Writers in Prison Committee 2022 Report

Writers in Prison

Committee

2022 ANNUAL REPORT

“Free the Wor(l)d in times of war
and repression”

January 2023

Contents Page
I. WiPC Steering Committee
II. Message from WiPC Chair 1
III. WiPC 2022 Report 2
IV. WiPC 2022 Overview 7
12

________________ Ω ________________

WiPC Steering Committee

Chair Ma Thida PEN Myanmar

Vice-Chair NadezhdaAzhgikhina PEN Moscow

Secretary Lloyd Duong Vietnamese PEN Abroad

Committee Members PEN Chile
Diane Alméras PEN Swiss Romand
Alix Parodi PEN America
Karin Karlekar PEN Bangladesh
Moheuddin Mohammad PEN San Miguel
Judyth Hill Croatia PEN
TomicaBajsić PEN Myanmar
MyoMyint Nyein PEN Sweden
Elisabeth Löfgren PEN Swizerland
Maria Emilia Arioli

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 1

Message from WiPC Chair Ma Thida

To Presidents and Secretaries of PEN Centers
WiPC representatives

Dear colleagues,

The opportunity of meeting many of you in person at
the 88th Congress in Uppsala was amicably insightful

as WiPC welcomed suggestions and appreciated the
opinions of various delegates.

Subsequently, the WiPC Steering committee with
two additional new members, Elisabeth Löfgren
(PEN Sweden) and Maria Emilia Arioli (PEN
Switzerland), convened to finalize the Strategic plan
and review ideas suggested by several Congress
attendees.

On the request for WiPC’s periodic newsletters, in
light of PEN International’s existing frequent
publications covering most of WiPC’s works and

activities, it has been decided that such an additional

endeavor would be redundant and cause a serious

drain on our scarce resources. Instead, from time to

time, WiPC will communicate with national Centers

in writing on important matters and, especially, on

urgent matters.

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 2

Previously, we had requested national Centers to
provide comments and suggestions on WiPC’s
proposed Strategic plan by November 1, 2022 but

received no response. As time is of the essence,
consequently WiPC Steering committee had
reviewed, analyzed, refined, and finalized the
Strategic plan.

We are pleased to inform you about WiPC Strategic
plan’s main features as follows:

Three main thematic issues identified to be
central are (1) Defamation, (2) Digital
Privacy, and (3) Access to Freedom.

WiPC’s upcoming works and activities will be:

1. Focusing on the aforementioned thematic
issues to see how those issues manifest at the
regional level for future strategic planning and
evaluation as well as for preparing effective
Congress resolutions;
2. Establishing a media engagement policy to
improve internal and external social media
communication means and activities including
the creation and maintenance of an annual
WiPC calendar showing activities of PEN

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 3

International, WiPC and national Centers,
social media closed groups, and reaching out
to international media outlets;
3. Strengthening links with the other three
main Committees within PEN International;
4. Improving the participation of national
Centers in global campaigns and in other
actions such as RAN.

To transform WiPC’s strategic focuses into actual
and effective actions, we are designing the program
for our annual meeting in May 2022 in Zagreb,
Croatia as follows:

1. Proposed title of our meeting will be “Free
the Wor(l)d in times of war and
repression”;

2. There will be a panel on challenges faced by
both Writers-in-Exile and hosting centers;
3. There will be opportunities for sharing
opinions and discussion of [A] Success
stories, and [B] Challenges;

4. There will be a session for small group
discussion and presentation on Advocacy,
Campaign, Protection, Residency, joint-
committee activities; and

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 4

5. There will be three sessions led by
respective regional coordinators and leading
centers on [A] Defamation, [B] Digital
Privacy, and [C] Access to Freedom.

There will also be some additional public events
organized by Croatia PEN. We truly hope to have a
poetry reading event for delegates so please be
prepared for this very special moment of literary
sharing and sincere appreciation of colleagues’
creative works from around the world.

Due to program constraints, we will not have a
“center update” session in Zagreb. Instead, however,

we will distribute a template before the meeting to

participants, who would be able to provide their
center’s updated activities timely and effectively.

Furthermore, subsequent to WiPC meeting in
Zagreb, the Writers for Peace Committee will confer
in Bled from the 15th to the 18th day of May 2022. It
would take about 2 hours via train/bus from Zagreb
to Bled so we hope that many WiPC delegates could
also take time to attend this annual meeting of the
Writers for Peace Committee.

