Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand
Nov 12 2007

Courage Day – The Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Monday, 12 November 2007, 11:20 am
Press Release: New Zealand Society of Authors
Monday November 12th 2007
Media release – For Immediate Use

Courage Day – The Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Every 15th of November throughout the world, PEN (the international
writers’ organisation which champions freedom of expression) holds
events to mark the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer.

The New Zealand Society of Authors which incorporates PEN honours
this event as Courage Day, named jointly after James Courage, a
novelist and poet whose novel A way of love was banned because he
dared to express homosexuality in his writing prior to the setting up
of the Indecent Publications Tribunal in 1964, and his grandmother
Sarah Courage whose book describing colonial life in New Zealand was
burned by neighbours who resented comments she made about them.

This year we are commemorating the 42 writers who lost their lives
since Courage Day 2006 as well as the 1000’s of writers, editors,
broadcasters and journalists worldwide whose lives are endangered for
speaking out against repressive regimes and human rights injustices.

Three writers will feature in our Courage Day events – journalist
Anna Politkovskaya, whose work won her the description of "Russia’s
lost moral consciousness" and whose murder in October 2006, made
headlines worldwide. Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was shot dead
in January 2007 outside his office, after being convicted of
"insulting the Turkish identity" after writing about a mass murder
committed ninety years ago. And, Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who
was executed 10 years ago along with eight others for campaigning
against the devastation of the Niger Delta by international oil
companies.

PEN is also asking for letters of support for five writers imprisoned
for expressing their views –

Cuba – Normando Hernández González – a journalist imprisoned under
crackdown on dissidents in 2003 and since held under dire conditions;

Gambia – Fatou Jaw Manneh – a journalist on trial and facing a heavy
sentence on charges of sedition for her articles criticising the
Gambian president.

Iran – Yaghoub Yadali – a novelist given a one year sentence for his
fictional characterisation of the ethnic minority of which he is
himself a member;

Uzbekistan – Jamshid Karimov – a journalist who has covered human
rights abuses, and wrote critical articles and who has been held in
psychiatric detention for over a year.

Yemen – Abdel Karim Al-Khaiweni – former editor of the online
publication Al-Shoura who has been under threat since June 2007 for
his writings and continued harassment by the military.