Swedish PEN was founded 1922 and is one of the oldest members of International PEN.
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
Swedish PEN presents the 2009 Tucholsky Award to author and journalist Dawit
Isaak
“The name Dawit Isaak has become, for the whole Swedish people, synonymous
with the struggle for freedom of speech and liberty of the press. His fate
is a clear example of how oppressors fear free speech. The prize goes to him
for his firmness of principle in working for an open democratic society in
journalism and drama.”
The award will be presented by Minister of Culture, Mrs Lena
Adelsohn-Liljeroth, at a ceremony on the Day of Imprisoned Writers, 15 of
November, 2009.
The Tucholsky Award is presented each year by Swedish PEN to a persecuted,
exiled, threatened author or journalist. The Award is named after the author
Kurt Tucholsky, who in the early 1930s fled to Sweden from the nazis in
Hitler's Germany. While awaiting his residence permit he committed suicide,
in 1935. He was buried in Mariefred.
The recipients of the awards have all been persecuted, tyrannized,
imprisoned or their lives had been threatened because those in power wished
to silence their writers' voices.
WiPC launches Freedom to write in the Americas campaign
17 February 2009
Today the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC) launches a
campaign to promote freedom of expression and freedom to write in the
Americas, to run throughout 2009.
Freedom to write in the Americas aims to highlight the persecution of
writers and journalists and the issue of impunity in the region, provide
direct support to colleagues in trouble and raise awareness of trends of
repression and censorship threatening writers' rights.
In the five years from January 2004 to December 2008, 37 writers and print
journalists were murdered in Latin America
while four more were forcibly disappeared. WiPC figures for 2008 alone show
a total of 191 attacks against writers and journalists, all but seven in
Latin America. These included seven killings and one forced disappearance
(all in Mexico), 30 imprisonments (25 in Cuba), 44 physical attacks, 35
death threats and 35 other types of threat or harassment.
In many cases it is clear that these writers were targeted for their
writing. In others, their criticism of the authorities or criminal gangs
gives rise to concerns that the killings and attacks were related to their
work. In very few cases have the culprits been brought to justice.
This prize is awarded on a yearly basis to a writer or publisher who
is/has been persecuted, threatened or imprisoned on account of his or her
writing.