We wholeheartedly look forward to meeting all of
you in May 2023 in Zagreb. Please feel free to offer

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 5

your recommendation and participation in any
session, panel or discussion in the program
mentioned above.
Have a happy, peaceful, and blessed holiday season.
Humbly yours,
Dr. Ma Thida
WiPC Chair

________________ Ω ________________

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 6

Writer in Prison Committee
2022 Report

It was really great to see many friends and collogues in
Uppsala this September. More than 60 members attended our
WiPC meeting there.

Current WiPC steering committee includesVice President –
Nadezhda Azhgikhina (PEN Moscow), Secretary – Lloyd
Duong (Vietnamese PEN Abroad),other committee
membersDiane Alméras (PEN Chile),Alix Parodi (PEN Swiss
Romand), Karin Karlekar (PEN America),Moheuddin
Mohammad (PEN Bangladesh), Judyth Hill (PEN San
Migguel), TomicaBajsić (Croatia PEN), MyoMyint Nyein
(PEN Myanmar) and after Uppsala congress we have two
more members ElisabethLöfgren(Swedish PEN) and
MariaEmilia Arioli (PEN Swiss Italian and Retro-Romansh
Center)at our team.

Our key challenges remain the same; 1. Increasing
authoritarianism and online censorship, 2. Using security
legislation, and misusing rule of law and judiciary process to
undermine freedom of expression (eg: unlawful surveillance
under the name of cyber security), and 3. Shrinking civic
spaces and balancing our work of public advocacy on this
against the safety of at-risk membership. Therefore, in
Uppsala congress, we approved the resolution on ‘Threats to
Freedom of Expression and Protection of Civic Space’. We
still seriously consider these three challenges to be handled in
our future strategic plan and collective activities.

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 7

This year in 2022, we had more than 30 news/statements/
actions taken. We prepared and aimed to disseminate the
annual calendar of international and national events, which
will be the focus of the implementation of WiPC’s strategic
objectives tostrengthen the impact of global campaigns as
well as the compromise and solidarity andcooperation
amongnational PEN centres all over the world to
protectwriters at risk. We organized international events and
promote national activities on the dates established by the
WiPC calendar, especially the Day of the Imprisoned Writer
from 15th to 30th November 2022 during which the entire
PEN movement call for urgent international action to release
and protect José Rubén Zamora Marroquín (Guatemala),
Narges Mohammadi (Iran), Server Mustafayev (Ukraine), and
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe).

We also planned to develop atoolkit for campaigning and/or
translating existing instruments such as theSpanish version
currently used for training by Regional Coordinators of the
Americas.

Held regular meetings with each of the five regional
coordinators to assess their main thematic issues and assist in
planning for their region. We planned to build a database of
all centres’ practices and dates of WiPC events to share best
practices, offer support, organize joint events and provide
additional visibility. We prepared to contribute timely to the
Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights by individual

centres in collaborating with local civil society organizations.

We have been voiced concern over the imprisonment of
Writer, poet, and honorary member of Danish and Austrian

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 8

PEN Mahvash Sabet in Itan, and Leading media figure and
pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai in Hongkong, China. Then,
we finalized and publicized WiPC Strategic plan to deal with
three central thematic issues [(1) Defamation, (2) Digital
Privacy, and (3) Access to Freedom] and to direct WiPC’s
future projects to:Focus on the aforementioned thematic
issues to see how those issues manifest at regional level for
future strategic planning and evaluation as well as for
preparing effective Congress resolutions;Establish a media
engagement policy to improve internal and external social
media communication means and activities including the
creation and maintenance of an annual WiPC calendar
showing activities of PEN International, WiPC and national
Centres, social media closed group, and reaching out to
international media outlets;Strengthen links with the other
three main Committees within PEN International; and
Improve the participation of national Centres in global
campaigns and in other actions such as RAN.

Of course, we also do have some good news in 2022.
PoetMaung Yu Pie and writer/academicMaung Thar Cho
from Myanmar, news editor, reporter and poet NedimTürfent
from Turkey, and investigative journalist and socio-political
researcher Ismail Alexandrani from Egypt were released. The
lawsuit against the Peruvian author of Plata como cancha,
Christopher Acosta along with his publisher, Jerónimo
Pimentel was dismissed. The successful evacuation and long-
term relocation of 117 at-risk Afghans, comprising of PEN
Afghanistan members and their families was done with a good
cooperation between the secretariat and some pen centers.

