PEN International WiPC
Report to the International Cities of Refuge Network AGM – May 2014
Cathy McCann, Asia/MENA Researcher
I work as researcher and campaigner for PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, overseeing our work on Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. I’d like to open by telling you about some key cases I’ve been working on in recent weeks and months:
In China, veteran journalist Gao Yu, ‘disappeared’ on 24 April and was held incommunicado for two weeks before the authorities disclosed, in a televised confession, that she was being held on suspicion of ‘leaking state secrets abroad’; Gao Yu was first arrested on 3 June 1989 for writing an article in support of the pro-democracy protests. She was one of the first people to be detained in the crackdown on the 4 June movement, and spent a year in jail, followed by a further five and a half years behind bars from 1993-1999. Gao Yu is now 70 years old. As we approach the 25th anniversary of the 4th June protests, the climate for free expression in China is seriously deteriorating and scores of writers are being taken in for questioning.
Elsewhere in the region, attacks on writers are on the increase, and impunity is a major issue in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
From:http://www.pen-international.org/?p=23298&preview=true