5 Nov 2011 | Events
Night of the Imprisoned Writer
Tuesday 15 November, 7.30pm (Doors at 7pm)
Venue: The Tabernacle, 34-35 Powis Square, London, W11 2AY
A unique performance evening to mark the 30th annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer, in association with ice&fire theatre company.
Hello Mr Miller, Hello Mr Pinter
Don’t miss your chance to see this special one-off performance in which the powerful words of persecuted writers from Mexico to Bahrain, from Kenya to Azerbaijan, have been woven together by award-winning playwright Sonja Linden and English PEN’s Cat Lucas. Directed by Christine Bacon and performed by Actors for Human Rights, ‘Hello…’ is both a moving celebration of PEN’s work on behalf of imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world and a concrete testament to the bravery of those writers who, often at great risk to themselves and their families, continue to speak out.
Stand Up For Writers In Prison
And because no-one speaks out quite like a comic, we’re delighted to be bringing you some of today’s finest acts to illustrate what freedom of speech is all about……
How to book
Tickets are £10 and all proceeds will go directly to English PEN’s Writers in Prison Programme.
To book, please click here: http://www.carnivalvillage.org.uk/all-events/night-of-the-imprisoned-writer/
English PEN’s Writers in Prison Programme would like to thank Richard and Elena Bridges for their invaluable support.
4 Nov 2011 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
A Belarusian opposition leader has been sentenced to ten days of “administrative detention” for his involvement in the opposition-organised People’s Assembly. Viktar Buzinaye from the United Civic Party was found guilty of “violating the law on public gatherings,” yesterday following an assembly in eastern town of Babruisk on October 8, which was not approved by local authorities. Buzinayeu pleaded not guilty claiming the gathering was held as a town hall meeting, and adhered to laws and regulations.
4 Nov 2011 | Events
Please join us in parliament on Wednesday 9 November to tell MPs why libel reform has to happen now.
The Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill last week urged the government to strengthen their proposals for reform, in line with recommendations from the Libel Reform Campaign. There is still work to be done to protect free speech from the stifling effects of current libel law: to provide a stronger, wider and more accessible public interest defence; and to make sure proposals on the internet work for bloggers and forums.
Our biggest battle will be to make sure libel reform does not get pushed off a crowded parliamentary agenda. It is vital that ensure Parliamentarians know the strength of support for libel reform. Please join Index on Censorship, English PEN and Sense About Science and supporters including Simon Singh, Which?, Society of Editors, Global Witness, AOL and Liberty:
Wednesday 9 November 2011, 6pm
Committee Room 10, House of Commons
Every day we hear about new cases of scientists, publishers and bloggers being threatened with libel action. We have we got to this historic point with your support. If we let the momentum slip now, the opportunity for change could be lost.
We really hope you can join us to show MPs that libel law reform can’t wait. Please let us know if you can come, [email protected]
A copy of the invitation can be found here.
4 Nov 2011 | Asia and Pacific, China
O-pen Magazine was set up in March 2011 by Annie Baby, a popular novelist who got her start on the internet. On 1 November she announced on her Sina microblog that O-pen had been forced to stop publishing. In China, magazines need a national periodical registration number, which enables the government to control magazine output. Like other magazines without a registration number, Annie Baby opted to use ISBN from a publishing house.
Local speculation suggests that shutting down O-pen because it had the wrong registration code was just a pretext. The state has begun a cultural campaign to ‘rectify and purify content’ on TV and other forms of cultural expression is taking place.
Magazine censorship is nothing new — China’s No. 1 blogger Han Han, also a novelist, launched Party in June 2010, it was shut down after just one issue. On November 2, Han Han wrote a blog post that was later taken down by the authorities. However, University of Hong Kong brilliant China Media Project had already posted a translation:
I’ve been involved in this work [of writing] for around 13 years now, and I now understand just how powerless and of no account cultural workers (文化工作者) really are. Owing to a richness of restrictions, people in this line of work are unable to produce anything truly special.
Even though Han Han does not explicitly state it, he is referring to Annie Baby. Han Han compares censorship to castration.
As for myself, while every single essay I write goes through a process of self-censorship and castration, sometimes unavoidably the fashion of my castration is still insufficient to pass muster. This has to do with the level of sensitivity at various publishing houses. For example, my most recent novel has been killed outright, because the protagonist in the novel is surnamed Hu [like China’s president]. So even though I have only written 5,000 characters so far, the publisher assumes there must be political allegory somewhere. By the time I realized I had to avoid this name and changed the character’s surname it was too late.
