WiPC 50th Anniversary
2010 marked the 50th Anniversary of PEN's Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), which was established in London in 1960. English PEN has played a key role in the work of the WiPC since its inception. Through half a century of campaigns, events, projects and publications, the WiPC has stood tirelessly in solidarity with imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world. The value and importance of our work is probably best described in the words on our beneficiaries:
Several times during the past 15 years I have been in and out from the prisons of the Maldives. I have been tortured and ill-treated, degraded and reduced to nothing. I have been spat at, called names, abused and brutalised. I have had long periods of solitary confinements, of total emptiness. Throughout all these one friend that has always stood with me has been the English PEN, Writers in Prison Committee. I am sure I will not be able to thank them enough. Mohamed Nasheed
Honorary Member Mohamed Nasheed was arrested and detained numerous times throughout the 1990s for his political activities. In 2003, he left the Maldives to help establish the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in exile. He returned to Malé in April 2005, but was arrested and charged with terrorism and sedition shortly afterwards. In 2008, Nasheed's party defeated President Gayoom and the DRP in the country's first democratic Presidential elections, and in November 2008 Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in as President of the Maldives.
In my personal hour of darkness it was English PEN who rose to the challenge and provided me with serious support. None of the writers in PEN had ever known me before. Many might not share my beliefs. But the issue for PEN was simple: freedom of speech. Without this kind of international support academics like me would lose heart and remain silent in the face of oppression, injustice and censorship. Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Thai-British academic Giles Ji Ungpakorn was charged with lèse majesté (insulting the monarchy) in January 2009, and fled Thailand to the UK shortly afterwards. He is currently living in Oxford with his wife, Numnual Yapparat, who was granted refugee status in October 2009 after active lobbying by English PEN.
Many thanks are due to the members of English PEN for the books, good wishes and warm thoughts they sent at various times to cheer my wife and children when I was in detention. My two children are now at secondary school largely because of this help. I was told personally that it was the efforts and pressure from certain distinguished bodies in the UK which made my release possible. One such body is the English PEN. Jack Mapanje
Jack Mapanje, one of Africa's most distinguished modern poets, was arrested in September 1987 and held without charge or trial for over three and a half years. He was released in May 1991 and now lives in York, England.
These are only three of the hundreds of writers who have been supported by English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee over the last 50 years.
THANKS
We are extremely grateful for the funding we received towards our 50th anniversary projects from:
- The Rothschild Foundation
- The Tolkien Trust
- The John S Cohen Foundation
- The Robert Gavron Charitable Trust
- The Miss G.M. Marriage Charitable Trust
- Mr Nigel May
- Sir Michael Holroyd, President of the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust
- The Battersea Rotary Club
We are also very appreciative of the considerable in kind support from Index on Censorship, Wolff Olins and the Free Word Centre.