Last month, to mark World Poetry Day .on 21 March, PEN launched a campaign for Duannis Dabel León Taboada, a young Cuban poet currently serving a fourteen-year prison sentence. Aged just twenty-two years old, León Taboada was one of thousands arrested for participating in the 11 July 2021 protests (also known as 11J). He was […]
On 23 January 2026, police detained and placed under house arrest Furkan Karabay, a Turkish investigative journalist and court reporter known for his work on politically sensitive trials and allegations involving public officials. He was accused of ‘publicly spreading misleading information’ and of compromising officials involved in counterterrorism work. These allegations stem from his coverage […]
On 15 December, Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner, writer and media tycoon Jimmy Lai was found guilty on two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under Beijing’s authoritarian National Security Law (NSL). He was also convicted of publishing seditious material in Apple Daily, the newspaper he founded, under a separate colonial-era law. In poor […]
In February, I wrote about the detention of the prominent French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal. He was arrested upon arrival at Algiers airport in November 2024, following his earlier media statements about the colonial-era borders between Algeria and Morocco. In those comments, Sansal accused the Algerian government of ‘inventing the Polisario Front to destabilise Morocco’. In […]
In July 2025, the British-Egyptian writer and prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was removed from Egypt’s terrorism watchlist. Two months later, on 22 September, he was pardoned by Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and finally released from jail, alongside five other detainees, after serving six years for sharing a social media post about torture in […]
Last month, the UK and thirty-six other OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) participating states delivered a joint statement about Georgia, expressing alarm at the country’s deteriorating human rights situation and amplifying calls already made by civil society and lobby groups. After the October 2024 elections – widely condemned by international observers as […]
The academic and anti-caste activist Hany Babu has been detained without trial in India for five years in appalling and degrading conditions. Babu is one of sixteen writers, scholars and activists, known as the BK-16, targeted under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), over alleged links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). They […]
Balochistan is the largest but most sparsely populated province of Pakistan, lying in the southwest of the country. The dominant ethnic group, Balochs, have resided there for centuries. Sharing a fractious border with Iran and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the region is rich in natural resources, including gas and minerals, but is plagued by political unrest, militancy […]
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government maintain a tight grip on the media in the country. In recent years, they have significantly expanded their influence over the publishing industry too. Scores of writers have seen their books banned or censored. Kurdish writers and journalists in particular endure unjust discrimination and regularly face prosecution […]
José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez, a Cuban writer, journalist and researcher, has been detained by the Cuban authorities since 8 November 2024. After participating in protests over Cuba’s ongoing energy crisis, he was arrested for allegedly leading a demonstration and was charged with ‘public disorder’, an accusation often used to suppress dissent in Cuba. Chávez has […]
Last month, PEN joined more than forty other human rights organisations to condemn the legal threats and harassment directed at Badiucao, an award-winning Chinese-Australian artist and political cartoonist. Born in Shanghai, Badiucao has held exhibitions in the USA, Europe and Australia. Described as the Chinese Banksy, he remained anonymous for years to avoid persecution, but […]
The Egyptian government, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, continues to deny citizens their rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression. Scores of journalists, human rights activists and bloggers have been arrested, detained for prolonged periods without trial and charged for making remarks critical of the government. Egypt’s anti-terrorism legislation, the Anti-Protest Law and the Anti-Cybercrime […]
Last month PEN and other human rights organisations renewed their call for the release of Yang Hengjun (whose legal name is Yang Jun), a writer and Australian citizen who is currently in prison in China, where in 2024 he received a suspended death sentence. Recent media reports suggest his health has deteriorated as a result […]
On 16 November the Algerian authorities arrested the prominent French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal at Algiers airport. They kept silent about his whereabouts for over a week, during which time the 75-year-old writer was interrogated and denied access to his family and legal counsel. He was subsequently charged with national security-related offences under article 87bis of […]
An award-winning Belarusian journalist, writer and poet, Kaciaryna Andrejeva (real surname Bachvałava) is serving an eight-year prison sentence on trumped-up charges of ‘state treason’. Andrejeva, who is thirty-one, is currently being held in a medium-security penal colony at Homel in southeastern Belarus. On 15 November 2020, Andrejeva was arrested in Minsk together with Daria Culcova, […]
On 30 September, the Cambodian investigative journalist Mech Dara was detained by members of the country’s Royal Gendarmerie, a paramilitary unit responsible for domestic security. His car was intercepted on an expressway while he was travelling towards Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. His arrest took place shortly after local officials in the Prey Veng province accused […]
The government of Turkey continues to restrict freedom of expression in the country and intimidate those critical of it. In recent months there has been a new crackdown on social media platforms and publishers. Books deemed ‘detrimental’ to readers attract the censure of both officials and pro-government media outlets, which regularly malign authors, academics and […]
On 2 December 2020, Amanda Echanis, a Filipina writer, poet and activist, was arrested at her home alongside her month-old baby and charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives, non-bailable offences. Echanis vehemently denies the allegation and has accused the authorities of planting evidence. According to Echanis’s legal representative, the police did not […]
On 27 March 2024, prosecutors in Peru opened an investigation into the prominent journalist and writer Gustavo Gorriti for alleged bribery. Gorriti, who is seventy-six, is the founder and editor-in-chief of IDL-Reporteros, an investigative news website and the journalistic arm of the Instituto de Defensa Legal, an independent organisation dedicated to fighting corruption and improving […]
Maksim Znak, a 42-year-old Belarusian lawyer and writer, is serving a ten-year sentence in a penal colony after being convicted on spurious grounds. Znak was the electoral campaign lawyer of opposition presidential candidates Viktar Babaryka and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and a member of the Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power, which called for the resignation […]
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A review of my biography of Wittgenstein, and of his newly published last love letters, in the Literary Review: via @Lit_Review
Jane O'Grady - It’s a Wonderful Life
Jane O'Grady: It’s a Wonderful Life - Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes by Anthony Gottlieb;...
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It was my pleasure to review Stephanie Wambugu’s enjoyably Ferrante-esque debut Lonely Crowds for @Lit_Review’s April issue, out now
Joseph Williams - Friends Disunited
Joseph Williams: Friends Disunited - Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu
literaryreview.co.uk