26 November 1998. However, there is continuing concern about journalist Djuro Slavuj and his driver who went missing on 21 August. The two disappeared in territory which was effectively controlled by […]
Police acknowledge rogue elements responsible for recent murders of writers
(WiPC/IFEX) – According to the “London Guardian”, on 6 January 1999, the Iranian secret police acknowledged that a rogue element within its own ranks had been responsible for murdering the three writers found dead in November and December last year. **Updates IFEX alerts of 17 December, 14 December, 11 December, 10 December, 9 December, 7 […]
Writer and pro-democracy activist Xu Wenli sentenced to thirteen years in prison
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC is dismayed to learn that on 21 December 1998 Xu Wenli, 55-year-old writer and veteran human rights activist, was sentenced to thirteen years in prison in a one-day trial. Xu was found guilty of attempting to overthrow the state by “secretly planning” to set up the unofficial Chinese Democratic Party (CDP) of […]
Translator Mohammad Ja’frar Pouyandeh found dead
(WiPC/IFEX) – The discovery of the body of essayist and translator Mohammad Ja’frar Pouyandeh brings to three the number of writers who have disappeared and been found dead in Tehran in the past two weeks. All had been actively promoting free expression in Iran and their deaths have created alarm within the writing community. **Updates […]