MEDIA RELEASE ON 25 NOVEMBER 2011

Pretoria PEN regrets growing intolerance in South Africa

Pretoria PEN, the writers’ assocation, has regretted the growing intolerance in South Africa, as manifested in the ongoing controversy around the Protection of Information bill. “The bill and media reactions to it have created a rift between the ruling African National Congress and minority groups reminiscent of the polarization that took place in Zimbabwe a decade ago between ZANU PF and the opposition which ultimately led to the dissolution of that country,” said Dr. Dan Roodt, president of Pretoria PEN.

“Whereas the bill may be abused in order to silence or intimidate journalists, mere noise or protest will not reverse its passage through parliament where the ANC enjoys an overwhelming majority due to the centralised political system adopted in 1994. It is our view that government should heed its critics and amend the bill to save freedom of speech and access to information in South Africa,” Roodt continued.

Affiliated to PEN International in London, Pretoria PEN represents approximately forty Afrikaans-language authors in the north of the country. The association is dedicated to the promotion of literature and freedom of expression. The members of Pretoria PEN also subscribe to the PEN Charter which makes it incumbent upon writers “to use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations”, as well as “to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong as well as throughout the world whenever this is possible”.

As a banned author under the former political system in South Africa, Roodt “feels particularly strongly that freedom of speech in South Africa should be protected against all threats, not only from the government but also from the commercial media monopolies of South Africa and some narrow-minded journalists who regularly abuse such monopoly power by vilifying or besmirching public figures and stifling rational debate. The ultimate test of any liberal democracy is its tolerance towards minority views, both in an ethnic and moral sense.”

Contact Dan Roodt president@pretoriapen.co.za
+27 (0)73 951 1467    

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact:
Larry Siems, (212) 334-1660 ext. 105

New York City, November 15, 2011—PEN American Center and PEN International today condemned restrictions on press coverage of police crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York and elsewhere, calling the arrests of journalists, the grounding of media helicopters, and the restrictions on access to the Occupy sites “an obvious abridgement of the First Amendment right of all Americans to monitor official actions that clearly carry their own First Amendment concerns.”

“Whatever the arguments for clearing and cleaning the park, denying the rest of us the opportunity to witness the police action through the independent reporting of a free media simply reinforces the suspicion that the city government is seeking to hide from democratic scrutiny,” said Kwame Anthony Appiah, president of PEN American Center. “It is foolish and dangerous to undermine the faith of ordinary citizens in the impartiality of the police. It is also wrong to deny media access because it runs entirely against the spirit of the First Amendment guarantees that are at the heart of PEN’s mission.”

Early Tuesday morning, police barred reporters from news outlets including CNBC, NBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters from covering the clearing of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, which has been occupied by protesters for over two months.  Freelancers seemed to be particularly at risk; Julie Walker, who is reporting on the protests for NPR, was arrested and released late Tuesday morning, and Jared Malsin, a freelancer for the New York Times, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Others were forcefully removed from the park or handled roughly by police.

Journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests have been arrested before, but this seems to be the first time the Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered what amounts to a blockade of the press, saying that it was for their own protection. This morning’s actions mirror the arrests and media blackouts at other Occupy sites around the country, including Milwaukee, Nashville, and Oakland, where a cameraman was attacked and left with a concussion.

“At a time when freedom of expression is under threat worldwide, this denial of media access and restriction on press coverage is shameful and undemocratic,” said Laura McVeigh, executive director of PEN International. “It sends the wrong signal to the American people and to the rest of the world.”

PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of PEN International, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program of PEN American Center works to protect the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled. It defends writers and journalists from all over the world who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted, or attacked in the course of carrying out their profession. For more information on PEN’s work, please visit www.pen.org

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by @lcmcveigh , PEN International Executive Director

“Following yesterday’s news of the earthquake in Turkey’s south east and the loss of many lives, PEN International sends it condolences to all those affected by this terrible event. Our thoughts are with members of PEN Turkey and the Kurdish PEN Centre who have relatives, friends and colleagues in the affected region.”

Laura McVeigh,  PEN International Executive Director

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“To mark our 60th anniversary, the Arts Council is publishing stories about the arts using documents from our archive. Beginning with 14 stories from the early years of the Arts Council, (1950s) this site aims to show the intricate connections that existed and continue to exist between the artists, the organisations that supported them, the public they served and engaged with and their relationships with the contemporary arts.”

The Irish PEN  Committee was notified of the Irish Arts Council Project

recently, and wishes to extend our congratulations to the

Irish Arts Council/ an Comhairle Ealaíon on the occasion of their

60th  anniversary.

