English PEN Events

English PEN’s Spring Writers in Public programme has already got off to a great start with sell-out events on European literature at the South Bank Centre and Francis King at the London Review Bookshop. Here are some of the events we have coming up in the next few weeks. Full details of our Writers in Public programme can also be found on the English PEN website: www.englishpen.org

We Are the Readers and Writers!

Thursday 28 January, 6.30pm

Venue: Free Word centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

Tickets: £3; Ticket price includes a glass of wine and a free copy of The Light of the Lights

English PEN's creative writing department, Readers & Writers, presents a night of new voices from all over the world. Launching their hot-off-the-press book, The Light of the Lights, six writers from the English PEN workshops at the Migrants Resource Centre in Westminster will read poems and prose, hosted by writer Monique Roffey alongside special guests the Rhymes Won't Wait Collective. This new programme supported by the 2012 London Cultural Skills Fund celebrates London's contribution to the diversity of printed and well-crafted expression. Join us for this and our next launch event on March 25. To book, call Amy Oliver on 0207 324 2535 or visit www.englishpen.org/events

Balloon Debate

In association with Kings Place

Monday 1 February, 7pm

Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG

Tickets: £9.50 online, £11.50 offline

A (metaphorical) hot air balloon is dipping dangerously over Croydon. In it are four of our greatest writers - but only one can survive. As the balloon loses height, the audience votes on which author must go, until only one remains. Our panel of four leading writers, Al Alvarez, Rowan Pelling, Deborah Moggach and Hardeep Singh Kohli, will each make an impassioned case for their favourite authors, but their fates are in your hands... Chaired by Jonathan Heawood. To book, call Kings Place Box Office on 0207 520 1490 or book online at www.kingsplace.co.uk

Must You Go?

Monday 9 February, 6.30pm

Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

Tickets: £5 PEN Members, £8 Non members, including glass of wine

Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser lived together from August 1975 until Pinter's death thirty-three years later on Christmas Eve 2008. Theirs was one of modern literature's most celebrated marriages and Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter is Antonia Fraser's marvellously insightful testimony to their relationship. Join us in celebrating their life together as Antonia talks to Lisa Appignanesi, president of English PEN. Tickets for this event are already selling fast so do book early to avoid disappointment. To book, call Amy Oliver on 0207 324 2535 or visit www.englishpen.org/events

Campaign for Jaballa Matar

Authors urge Miliband to stand up for Human Rights in Libya

Jaballa Matar

A group of award-winning writers has today sent an open letter to David Miliband, demanding that he seek information on the Libyan democracy activist Jaballa Matar. Matar was abducted in 1990, and imprisoned without charge in Libya's notorious Abu Salim prison. Held completely incommunicado, it was feared that he was killed in a prison massacre in 1996. However, a Human Rights Watch Report released last month reported that Matar had been seen in a Tripoli High Security prison in 2002, giving free speech activists fresh hope that he may still be alive.

Jaballa is the father of the novelist Hisham Matar, whose book In The Country of Men was shortlisted for the Booker Prizer in 2006. Members of PEN, the international association of writers, including Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Margaret Atwood, and Nobel laureates JM Coetzee, Wole Soyinka and Orhan Pamuk, have co-signed a

letter to the Foreign Secretary, asking him to take up the case of Jaballa Matar with the Libyan government.

Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan said:

'Ten years ago Libya was a pariah among nations. Its rehabilitation into the international community has been spectacular. Last year it held the presidencies of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly. But this new respectability is hollow while Libya's human rights record remains abysmal. The notorious Internal Security Agency is still a law unto itself. Jaballa Matar has been held without trial for twenty years. For a long time his family feared he was dead. Unknown hundreds share his situation.

The hope is that David Miliband and his colleagues in other foreign ministries will raise Matar's case, and human rights generally, with Colonel Gaddafi's government. There is some reason to think that it might be ready now to listen. Libya is a strange, proud and beautiful country - I spent the greater part of my childhood there. I would like the Foreign Secretary to make the case to the Colonel that these abuses of individual liberty, of due process and of freedom of expression and association diminish his country, however many presidencies it holds. For Jaballa Matar to be reunited with his family would be the true sign of Libya's political maturity.'

Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Zadie Smith said:

'Hisham Matar is my friend and respected colleague, and he has suffered a great personal tragedy - but a tragedy that's now also a public scandal. Britain's eagerness to rehabilitate Gaddafi's regime in order to further British business interests, particularly those of BP, must be qualified and subject to demands for Libya to improve the human rights of its citizens. Gordon Brown must ask for the immediate release of Libya's "disappeared", those held, like Hisham's father, without trial and in secret.'

Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN, said:

'Jaballa Matar is fortunate to have a son as dedicated, and as highly respected in the West, as Hisham. Most of Libya's political prisoners, including writers and journalists, are truly isolated from the world. I hope that the support for this campaign shows Libya that in order to improve their standing in the outside world they will also have to improve their relationship with their own people.'

Michael Ondaatje said:

'It is twenty years since Jaballa Matar was stolen from his family. He has never been charged or tried, and his fundamental rights have been grotesquely violated. If the Libyan Government really wants to establish a better reputation on the world stage, it must first redress such human rights abuses. If it can't at least do this, then what value is Britain's new-found relationship with this regime?'

Full Text of letter to Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP, Foreign Secretary

15th January 2009

Sir,

Jaballa Matar, father of the 2006 Man Booker shortlisted and 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize winning British author Hisham Matar, was one of the most prominent Libyan political activists. He continually called for democracy, the rule of law and justice in Libya. He was kidnapped from his home in Cairo in 1990. His family has not seen him since. Letters written by Jaballa Matar were smuggled out of Libya's political prison, Abu Salim, in 1992 and 1995. They confirmed that the Egyptian authorities held him in Cairo for two days then handed him over to Libyan officials. He was then flown to Tripoli, tortured and subjected to arbitrary detention. He was seen in 2002 in another, secret political prison in Tripoli. His family, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International believe him still to be in Libya. However, the Libyan government continues to deny any knowledge of his whereabouts and that of others amongst Libya's disappeared. Jaballa Matar is yet to be granted an open trial.

We urge Her Majesty's government to use its new relationship with the Libyan government to demand sincere and significant improvements in Libya's human rights record. We therefore ask the Foreign Office whether, having regard to the latest Human Rights Watch report published on 12th December 2009 in which Jaballa Matar's case is documented, it will seek information from the Libyan government about the whereabouts of Jaballa Matar and other political prisoners.

Yours sincerely,

Hisham Matar

Lisa Appignanesi President, English PEN

Carole Seymour-Jones Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, English PEN

JM Coetzee

Orhan Pamuk

Wole Soyinka

Margaret Atwood

Kiran Desai

Anne Enright

Alan Hollinghurst

Ian McEwan

Michael Ondaatje

Roddy Doyle

Sir Salman Rushdie

Kazuo Ishiguro

Lord Lester of Herne Hill

Carole Ann Duffy

Sir Andrew Motion

Monica Ali

Nadeem Aslam

Trezza Azzopardi

Adam Foulds

Linda Grant

Mohsin Hamid

MJ Hyland

Ali Smith

Zadie Smith

Eva Hoffman

Sir Tom Stoppard

Hari Kunzru

David Edgar

Sir David Hare

Sigrid Rausing

Philippe Sands, QC

Ruth Padel

And 200 others

http://www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/campaigns/jaballa-matar/

Peru: Newspaper editor jailed for defamation

Published: January 18, 2010

English PEN protests the one-year prison sentence handed down to Nor Oriente editor Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco on 12 January 2010 for alleged "aggravated defamation" of a local official in a case dating back to 2005. There were a number of apparent irregularities in the trial and it is widely believed that Carrascal's conviction is in retaliation for his criticism of the authorities, in violation of his right to freedom of expression. We are therefore calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco, director and editor of the regional weekly newspaper Nor Oriente, was arrested in Bagua, capital of Utcumbamba province, Amazonas department, on 11 January and held in police custody overnight. He appeared in court the next day where he was given a one-year prison sentence for allegedly defaming a local official in a series of articles alleging corruption in the Utcumbamba technological institute. The case was brought by a former director of the institute in 2005.

Carrascal, who reportedly suffers from high bloody pressure, fainted during the hearing and was taken to hospital. However, the judge completed the sentencing in his absence and the editor was transferred the same day from hospital to the San Humberto prison in Bagua. He has reportedly appealed the sentence.

There were a number of apparent irregularities in the trial. In addition to being sentenced in absentia, Carrascal says he had not received any notification that the court's decision was due. According to one local press report, the defamation case against him had previously been abandoned by the plaintiff.

Local journalists and Carrascal's family have condemned his conviction as an act of "revenge" and the prison sentence is widely seen as punishment for his editorial line. Nor Oriente is said to be very critical of the authorities and Carrascal has been outspoken in his defence of the indigenous population and the Amazon region. For example, he publically criticized the government over the security forces' treatment of indigenous communities protesting against oil and mining projects in Bagua in June 2009 during which dozens of indigenous people were killed, scores were detained and around 200 injured.