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 9

We, WiPC steering committee, met three times before end of
this year and revised our committee’s strategic plan.In fact,
we decided to make final decisions based on a morepractical
approach. Therefore, we rearranged our strategic focuses into
four as follows; - 1. Focusing three thematic issues
(Defamation, Digital Privacy and Access to Freedom) on how
they manifest at a regional level for strategic planning,
evaluating, and preparing effective resolution; 2. Establishing
a media engagement policy to improve internal and external
social media communication means and activities including
an annual calendar set-up, social media closed group,
reaching out to international media outlets; 3. Strengthening
links with the other three main committees; 4. Improving the
participation of national centers in global campaigns and other
former actions like RAN.

To make our strategic focuses into actual effective actions, we
are going to design our annual meeting in Zagreb in the
coming May under the title of our annual meeting will be
'Free the Wor(l)d in times of war and repression'. In order to
tackle with our challenges and strategic plan, we will be
focusing on Defamation, Digital Privacy and Access to
Freedom as key issues to be discussed at this meeting.

We, the steering committee of Writer in Prison Committee,

acknowledged your enthusiasm in presenting center updates.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time at Uppsala congress

and the new format with no gadget policy made things harder

than ever. We tried our best to host everyone but, of course,
we couldn’t win this challenge as we had not much time.

Therefore, from now on, we are going to use a template for

center updates and no more in person presentation on it. This

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 10

can help us to spend some more time on more important and
challenging discussions.

Here I wholeheartedly acknowledge the hard, efficient and
enthusiastic work of the present team at the Secretariat -
Alicia Quinones, Aurelia Dondo, Mina Thabet, Nduko
o’Matigere, Ross Holder, and Sara Whyat. They do all the
hard work and I really appreciate their work. And my big
thanks o to OlhaMukha for her effort to make our committee
meetings well organized. My thanks also go to Romana
Cacchiolifor her executive leadership. Finally, I am grateful
for our current steering committee members and all of you,
our PEN International family members.

Happy New Year to you all.

With best regards,

Dr. Ma Thida
WiPC Chair

________________ Ω ________________

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 11

WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE
2022 YEAR OVERVIEW

November 2022

The purpose of this paper is to review the impact of the
Committee strategy on the current work in the FoE field.This
overview is the result of the Committee Chair’s work in close
cooperation with active Committee members and Committees
Manager in the Secretariat.

1. COMMITTEE WORK SHORT OVERVIEW 2022
(events, campaigns, projects etc)

i. Prepared and aimed to disseminate the annual
calendar of international and national events, which
will be the focus of the implementation of WiPC’s
strategic objectives tostrengthen the impact of global
campaigns as well as the compromise and solidarity
andcooperation amongnational PEN centres all over
the world to protectwriters at risk.

ii. Organized international events and promote
national activities on the dates established by the
WiPC calendar, especially the Day of the Imprisoned
Writer from 15th to 30th November 2022 during
which the entire PEN movement call for urgent
international action to release and protect José Rubén

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 12

Zamora Marroquín (Guatemala), Narges Mohammadi
(Iran), Server Mustafayev (Ukraine), and Tsitsi
Dangarembga (Zimbabwe).

iii. Planned to develop atoolkit for campaigning
and/or translating existing instruments such as
theSpanish version currently used for training by
Regional Coordinators of the Americas.

iv. Held regular meetings with each of the five
regional coordinators to assess their main thematic
issues and assist in planning for their region.

v. Planned to build a database of all centres’
practices and dates of WiPC events to share best
practices, offer support, organize joint events and
provide additional visibility.

vi. Prepared to contribute timely to the Universal
Periodic Review on Human Rights by individual
centres in collaborating with local civil society
organizations.

vii. Voiced concern over the imprisonment of
Writer, poet, and honorary member of Danish and
Austrian PEN MahvashSabet in Itan, and Leading
media figure and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai in
Hongkong, China.

viii. Finalized and publicized WiPC Strategic plan

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 13

to deal with three central thematic issues [(1)
Defamation, (2) Digital Privacy, and (3) Access to
Freedom] and to direct WiPC’s future projects to:

A. Focus on the aforementioned thematic issues
to see how those issues manifest at regional level for
future strategic planning and evaluation as well as for
preparing effective Congress resolutions;

B. Establish a media engagement policy to
improve internal and external social media
communication means and activities including the
creation and maintenance of an annual WiPC calendar
showing activities of PEN International, WiPC and
national Centres, social media closed group, and
reaching out to international media outlets;

C. Strengthen links with the other three main
Committees within PEN International;

D. Improve the participation of national Centres
in global campaigns and in other actions such as RAN.

2. COMMITTEE PARTICIPATION 2022

PEN International events and activities
2022 April annual meeting (Digital): Freedom Under
Fire, Writers on the Frontline

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 14

31 October-2 November: PEN Protest/Day of the
Dead campaign

Joint projects

Partners projects

3. COMMITTEE YEAR ACHIEVEMENTS

WiPC had submitted a resolution on ‘Threats to Freedom of
Expression and Protection of Civic Space’ to the congress at
Uppsala and after serious discussion on it, it got approval
from the member centres.