The archives are grouped into decades for access to minutes, discussions and decisions by the Arts Council,

•  Archives for the 1950s : http://archivestories.artscouncil.ie/
• 1952 Page detail : http://archivestories.artscouncil.ie/a-cultural-centre-in-the-rotunda-buildings/
• Archives Home : http://archivestories.artscouncil.ie/

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“Our thoughts are with Norwegian PEN, its members, our friends and supporters at the Fritt Ord Foundation, Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cities of Refuge Network, and Norwegian publishers as well as all the people of Norway.

Norway’s tolerant and open-minded approach to the world and its deep commitment to human rights makes the attack even more shocking. Yet we believe that these very qualities will help our Norwegian friends and colleagues to find ways to overcome these very terrible events with dignity and resolve. ”

John Ralston Saul, International President
Takeaki Hori, International Secretary

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/bvcl9d

Closing Date for Irish PLR 2011

The Registrar of Irish PLR has announced that the final date for receipt of new
PLR registration forms for the Irish PLR  year 2011 is Friday September 2nd, 2011
at 5:00 p.m.

Further information on registering additional books can be found at plr.ie
Books registered after that date will be included  for PLR year 2012.

Note to Irish authors regarding Irish Public Lending Renumeration

Irish titles registered at the UK PLR do not automatically register to the Irish PLR. It is best to check independently whilst registering in the UK  that your most current titles are registered here in Ireland.  Advices for Irish authors who wish to check that their books are registered under PLR include printing out the full list and sending it on to the Irish PLR office,  this which can be used to update here. There is a requirement to register title separately with the Irish PLR.

Please check both UK and Irish lists in order that both are kept up to date.

Annual registration for PLR is in early September.

I am including here the Irish PLR home-page and a contact for Irish PEN .

You can contact the PLR office by post, telephone, fax or email.

.

Public Lending Remuneration Office
An Chomhairle Leabharlanna (The Library Council)
53/54 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2

Tel: 00 353 1 6761167/6761963
Fax: 00 353 1 6766721
E-mail: plr@librarycouncil.ie
Website: www.plr.ie

Currently Irish PEN’s Facebook has 1224 followers, and we always welcome new connections and news, the Facebook wall is open for news, info, listings etcetera, though we do ask people not to advertise and instead to add a link for further information. Our Twitter account is located here , so Twitter users may choose to link up with the accounts on current social media platforms.

Announcements regarding site changes and adaptions will be carried on this page for the moment.

The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, Judge Chin rejects Google Book Settlement – 22 March 2011:

Judge Chin handed down his decision on 22nd March 2011. The first paragraph sets out his opinion that the Amended Settlement Agreement is not “fair, adequate or reasonable” and that it goes too far.

ICLA  Index :  http://icla.ie/index.php?new

” The $125m Google Book Settlement has been rejected by a federal judge in New York.  The settlement would have allowed Google to continue with its project to digitize books and create the world’s largest digital library with the blessing of authors and publishers.

The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit brought in 2005 by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers which argued that Google’s plans to digitize books and provide snippets online violated copyright on a massive scale.

Judge Chin rejected the settlement, saying that it “would simply go too far,” even though “the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many.” But he also urged the parties to consider revising the settlement. As it stood, Judge Chin wrote, the settlement would give Google a “de facto monopoly over unclaimed works”.  He said that federal lawmakers rather than private entities ought to figure out what to do with those works. “The questions of who should be entrusted with guardianship over orphan books, under what terms and with what safeguards are matters more appropriately decided by Congress than through an agreement among private, self-interested parties.”

American Publishers Association statement
Analysis of the decision from the Laboratorium

 
The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency , Parties to Google Book Settlement ask for Filing Extension:

Authors, Publishers and Google filed a stipulation asking the Court to extend the deadline for filing claims to receive an upfront payment in the Google Book Search Settlement. The current deadline under the settlement, which is being reviewed by the Court, is March 31st 2011. If the extension is granted, authors and publishers will have one year after the Court approves the settlement to make a claim for a cash payment.

http://authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/parties-to-google-book-settlement-ask.html

RESOURCES,

Judge Chin’s decision http://thepublicindex.org/docs/amended_settlement/opinion.pdf

Association of American Publishers statement http://publishers.org/main/PressCenter/Archicves/2011_March/GoogleBooksSettlementStatement.htm

Analysis from the Laboratorium http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/03/22/inside_judge_chins_opinion

Analysis from Columbia University Libraries – Copyright Advisory Office

http://copyright.columbia.edu/copyright/2011/03/22/google-books-copyright-settlement-rejected/

Twitter #GBS

Article 40. 6. 1. i.

The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.

The education of public opinion being, however, a matter of such grave import to the common good, the State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.

The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.