Background

This is the second case of a well-known Peruvian journalist being imprisoned for defamation in just over a year. Television presenter Magaly Medina was given a five-month sentence in October 2008 for allegedly defaming a football player. She was released at the end of 2008 after serving half of her sentence.

Useful links

- Report by Reporters Without Borders (13 January 2010) (English) (Spanish)
• Report by the International Press Institute (IPI) (13 January 2010) (English only)

Please send appeals:

- Protesting the one-year prison sentence handed down to Nor Oriente editor Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco on 12 January 2010 for alleged "aggravated defamation" of a local official in a case dating back to 2005;
- Pointing out that there were a number of apparent irregularities in Carrascal's trial, including his reportedly not being notified of the final hearing and being sentenced in absentia;

- Expressing concern that Carrascal's conviction is in retaliation for his critical reporting on the authorities, in violation of his right to freedom of expression;

- Calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Appeals to:

Dr. Alan García Pérez
Presidente de la República del Perú
Jr. de la Unión S/N 1ra.

Cuadra, Cercado de Lima

Lima

Peru
Fax: 51 1 311 3940

Email messages can be sent to the President by clicking here.
Salutation: Su Excelencia/ Your Excellency

Minister of Justice
Dr. Aurelio Pastor Valdivieso,
Ministro de Justicia
Scipión Llona N° 350, Miraflores, Lima, Peru
Fax: 51 1 422 3577
Email: apastor@minjus.gob.pe
Salutation: Señor Ministro/Dear Minister

Please also send copies of your appeals to you the Peruvian Embassy asking for their comments:

His Excellency Ricardo V. Luna
Peruvian Embassy
52 Sloane Street
London
SW1X 9SP

Fax: 00 44 20 7235 4463
postmaster@peruembassy-uk.com


http://www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/bulletins/perunewspapereditorjailedfordefamation/

China: Writer and Independent Chinese PEN Officer Zhao Shiying detained

Published: January 18, 2010

English PEN condemns the detention of Zhao Shiying, Secretary General of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), who was arrested on 11 January 2010. He is being held incommunicado without charge, and there are fears that he is held for his dissident writings and activities. We are shocked by the arrest of yet another leading ICPC member, and are seeking details of any charges against Zhao Shiyang as a matter or urgency. Furthermore, we continue to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory.

American PEN gives the following background:

Zhao Shiying, pen name Zhao Dagong, is a well-known dissident writer and human rights defender from Shenzhen. He joined the Independent Chinese PEN Center in 2004, and has been a member of its Board since 2005. In October 2009, Zhao become ICPC's Secretary General. He has been regularly harassed by police since December 2008, but this is the first time that his home has been searched and materials confiscated.

According to PEN's information, at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, January 11, ten police officers entered Zhao's home and searched the premises, confiscating two computers, books, and notes. Following the search, which lasted more than seven hours, Zhao, his wife, and his son were taken to the local police station. His wife and son were released around 9:00 p.m. that same night, but were warned not to disclose the content of their questioning. The two were again called in for questioning the following evening, but were released the same night. Zhao Shiying remains in detention.

PEN fears that Zhao is being held for his very public support for former ICPC President Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, 2009, for "inciting subversion of state power" in six articles he had written and his involvement in Charter 08. Zhao is also an original signatory of the Charter, and was questioned about his communications with Liu regarding the Charter's content. Zhao's answers were used in the Beijing Procuratorate's verdict against Liu.

According to our information, Zhao Shiyang has been interrogated several times since December 2008 about his involvement with dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, and his statements were included in the Court Verdict against Liu. On 27 December 2009, Zhao Shiyang published an online essay entitled 'Liu Xiaobo's Banner! - Birthday Wishes to Liu Xiaobo' in which he reaffirmed his willingness to share responsibility with Liu for the publishing of Charter 08. There are fears that Zhao's arrest is part of a crackdown on signatories of Charter 08 and on the Independent Chinese PEN Centre.

For further background on the sentencing of Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08, please click here.

Please send appeals:

- Expressing serious concern about the arrest of leading dissident writer and activist Zhao Shiying, and seeking further details of any charges against him;
- Calling for his immediate and unconditional release if held in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory.

Send appeals to:

His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China

Mr. Meng Jianzhu
Minister of the Public Security
East Chang'an Avenue 14
100741 Beijing
P.R. China

Please note that there are no fax numbers for the Chinese authorities. We therefore recommend that you copy your appeal to the Chinese embassy in the UK asking them to forward it and welcoming any comments:

Her Excellency Fu Ying
49-51 Portland Place
London
W1B 1JL





http://www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/bulletins/chinawriterandindependentchinesepenofficerdetained/