PEN International

Jean Laokolé was charged with defamation after being arrested by men in civilian clothes and detained incommunicado for three days. The charges are thought to relate to a series of articles he wrote denouncing corruption, poor governance and nepotism in Chad.

Over 400 people and NGOs from over 50 countries around the world signed a petition to help free translator and women’s rights activist Ayşe Berktay, along with many other publishers and journalists jailed in Turkey.

Two dozen IFEX members call on Turkey to free prominent translator and women’s rights activist Ayşe Berktay, winner of the 2013 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

The member states of the United Nations should hold Azerbaijan to account during its Universal Periodic Review on 30 April 2013 for its failure to protect basic human rights, says the International Partnership Group on Azerbaijan.

Award-winning writer Mamadali Makhmudov was released just days before Uzbekistan’s Universal Period Review process in Geneva, where the country is required to show how far it has met its obligations to uphold human rights, and will be questioned by other UN member states.

Writer and historian Enoh Meyomesse, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in a Cameroonian jail, is being prevented from writing and has effectively had three of his new works confiscated.

Fazıl Say, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Erdoğan, was charged with religious defamation in response to a series of messages posted on Twitter. The claimant who brought the case against Say has argued that the tweets publicly degraded religious values.

Thank you to all those who signed an on-line letter protesting the ongoing imprisonment of writer Mamadali Makhmudov, who has finally been released from prison upon completion of his 14-year term.