Every year on November 15, London-based PEN International launches its Day of the Imprisoned Writer campaign, drawing attention to the fates of imprisoned or persecuted authors. Observed over a period of four days, this campaign also commemorates those who have died as a result of exercising their right to freedom of expression.

On the 40th anniversary of the campaign this year, PEN is drawing particular attention to the fates of four imprisoned authors: Rahile Dawut (China/Xinjiang), Selahattin Demirtas (Turkey), Mohammed Al-Roken (United Arab Emirates), Maykel Osorbo (Cuba), as well as a collective case of 12 Eritrean writers.

"Worldwide, the threat to authors and female writers has unfortunately not diminished," explained Ralf Nestmeyer, PEN Germany's vice president and coordinator for the Writers in Prison program. "We are greatly concerned by the situation in all those countries where freedom of expression is suppressed, and intellectuals are imprisoned."

Gloomy picture of freedom of expression

According to PEN's research on the Uyghur minority, the scientist Rahile Dawut is presumably interned in the People's Republic of China.

The Turkish politician, lawyer, and writer Selahattin Demirtas has been behind bars since 2016. In one trial, he was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for supposed terror propaganda. Demirtas, who is an honorary member of PEN Germany, is facing other pending legal proceedings.

In the United Arab Emirates, human rights lawyer Mohammed Al-Roken has been in prison since 2012. He is accused of founding a secret organization to overthrow the government.

Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo has been imprisoned in Pinar del Rio Prison since May 2021 on charges of "public disorder" and "resisting police officers."

PEN International's Writers-in-Prison Committee in London has painted a grim picture of the state of freedom of expression. In addition to new cases, this year's statistics also list the fates of acutely threatened writers who have faced decades of judicial arbitrariness.

In Turkey, for example, trials are still underway against several authors and more than 40 journalists who were arrested between 2009 and 2010 and were only released on parole years later. There is no end in sight to these trials, PEN said. In Eritrea, five writers have been imprisoned since 2001 and their whereabouts are unknown.

Many journalists murdered

PEN has also condemned the murders of journalists, referring to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). According to this, 22 media workers were killed because of their reporting — twice as many as in 2020. Mexico and Afghanistan are among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

In addition, 44 women writers have been imprisoned, tried, attacked or threatened for protesting human rights abuses, exposing corruption, criticizing their governments or defending the rights of minorities, the research states.

For example, the writer and human rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has been imprisoned in deplorable conditions in Iran for describing the stoning of a woman in an unpublished short story.

In Turkey, according to the latest reports, Nobel Prize winner for literature Orhan Pamuk is again facing trial for allegedly insulting the Turkish state founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the Turkish flag in his novel "Nights of Plague" published in March this year.

Hermann Kesten Prize for Irena Brezna

In Brazil, the writer Patricia Campos Mello had investigated the possible illegal financing of President Jair Bolsonaro's election campaign, which led to the latter making degrading comments about her. Campos Mello later brought legal action against him, and the Brazilian president was eventually found guilty of damaging her honor and was forced to pay her compensation. 

Feminist artist collective LasTesis from Chile faced accusations of violence after collaborating with Russian punk band Pussy Riot for a video production. In it, they denounce police violence, the increase in domestic violence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and social inequality.

The German PEN Center is also now campaigning for Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks disclosure platform, who is imprisoned in London. The writers' association demands that the investigative journalist not be extradited to the US, and recently named Assange its honorary member.

On November 18, German PEN will present this year's Hermann Kesten Prize to author Irena Brezna in Darmstadt. The €10,000 ($11,500) award honors personalities who, in the spirit of the charter of the PEN International, have shown special commitment to persecuted and imprisoned writers and journalists.

Deutsche Welle also provides information on the fate of writers, publishers, bloggers, and journalists on its special page dw.com/freedomofspeech.

This article was translated from German.