PEN International

Writers in Prison Committee Chair Marian Botsford Fraser writes to the Macedonian Minister of Justice regarding the prolonged pre-trial detention of Macedonian investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski.

In a second joint appeal, over 60 IFEX members and partners again call for the release of Moroccan journalist Ali Anouzla, after terrorism-related charges were laid against him.

Twenty-two human rights organisations and press freedom campaigners warn that Azerbaijan’s presidential election on 9 October may not be credible, as journalists and activists are routinely persecuted for criticising the government.

IFEX members appeal to the King to end restrictions on news websites, nearly five months after Jordanian regulators blocked some 300 sites under a new licensing provision of the Press and Publications Law.

“Even in my writing, I was not able to speak in a straightforward manner. There were these red lines which we weren’t able to go beyond, or speak about. But this aroused in me a counter-reaction which made me stronger, but also more miserable,” says Syrian writer and journalist Samar Yazbek in an interview with PEN International.

IFEX members call on Brazil’s Congress to promptly pass the Marco Civil bill and on President Roussef to ensure its due implementation, as a measure to protect the right of Brazilians to an Internet that is free and open to all.

Leading Saudi Arabian writer and journalist Wajeha Al-Huwaider has been the subject of a sustained harassment campaign since May 2003, when she was banned from publishing in Saudi Arabia.

PEN International welcomes the police investigation into the shocking murder of Indian diarist Sushmita Banerjee in Afghanistan; however, the organisation expresses its mounting concern over the escalating pattern of attacks on writers and journalists in the country.