The brutal murder of another journalist and blogger in Bangladesh has been met with worldwide condemnation and renewed calls for the country’s secular government to protect free speech. On 12 May, 33-year-old Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death by religious extremists in the northeastern city of Sylhet. He is the third blogger to be […]
The al-Khalifa dynasty has ruled in Bahrain for over two hundred years. More recently, the Sunni-led government has struggled to quell dissent among the country’s Shia-majority population. In 2011, following weeks of anti-government demonstrations in which protesters demanded more rights and an end to discrimination against the Shia community, the Bahraini regime called in Saudi […]
‘I DON’T KNOW whether his opinions are right or wrong,’ said Le Chi Quang’s mother after he was sentenced last November to four years’ imprisonment and three vears’ house arrest. ‘But in no civilised country does one get imprisoned for expressing a wrong opinion.’
FOR THE LAST fifteen years, the English Centre of PEN has boasted a small committee of stalwart members who regularly send books, donated by publishers, to writers around the world who are imprisoned for what they have written or said. It is not the most inspiring job: packing j@ bags, enclosing notes of good wishes […]
THE WORLD HAS seen many wars and many peace movements, but perhaps this latest war, of the coalition Forces against Iraq, has surpassed all others in the degree to which it has provoked global dissent. Amnesty International noted, within days of the war starting, that there had been a ‘backlash’ against the dissenters in many […]
I want to tell you about a suffering land and the concerted efforts of the rdng circles to deny the very existence of its people. I am talking of the struggles of those who are standing up to oppression and worlung for peace, freedom, brotherhood, democracy and labour rights. In other words, I am referring […]
HOW DO YOU remain unafraid in a society where fear lurks around every corner? An answer can be found in Aung San Suu Kyi’s classic book of dissent, Freedom from Fear (1991). Here she charts how democracy can be born in an individual, as well as a country, and explains how it offers citizens a […]
REPRESSIVE REGIMES OF whatever political or religious persuasion often have in common an internal struggle between the hardliners and the reformers. Those in Vietnam and the former Soviet Union spring to mind. In the Vietnam of the early 1990s, the reformists offered American PEN visas to visit the country and meet its many writers in […]
MOROCCO, SINCE IT ceased to be a French protectorate, has boasted three kings. The longest serving of these, Hassan II, ruled the country for thirty-eight years, up until 1999. For most of this time, freedom of expression was not a priority. PEN, the writers’ association, followed the cases of several important literary figures (Abdelkader Chaoui […]
A NEW ERA dawned in Syria in July 2000, when the long-standing president, Hafez al- Assad, passed on the mantle of government to his son, Bashar. Cynics hardly raised an eyebrow. They expected business as usual: a Syrian society kept oppressed, as it had been for years, and characterised by human rights violations, no freedom […]
Freedom of expression and access to information continue to be restricted severely in Iran. Journalists and bloggers are frequently arrested, websites are blocked and a number of news outlets have been shut down. Hundreds of political prisoners, journalists and human rights activists remain in prison, some without facing trial. One of these is Washington Post […]
On Sunday 1 February, four hundred days after his arrest for ‘illegally broadcasting from a hotel suite’, Peter Greste (LR, May 2014), a journalist for Al Jazeera English and an Australian national, was released from prison in Egypt and deported, following a recently enacted presidential decree that allows foreign detainees to continue their detention in […]
In Uzbekistan, it is claimed, political prisoners are being tortured to death with boiling water. thrown out of windows to spend the rest of their days as invalids, or forced into mental asylums. There are over 7,500 prisoners known to be suffering the abuse of their human rights. Apparently, gangs of prisoners on criminal charges are […]
Cuba’s record on civil and political rights falls well below accepted international standards. People are denied freedom of express& and assembly; there is no independent judiciary and no free press. Opposition parties are prohibited and, over forty years after the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro remains head of state and leader of the Communist party.
The Republic of Maldives, lying about 420 miles southwest of Sri Lanka, consists of a chain of twenty-six natural coral atolls, comprising roughly 1,190 islands, and has an approximate population of 292,100. Only 198 of these small islands are currently inhabited and eighty-seven are holiday resorts. The Maldives is a popular destination for tourists, and over […]
Mexico and the UK enjoy good relations – after the United States, Britain is one of the largest investors in Mexico – and recently the two countries have been sharing experiences of civil-service and justice reforms.
The detention of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, remains widespread in Syria. After arrest, many face unfair trials or are held incommunicado, without charge or hearing, in places where they may be subject to torture or ill-treatment. Syria has not ratified the Convention against Torture.
The Iranian writer Ali Reza Jabari was sentenced to four years in prison and a public lashing in 2003 for ‘immorality’ and ‘alcohol- related crimes’. His continued incarceration must be considered in the context of the ongoing struggle between the conservative hardliners, represented by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the pragmatists, represented by President Khatami. Tehran’s administration […]
Ven Ngawang Phulchung, a senior monk from Drepung Monastery near Lhasa, was singled out as the leader of the Drepung printing group, which in the 1980s secretly produced literature that was critical of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Phulchung (who is now forty-four years old) has been in prison since 1989, and is serving a […]
The disappearance and alleged massacre of forty-three Mexican students after clashing with police on 26 September 2014 in the southern city of Iguala made international headlines. Members of a drug cartel claim that the students were handed over to them by the police. In November the former mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, was charged […]
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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
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