2021 Case List had been published under the title of
‘Chaos, Conflict, Impunity’ in July 2022.

Since January 2022, WiPC had been circulating alarming
news about the arrests, trial, court hearing, imprisonment,
hunger strike, and murder of writers, artists, journalists, from
Bahrain, Peru, Iran, Mexico, Belarus, Turkey, Cuba,
Palestine, and Puerto Rico. And there are more than fifty
statements including joint statements with other international
organizations on the issue of arrest, imprisonment, immediate
medical attention, death, killing and execution of writers,
journalists, artists and human rights defenders in China,
Nicaragua, Turkey, Myanmar, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba,

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 15

Malaysia, Iran, India, Belarus, Brazil, Saudi Arabia,
Zimbabwe, Paraguay, Italy, and Hong Kong. PEN
International condemned blocking of news websites in Egypt,
and supported a news agency facing lawsuit in Malta.

WiPC and PEN International had relatively less statements on

the root causes of imprisoned and at-risk writers and other

advocacy issues. During 2022, there were few statements like
‘implementation of public inquiry recommendations must
meet international standards’ on Malta’s well-known case;
‘Taliban’s order of closure of girls’ school as denying hope
and equal opportunity to a generation’ in Afghanistan’s
problem; ‘Situation of Artists in Times of War and Crisis’
joint oral statement at 49thRegular Session of the UN Human
Rights Council; ‘Calling on Common Wealth countries to
affirm commitment to freedom of expression’; ‘Increase use
of travel restriction’ by Indian government; and ‘calling on
Turkey’s parliament to reject the Disinformation bill as a tool
of digital censorship’.

WiPC and PEN International focused on different issues of
two famous persons – Julian Assange and Salman Rushdie.
Resolution on the prosecution of Julian Assange and
certification of his extradition as threats to freedom of
expression was released. We also condemned deadly attack on
Salman Rushdie.

WiPC called Rapid Action Network on the cases of Peruvian

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 16

investigative journalist Paolo Ugaz for dismissing lawsuits
against her and to cease immediately the harassment Ugaz
faces for her work as a journalist, editor and writer. We also
called RAN on the case of Myanmar writer, activist and PEN
member Wai Moe Naing for his immediate and unconditional
release, and for all charges against him to be dropped as he is
facing potential death sentence for a charge of high treason.

WiPC is very pleased to learn the release of editor, poet, and
honorary PEN member NedimTürfent from prison in Turkey
and of writer, poet, academic and PEN Myanmar member
Maung Thar Cho from prison in Myanmar. And safe arrival of
Ugandan novelist and lawyer KakwenzaRukirabashaija in
Germany.

4. STRATEGIC FOCUS for 2023

1. Focusing on the aforementioned thematic issues to see
how those issues manifest at regional level for future
strategic planning and evaluation as well as for preparing
effective Congress resolutions;
2. Establishing a media engagement policy to improve
internal and external social media communication means
and activities including the creation and maintenance of
an annual WiPC calendar showing activities of PEN
International, WiPC and national Centres, social media
closed group, and reaching out to international media

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 17

outlets;
3. Strengthening links with the other three main
Committees within PEN International;
4. Improving the participation of national Centres in
global campaigns and in other actions such as RAN.

5. PLANNED COMMITTEE’S ACTIVITIES for 2023

Events (including online events)

A. “Free the Wor(l)d in times of war and
repression”
B. Joint event with Writer for Peace Committee at
Zagreb
C. ??? Day of Wriers in Prison online event on
15th November 2023

Dates for Committee Meeting
11th – 14th May 2023, Zagreb, Croatia

Research & Advocacy
A. WiPC will review our current Case List based
on our thematic focuses and challenges, then prepare
more attractive presentation for both advocacy and
media attention
B. WiPC want to do research on visa policy by
EU and other rich democratic countries on

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 18

writers/members from global south, and make an
advocacy plan against visa denial for them

Committee development

Steering committee was founded in 2021 but added
more members at Uppsala congress.

