‘November 15 is a day of action and acknowledgement,’ said Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee. ‘It is PEN’s way of saying to all of our 900 imprisoned, harassed, murdered and disappeared writers: you are not silenced. You are not forgotten. We stand with you and fight for you.’

In order to demonstrate how freedom of expression is being curtailed, each year PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee highlight five cases of writers currently in prison or being prosecuted from around the world that are emblematic of the type of threats and attacks faced by writers and journalists.

This year PEN is highlighting the cases of five writers from Cameroon, China, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Paraguay and calls for their immediate and unconditional release and for the charges against them to be dropped, along with all other writers similarly threatened. On 15 November, and the days surrounding, PEN Members will be sending appeal letters, raising publicity and staging events in support of their colleagues under attacks around the globe.

This year PEN International is advocating on behalf of the following writers:

Cameroon – Dieudonné Enoh Meyomesse poet, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence. PEN believes that the charges against Meyomesse are politically motivated. He is in poor health.

 

 

China – Gao Yu:  journalist and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, she was arrested on 23 April 2014. She remains detained pending trial, and faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

 

 

Iran – Mahvash Sabet: teacher and poet, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.  She has been detained since 2008 for her faith and activities related to running the affairs of the Bahá’í religious minority in Iran.

 

 

Kyrgyzstan – Azimjon Askarov: journalist and member of Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbek minority who has spent his career exposing corruption. Sentenced to life imprisonment.

 

 

 

Paraguay – Nelson Aguilera: writer, teacher and member of PEN Paraguay, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison on 4 November 2014 for allegedly plagiarising a novel.  Although not currently in prison as his appeal is pending, PEN is highlighting his case in an attempt to keep him at liberty.

 

 

 

::: click on through to PEN :::

Everyone knows about the military-industrial complex, which, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned had the potential to “endanger our liberties or democratic process” but have you heard of the “Deep State?”

Mike Lofgren, a former GOP congressional staff member with the powerful House and Senate Budget Committees, joins Bill to talk about what he calls the Deep State, a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state, which is “out of control” and “unconstrained.” In it, Lofgren says, elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. “It is … the red thread that runs through the history of the last three decades. It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war,” Lofgren tells Bill Moyers.

TOP STORIES THIS WEEK

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s lawyer Gavin Millar QC spoke recently (16/10/14) about mass surveillance of the media industry at a conference organised by the NUJ and the IFJ. Millar, of Doughty Street Chambers, is supporting the Bureau’s application to the European Court of Human Rights challenging the UK government on its routine surveillance of journalists’ communications.

If the ECHR decides there is inadequate protections for legitimate journalistic communications the UK government will be ruled to be in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights and will be forced to respond.

The case was filed in the court on September 12 2014. Lawyers working on the case include Millar, Conor McCarthy at Monckton chambers and Rosa Curling at Leigh Day solicitors.

Millar spoke on the second panel of today’s conference, Big brother is watching you: mass surveillance of the media industry, alongside prominent media lawyers from ITN and the Guardian, as well as the president of the Newspaper Guild and the Guardian’s defence and intelligence correspondent.

The conference was hosted by the Guardian.

Read about the Bureau’s challenge to the UK government over whether UK legislation properly protects journalists’ sources and communications from mass surveillance programs here. You can also get the Bureau’s court documents or read a summary of the case.

Published on Oct 14, 2014 – 

Glenn Greenwald was one of the first reporters to see — and write about — the Edward Snowden files, with their revelations about the United States’ extensive surveillance of private citizens. In this searing talk, Greenwald makes the case for why you need to care about privacy, even if you’re “not doing anything you need to hide.”

OCTOBER 23, 2014 ISSUE

Why Weren’t Alarm Bells Ringing? Paul Krugman

“…Yes, rising levels of private debt, increased reliance on shadow banking, growing international imbalances, and so on helped set the stage for disaster. But intellectual shifts—the way economists and policymakers unlearned the hard-won lessons of the Great Depression, the return to pre-Keynesian fallacies and prejudices—arguably played an equally large part in the tragedy of the past six years. Say’s Law—the false claim that income is automatically spent—made a comeback. So, incredibly, did liquidationism, the view that any effort to ameliorate the pain of depression would postpone needed adjustment. It’s true that conventional economic analysis fell short in the face of crisis. But when policymakers rejected orthodox economics, what they did by and large was to reject it in favor of doctrines like “expansionary austerity”—the unsupported claim that slashing government spending actually creates jobs—that made the situation worse rather than better…”

 

23:32 GMT – Flag raising ceremony – The focus for many protesters this morning is a flag raising ceremony in the Wanchai district where a number of senior city officials are expected to attend as part of the National Day celebrations.

Hundreds of demonstrators are already converging on the area, trying to make their way into Golden Bauhinia Square where the ceremony takes place.

The annual ceremony is often targeted by pro-democracy activists. But never has it taken place before against a backdrop of continued street protests and sit-ins by tens of thousands of demonstrators..

HONG KONG – Thousands of pro-democracy protesters thronged the streets of Hong Kong, some of them jeering National Day celebrations, as demonstrations spread to a new area of the city.  Video | Full Article

• China facing growing U.S. pressure over Hong Kong protests
• Slideshow: Streets of Hong Kong