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Free writer 20167/9/2023 We have written submissions, published articles, raised our concerns with foreign ministries and delegations, and called upon the Bangladesh Government to take its obligation to protect the right of free expression seriously. Once again, my sincere thanks to all PEN Centres who have kept the Bangladesh issue alive and at the forefront of your campaigns over the years. Nine writers and publishers have been murdered, and only recently some arrests have been made in some of the cases. I had the privilege of sharing stage with Tutul, as he is known, at the ICORN Congress in Paris in April this year, where he provided a vivid account of the kind of attacks publishers, rationalists, atheists, free thinkers, and bloggers have faced since 2013. And rounding up a fortnight with unusually positive news from around the world, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, the Bangladeshi publisher living in exile after he was brutally attacked in Dhaka by machete-wielding assailants last year, received the prestigious Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award for his publishing house, Shuddhashar. It was also a matter of joy and relief that Salud Hernández-Mora, who was abducted by an armed group in Colombia in late May, was released unharmed within a week. While his release is welcome news, the conditions imposed on his release show how stubborn governments will continue to place impediments on free speech. In Vietnam, the poet and scholar Father Nguyen Van Ly was conditionally released in a move that coincided with US President Barak Obama’s visit to Vietnam. He is a member of the thriving, new PEN Centre in Myanmar, and while it is good he was released for writing a verse that he had posted on social media which suggested that he had a tattoo of the former Myanmar President Thein Sein on his penis, it is worth noting that he was sentenced to six months in jail, and released only because he had already served time while facing the trial. Her release is an occasion to celebrate, even though the government will continue to watch her.Īnother news calling for celebration is the release of the Burmese poet Maung Saung Kha. Ismayilova has written relentlessly about corruption in Azerbaijan, and the government spared no effort, including spreading smears about her and jailing her, but she stayed unbowed. Granted, the charges against her are not yet withdrawn, and the Azerbaijani Government is eminently capable of placing obstacles in her path, including introducing fresh charges against her – particularly because upon release she has said she will continue doing what she knows best: pursue the truth and tell those stories. First, Khadija Ismayilova, for whose release all of you worked so consistently and tirelessly, has been released from jail. But a few good things happened in the last few weeks, and therefore it is good to begin this letter on a note of cheer. It is not often that I get to write a letter with some good news.
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