President: Ma Thida (PEN Myanmar)
Vice President: Nadezhda Azhgikhina (PEN Moscow)
Secretary: Lloyd Duong (Vietnamese PEN Abroad)
Other committee members: Diane Alméras (PEN
Chile), Alix Parodi (PEN Swiss Romand), Karin
Karlekar (PEN America), Moheuddin Mohammad
(PEN Bangladesh), Judyth Hill (PEN San Migguel),
Tomica Bajsić (Croatia PEN), Myo Myint Nyein
(PEN Myanmar) and after Uppsala congress we have
two more members ElisabethLöfgren(Swedish PEN)
and MariaEmilia Arioli (PEN Swizerland)

6. PROJECTED OUTCOMES
A. Contribution to raising awareness on WiPC’s thematic
areas (Defamation, Digital Privacy and Access to
Freedom) to counteract structural threats and barriers
to freedom of expression.
B. Strengthening of the inter-institutional
communicationamong national PEN centres via our
new media engagement platform (especially facebook
group & page) and WiPC annual calender.

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 19

C. Expanding number of joint advocacy actions by other
committees of the WiPC and Centres in the PEN
network along with annual calender to make more
inter-institutional engagement.

D. Using Case List to reach greater audience to promote
our institutional image more visible

E. Improvement in the situation of writers at risk who are
imprisoned or otherwise persecuted (ideally release
from prison altogether, but other steps could include:
improved conditions within prison, reduced impunity
for crimes against writers/journalists, strengthened
legal frameworks/protection, support for writers in
prison from key government officials and international
stakeholders such as the UN mandates, etc).

7. RESOURCES

Partners and Networking

External Partnerships specific to FoE response action and
information sharing

● ICORN ● CPJ ● Article19 ● Amnesty International ●
Protection International ● National Human Rights civil
society groups

Africa: PEN members only
● Revival of the PEN Africa Network (PAN)
● Country Working Groups (Eritrea, Rwanda,

Uganda)

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 20

Asia and the Pacific: PEN members only
● Afghanistan Working Group (Including

representatives from approximately a dozen PEN

centres who have been actively involved in evacuation

and resettlement work in support of PEN
Afghanistan’s at-risk membership)
● Revival of PEN China Planning Group (including

ICPC, PEN Germany, PEN Sweden and PEN Norway,

PEN America, PEN Canada, Japan PEN Club, English

PEN, etc.)

 External partner organisations
● UK working group on AFG (coordinated by

English PEN)
● ARC working group on AFG (coordinated by ARC/

PEN America)
● BAAG (Afghanistan)
● Sri Lanka working group
● Hong Kong working group
● Media Freedom Coalition

Europe and Central Asia: PEN members only:
● Turkey Action Group
● Conversations on Ukraine and Russia currently

taking place via Signal
● Assange Working Group
● PEN Balkan Network

 External partners:
● IFEX Coordination Group on Belarus
● IFEX Coordination Group on Turkey
● Turkey Advocacy Group
● Malta Advocacy Coordination Group
● Ukraine Artist Assistance Coordination (PEN

America/ARC)

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 21

PEN International is also a member of the Council of
Europe’s Platform to promote the protection of
journalism and safety of journalists and CASE – the

Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe.

Latin America and the Caribbean:
● Partnership with UNESCO working with Mexico,

Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Nicaragua
● Cuba: Regional coalition with 15-20 regional

organisations, coalition of centres and a strategic
action plan for Cuba during 2022 with ARC – PEN

America.
● Honduras: Reporters without Borders, Article 19,

PEN International, and PEN Honduras are working

together on legal barriers in Honduras and journalists

at risk.
● Nicaragua action group: El Ojo de Nicaragua.
● Mexico: coordination group with Article 19, CPJ.
● Venezuela: new partnership with young lawyers

working on FoE.

Middle East and North Africa : PEN members only:
● action group on Iran (Centres expressed interest so

far includes: English PEN, Irish PEN, PEN America,

PENs Sydney and Melbourne, PEN Iran in exile, PEN

Norway, PEN Sweden, etc.

 External partners:
● PEN International is a member of a working group

on Egypt.
● PEN int. works closely with regional and local

organisations in the region, mainly in Egypt, Morocco,

Bahrain, and the UAE.

WiPC 2002 Annual Report 22