Writers-in-Prison-Day 2007

Since 1960, the 15th November is dedicated to all writers who are imprisoned, persecuted or suppressed for their articles, poems, novels or whatever they have written or published.

Names which come to one’s mind thinking of that topic are for example Hrant Dink, publisher of the Turkish-Armenian magazine “Agos”, who was shot by a 17-year old Turkish nationalist on 19th January 2007; or Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel laureate in literature 2006.

Some figures:

The statistical data of the International Writers-in-Prison Committee for the first half year of 2007

• Killed: 29

• Killed, investigation not completed yet: 10

• Disappeared: 31

• Persecuted and arrested (main cases): 152

• Arrested, investigation not completed yet: 58

• Legal objections against proceedings or suspicion of torture: 6

• Not arrested prior to proceedings or pronouncement of judgement: 142

• Sentenced to other punishments (no prison sentence): 53

• In hiding: 4

• Short-term imprisonment: 66

• Threatened for their lives: 57

• Threatened in other ways: 170

• Abducted: 4

• Forced into exile, deported, fled: 1

Total number of cases recorded: 781

Releases: 42

Source: P.E.N. (Germany)

The annually published Worldwide Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders) points out very impressively that oppression of journalists and writers in general is an everyday issue, not only in countries like Turkey or Russia, but also right in the heart of Europe. In Serbia, for example. Here, journalists have to deal with censorious circumstances in their everyday work: in April 2007, a bomb detonated in front of the house of Dejan Anastasijevic, a Belgrade journalist writing for the magazine “Vreme”. He didn’t get injured, but it is assumed that the attack had its origins in an article which he planned to publish and which should be about organised crime and a paramilitary unit called “Scorpions”. Furthermore, the head of the association of journalists in Vojvodina, Dinko Gruhonjic, and an editorial journalist from the magazine “Vreme”, Milos Vasic, received death threats.

Considering the facts given above, we should be aware of the fact that the freedom of the press never is a matter of course. Those living in countries where it is less endangered should appreciate that by being attentive in their everyday lives, and, of course, by using it, e. g. when writing blogs.