Date: 19 January 2009

Over 300 members of International PEN, the world writers’ association, have joined together to protest against the ongoing detention of prominent Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo by the Chinese authorities. Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, J.M. Coetzee, Tom Stoppard, Umberto Eco, Jung Chang, Ian McEwan and Azar Nafisi are among the signatories calling for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and championing his right to freedom of expression.

Liu Xiaobo, former President and current Board member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre has been detained since 8 December 2008 for signing Charter 08, a declaration expressing the need for political reform and human rights in China. He is one of many dissidents to be detained or harassed after launching Charter 08 and issuing an open letter to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee to ratify the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Since the declaration was launched over 7000 journalists, writers, scholars and activists have become signatories despite the Chinese government shutting down all websites referring to Charter 08.

Members of International PEN are shocked by the apparent crackdown of the Chinese authorities on those who have endorsed the Charter:

“Liu Xiaobo’s arrest and continued detention for being one of the original signatories of Charter 08, which calls for greater freedom of expression and democracy, demonstrates the extent of the ongoing restrictions imposed upon the people of China. We call for his immediate release,” says Caroline McCormick, Executive Director of International PEN.

International PEN has had significant concerns about freedom of expression in China for many years where the large numbers of writers and journalists harassed, detained and imprisoned for calling for improved civil and political rights have remained largely unchanged. PEN also has serious concerns about prison conditions, ill-health, access to medical care and family visits. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing highlighted ongoing human rights and freedom of expression abuses in China despite the Chinese authorities’ promise to improve conditions and honour the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a signatory. Five months after the games ended, and international scrutiny has been focused elsewhere, PEN continues to campaign against the ongoing persecution of writers exercising their right to freedom of expression. There are over 40 writers and journalists currently detained in the P.R.C., making China the largest jailer of writers worldwide. Sentences range from 3-20 years, with the majority of cases serving sentences of over 8 years. PEN is particularly concerned about the rise of Internet writers being detained – held generally under subversion or state secrets laws - famously Shi Tao, serving a 10-year sentence for ‘revealing state secrets’ for emailing his notes of a government briefing meeting. Minority issues are a key concern in the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xinjiang where separatist struggles’ place writers at risk of arrest.

Liu Xiaobo first received support from PEN 20 years ago, when, in 1989, he was one of a group of writers and intellectuals given the label the “Black Hands of Beijing” by the government, and arrested for their part in the Tiananmen Square protests. Liu has since spent a total of five years in prison, including a three year sentence passed in 1996, and he has suffered frequent short arrests, harassment and censorship. Liu Xiaobo is currently being held under Residential Surveillance at an undisclosed location in Beijing. No charges have as yet been made known. 

For more information contact Emily Bromfield, Communications Director: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 011 44 20 7405 0338
Web: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk