Author Archives: Lia Mills

Emergency Resource List (for writers and journalists at risk)

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NB: This list has been checked/updated as far as possible in August 2022

PEN CENTRES:

PEN International: The PEN Emergency Fund provides assistance to persecuted writers and journalists who are in acute financial need. For more information, please contact Aurélia Dondo, Europe Programme Coordinator at PEN International: 

aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org

PEN America administer an emergency fund:

https://pen.org/campaign/pen-america-writers-emergency-fund/

PEN America also has a guide to digital security/online harassment
https://onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org

PEN Finland’s Hate Speech Toolkit: https://www.suomenpen.fi/userassets/uploads/2021/06/the-hate-speech-toolkit-en-110621-web.pdf

OTHER RESOURCES

ARTICLE 19 is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response which has funding for legal and protection costs for journalists, along with monitoring and advocacy. https://www.mfrr.eu  

Front Line Defenders offers emergency assistance, financial support and training – including around digital security – to eligible journalists facing threats in Northern Ireland. Apply online: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/programme/protection-grants 

Front Line Defenders also have a comprehensive list of other funding options on their website: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/other-funding-organisations

Human Rights Watch / https://www.hrw.org/human-rights-watch/hellman-hammett-grants

International Federation of Journalists / https://www.ifj.org/safety-fund.html

International Media Support https://www.mediasupport.org/what-we-do/safety-for-journalists/#safety-fund

Journalists in Distress network https://www.journalistsindistress.org/ 

This is a group of organisations who provide emergency support, many of them listed here. It might be worth familiarising yourself with this site prior to an emergency to identify which of the organisations are most likely to be able to help if and when needed.

Reporters sans Frontières: Assistance for Journalists 

https://rsf.org/en/individual-support

The Rory Peck Trust provides assistance and support to freelance journalists and their families worldwide: https://rorypecktrust.org/

They also have a risk assessment guide:

Safety & Risk Assessment

The Society of Authors runs The Authors’ Contingency fund. Writers can apply directly to the SoA for support:
https://www.societyofauthors.org/Grants/contingency-funds

Risk Assessment

Basic preparedness: Risk assessment

PEN Finland’s Hate Speech Toolkit: https://www.suomenpen.fi/userassets/uploads/2021/06/the-hate-speech-toolkit-en-110621-web.pdf

Rory Peck Trust (see above):

Safety & Risk Assessment

Victoria Amelina in the Dublin Review of Books

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The Dublin Review of Books has reprinted a brilliant essay, “Homo Oblivious” by Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina here. Victoria will be in Ireland in October for the Arts and Human Rights Festival. Information about her events will be published in our next Newsletter.

“Homo Oblivious” was originally published on the Arrowsmith Press Website

Ilhan Sami Çomak to be the first Honorary Member of Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann

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It gives us enormous pleasure to announce that imprisoned Kurdish poet Ilhan Sami Çomak has agreed to become our first Honorary member. Ilhan received many cards from Irish PEN members following our recent PEN Friends event. These were translated and brought to him by Ipek Ozel. Thank you, Ipek!

PEN TURKEY PROTESTS THE GEZI VERDICT – (Osman Kavala & Co-Defendants)

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Statement from PEN Turkey https://www.pen.org.tr/ 27/04/2022

GEZİ IS OUR FREEDONM OF THOUGHT AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSİON

 We are addressing not to those without conscience, but  to those with conscience.

We are addressing not to despots, but to democrats.      

     not to the lawless but to those who respect law.

      not to obeyers of despotism but to citizens.

We are addressing not those who keep acting against the Constitution, 

but to those who take the definition  in our constitution seriously:

 ‘The Republic of Turkey is a secular democratic social state based on human rights.’

 The Gezi Park Protests in 2013 were peaceful and constitutional reactions of environmentalist citizens who demanded democracy and human rights. They were our reactions. Gezi is us. Gezi is hope. Gezi is solidarity. Gezi is freedom of thought and expression. Gezi is the right to choose your life style. Gezi is the possibility of co-habitation of differences. Gezi is our richness.  Gezi is well and alive, because our demand for democracy and law is well and alive. 

 We stand by  all our friends  convicted in the Gezi Protests. Life long sentence and 18 years of imprisonment, is the result  due to the lack of independent justice and lack of division of powers.  It is yet  another slur on jurisprudence in our country  at this stage.

Totally ignoring  the numerous vitally serious issues we face in our country,  totally  disregarding human rights, laws & justice, these sentences are handed down in  acts of plain vengeance  about a  civil resistance movement which took place ten years ago & involved millions of people.

 This is what We, as PEN Turkey  would like to  say on this subject:

We are calling to account all those who ignore our constitution; ignore independent justice; those who misuse their authority by cheating on every level; those who destroy our forests, rivers, lakes, shores, render our cities uninhabitable; those who thrive on tensions brought on by divisive acts, vengeance & strife. Those who incite atmospheres of tension & terror should be made well aware that “TOMORROW” and “HOPE” , “ JUSTİCE” and  “DEMOCRACY” are  not very far away for our beautiful country.

PEN TURKEY

To learn more about the defendants on Bianet: https://m.bianet.org/english/human-rights/261038-who-are-the-eight-convicts-of-the-gezi-trial#

Books for Ukraine

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At a recent “Dialogues on War” event organised by PEN International, in a conversation between Andreiy Kurkov and Philippe Sands, Kurkov was asked what people could do to support Ukrainian writers. “Read their books”, was his reply.

Sands’ own incredible, brilliant, East West Street, illuminates Ukraine’s extraordinary role in European history and international Human Rights law. Part memoir, part family history, part legal analysis, the book reads like a thriller.

Here is a link to a list of recommended titles by Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian authors, put together by PEN International. The list was edited by Diana Delyurman, Iryna Rodina and Myroslava Mokhnatska.

And here’s a selection from that list, with additions from people who were on that and later calls:

Applebaum, Anne Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (History)

Hnatiuk Ola Courage and Fear (History: Lviv during WWII)

Kurkov, Andreiy Grey Bees (novel; currently on the Dublin Literature Award 2022 longlist)

Kurkov, Andreiy Jimi Hendrix Live in Lemberg (Lviv)

Marynovych Myroslav The Universe Behind Barbed Wire: Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident

Plokhy Serhii The Gates of Europe (Historical study of Ukrainian identity and sovereignty)

Sands Philippe East West Street (History, Memoir, Family History, Human Rights Law)

Shevchenko Taras (Poetry)

Snyder Timothy Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (Non Fiction: History)

Zabuzhko Oksana Selected Poems (Poetry)

Zabuzhko Oksana  “One Hundred Years of Solitude, or the Importance of a Story”(Essay: https://agnionline.bu.edu/essay/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-or-the-importance-of-a-story/ )

Zhadan Serhiy What We Live For, What We Die For: Selected Poems (poetry)