Greeting Statement By Hori Takeaki, International Secretary of PEN International

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Dear distinguished guests, our colleagues of PEN,

I am most honored to be here to see all of you at the 2nd conference of ICPC to be held in Hong Kong. Indeed, it is not easy for all of us to get together here, but our common goal was the real driving force and made it possible for us to attend this epoch-making event.

Also, I would like to express our deepest support wholeheartedly on behalf of PEN International for what all members of ICPC have been working. You have achieved so many things with proven evidence, which of course, helped to strengthen our solidarity and faith in our Pen activities particularly for WIPC.

I firmly believe that progress for open society can only be achieved and embraced by fighting for the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression and human rights are the fundamental standard for justice and trust to any government.

When I look back ICPC’s activity in the last year, it was exceptionally rewarding. Nobel Prize award to Liu Xiabo was the landmark. He clearly laid out these principles of freedom of speech and human rights in Charter 08 so clearly. Now, thousands of Chinese citizens have echoed to his manifesto. This was the clear message that they don’t want to be treated any longer as “the Silenced Majority”.

But, this is only one example. There some other active projects have been launched worldwide.

It is worth mentioning some when I look forward the future of ICPC. A month ago, Swedish PEN launched so-called “the dissident blog Project, which is really exciting initiative by featuring controversial and banned texts from all over the world. Some of you may have visited the site, but the first edition contains fascinating items from writers from Yemen, Turkey, Sweden and elsewhere. I do sincerely hope that this Blog can outreach to our PEN fellows of ICPC, who lives in China. Also, two weeks ago, WIPC together with European Council of Mongolia-Uyghur-Tibet-and China Called for the immediate and unconditional release of all those currently held in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory and encouraged every PEN Centers to Send appeals to:

His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council

All in all, what I want to stress is the single fact that means “ Power of powerless” could eventually force the closed society to open.

Hori Takeaki
International Secretary of PEN International