PEN International

PEN Honduras member Cesario Alejandro Félix Padilla Figueroa is facing immediate detention after a warrant was issued for his arrest and that of five other students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

Family of Fort Worth newspaper reporter believes there may be a connection between recent reporting and his murder.

One in every two of those crossing the Mediterranean this year – half a million people – were Syrians escaping the conflict in their country. Among those escaping are writers and journalists. At least 90 journalists and writers have been killed, while many others have been arbitrarily detained, tortured or have disappeared.

On 23 May, the IACHR reported that severe financial problems have forced it to cancel its July and October sessions and all trips planned for this year and, if new funding cannot be secured by mid-June, will lead to the non-renewal of the contracts of 40 per cent of its staff

After Colombian-Spanish journalist Salud Hernández-Mora went missing on 21 May in northern Colombia, two other journalists who went to report on her disappearance have also gone missing.

Worryingly, a statement by the office of the Veracruz state attorney general on 14 May did not recognise Manuel Torres as a journalist, identifying him only as an assistant and driver for a PRI town hall official in Poza Rica, work which Torres carried out alongside his journalism.

Ahead of Baku’s first Grand Prix, activists are calling for a very different type of quick release.

Housam Al-Mosilli, a respected writer, journalist, translator and researcher. He lived in Damascus at the start of the conflict, and following three arrests, detention and torture by the Syrian security forces for covering anti-government demonstrations; he fled the country in 2012. Mosilli talks to PEN about the life of a writer in exile, his new life and leaving Syria.