Fiction that Matters

My article in the Huffington Post on the imprisonment of writer and politician Enoh Meyomesse. 

Enoh Meyomesse

In January, I wrote about the bizarre case of the imprisonment of writer Enoh Meyomesse in Cameroon, a country with a terrible record on free expression. He was charged at the time with stealing gold from one of Cameroon’s gold fields, using the gold to buy weapons, and planning to use the weapons to overthrow the government with co-conspirators. Human rights groups, including PEN, expressed fears that the charges were little more than a ploy to jail a prominent member of the political opposition, and sure enough the government has dropped all its charges against Mr. Meyomesse just six months later. Yet a judge has ordered him to remain in prison for six more months and he continues to suffer from medical problems…

…You can do something about this. Visit PEN International’s latest alert, which has addresses for you to contact Cameroonian authorities to call for Mr. Meyomesse’s release. Or, you can donate to Mr. Meyomesse’s legal defense at Internet Without Borders here.

Victory for free expression in South Africa

penamerican:

Sanef chairman Mondli Makhanya. Picture: SUNDAY TIMES

THE South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has welcomed the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) decision not to press ahead with a media tribunal, as it now becomes clear that the party’s push for reform in the media will not…

I really like this tee-shirt and this campaign. It’s the first I’ve heard of Sevenly but I hope to learn more.

iamjustlucky:

What I love most about this piece is the balance between illustration and type. A lot of my art for Sevenly have been really illustration heavy while minimizing the lettering but this one will feels really well balanced. I absolutely loved drawing this ram. Ended up really looking like an old illustration in the final.

penamerican:

Dubious Theft Overshadows IPA, PEN Court Visit in Turkey

Representatives of the International Publishers Association (IPA) and PEN International who arrived in Istanbul’s Silivri district to watch the ongoing Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trial met with a dubious surprise when the realized that their files pertaining to the trial had been stolen from their automobile despite the presence of gendarmerie troops 15 meters away.

Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, the chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee, Alexis Krikorian, the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Director, Sara Whyatt, the director of PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee, and PEN International’s Deputy Chair Eugene Schoulginarrived in Istanbul to monitor the trial and show their solidarity with the writers, journalists and publishers facing charges within the scope of the KCK probe.

(via English :: Dubious Theft Overshadows IPA, PEN Representatives’ Court Visit - Bianet)

TURKEY: PEN INTERNATIONAL TO OBSERVE KCK TRIAL

penamerican:

Ragip Zarakolu: facing trial in Turkey

PEN International Vice President, Eugene Schoulgin, and Deputy Director, Sara Whyatt, will be observing alongside members of PEN Turkey as the second Union of Communities in Kurdistan (Koma Civaken Kurdistan – KCK) trials get underway in Istanbul on…

Rachel Riederer on the Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Knowing that these are true stories takes the pleasure out of the horror-movie fear, but human rights documentaries offer a different set of rewards. It’s thrilling to see a plucky hero escape a fantastical monster, but it’s even more frightening to see the monsters that really do walk among us, and even more stirring when the plucky hero is real. I can think of no horror-movie premise to rival the one described by a female soldier in The Invisible War: repeatedly drugged and raped on a remote island base, she was not able to tell anyone—the only outside phone line was monitored by her attackers. Her account of escaping with her life and sanity intact is as gripping as anything Stephen King has dreamed up.

Image from Flickr via NimahelPhotoArt

(via Rachel Riederer: Human Rights Horror Stories - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics by Rachel Riederer - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics)

penamerican:

Reading Books Shortens Prisoners’ Sentences In Brazilian Prison

Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil’s most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced.

Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must “make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing,” said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette.

(via Reading Books Shortens Prisoners’ Sentences In Brazilian Prison)

Doug Liman on Reckoning with Torture

penamerican:

Today is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman talks to ABC News about why he needs the voices of everyday American for his new documentary film project, Reckoning with Torture.

After riots, art is testing the boundaries of free expression in the new Tunisia

Over the past month, many artists in Tunisia have found themselves at the forefront of a battle between ultra-orthodox Salafist Muslims and the largely urban creative class critical of them. After decades of living in the secular-but-censored totalitarian state of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, post-revolutionary Tunisia is struggling to find the balance between recognizing free expression as a pillar of a fledgling republic and acquiescing to the newly vocal minority of conservative Muslims that, after years of religious oppression, are loathe to accept any attack on their faith. And the government seems to be failing the test. 

Above: Posters by Tunisian graffiti artist Electro Jaye

(via ARTINFO: Following Tunisia’s Art Fair Riots, Artists Speak Out About the Escalating Attacks on Free Speech)