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10
December 2007
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For
more information contact: Isobel Harry, PEN Canada, (416) 703-8448
ext. 22, iharry@pencanada.ca
Larry Siems, PEN
American Center, (212) 334-1660 ext.
111, lsiems@pen.org
Yu Zhang,
Independent Chinese PEN Center,
(917) 374-3957, yuzhang@comhem.se
40:242
Declaring “We Are Ready for Freedom
of Expression,” Chinese and International
Writers Demand Release of Jailed Colleagues Before
Beijing Olympics
New
York, Washington, Toronto, Beijing, December 10,
2007 –
World-renowned writers from China and North
America marked International Human Rights Day
today by launching 40:242
– We Are Ready for Freedom of Expression, a
campaign that challenges the Chinese government to
release all of the writers and journalists it is
holding in prisons before the August 8, 2008
opening of the Olympic Games. Noted Chinese
authors Liu
Xiaobo and Zheng
Yi were among those joining international
counterparts including Margaret
Atwood, Francine
Prose, and Salman
Rushdie in issuing the challenge on behalf of
PEN, the worldwide association of writers.
In
August 2007, the Chinese government launched a
major publicity offensive for the Olympics under
the slogan “We Are Ready.” The writers’
campaign, a PEN initiative led by the Independent
Chinese PEN Center and PEN centers in the US and
Canada, mocks that public relations effort by
reminding the world that China continues to deny
its citizens the fundamental right to freedom of
expression and suggesting that Chinese authorities
have 242 days until the opening ceremonies to
release 40 writers and journalists currently
languishing in Chinese prisons.
“Today,
on the 59th commemoration of the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, we challenge you to demonstrate that China
is in fact ready – not just to stage the
Olympics, but to acknowledge, protect, and
celebrate the full rights of its citizens,” the
Presidents of the Independent Chinese PEN Center,
PEN Canada, PEN American Center proclaimed in a
letter [w/link to] to Chinese authorities. That
letter lists the 40 writers and journalists PEN
considers to be imprisoned in violation of the
right to freedom of expression in China, by far
the largest number of any country, and calls for
their immediate release.
“Without
promoting human rights, which are the fundamental
principle of universal ethics in China and
elsewhere, it is gratuitous to promote “One
World” or to claim “We Are Ready,” leading
Chinese literary critic Liu
Xiaobo said today in Beijing, echoing a letter
he and 45 other prominent Chinese citizens sent to
their government in August of this year. Zheng
Yi, who recently succeeded Liu as President of
the Independent Chinese PEN Center, agreed,
declaring “Let the Olympic flame burn the
prisons of thought down!”
In
Toronto, Canadian writer and International PEN
Vice-President Margaret Atwood expressed her hope that China would view this
historic moment as an opportunity. “It’s time
for China to reconcile present action with past
greatness and future promise,” she said.
“Let’s hope that China does not ruin the
international reception of its Olympic Games by
keeping 40 writers in prison simply because
they’ve exercised their right to freedom of
expression.”
“In
the United States, we’re especially appalled
that US-based internet providers have assisted
Chinese authorities in censoring the internet and
even in identifying and imprisoning dissident
journalists and bloggers,” said Francine Prose, President of PEN American Center in New York. “We
join our Canadian and Chinese colleagues in
calling for the release of the 40 writers and
journalists in Chinese prisons, more than half of
whom were jailed for writings they posted on the
internet, and we call on the US Congress to pass
the Global Online Freedom Act to ensure that no
US-based companies are complicit in the
suppression of internet writers and
cyber-dissidents in the future.”
“It’s
really very simple,” former PEN American Center
President Salman Rushdie added. “There are 40 of our colleagues in Chinese
prisons who shouldn’t be in prison. It will be
an embarrassment for China if even one of them is
still in prison when the Games begin next August.
There’s only one good number: zero.”
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