14 April 2004
IRANIAN, VIETNAMESE WIN PEN/BARBARA GOLDSMITH FREEDOM TO WRITE AWARDS
PEN American Center (PEN) will honour an Iranian writer and a Vietnamese Internet dissident next week with a major award aimed at raising public awareness of jailed writers around the world.
The organisation has given its 2004 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award to Nasser Zarafshan and Le Chi Quang for their courage in defending the right to free expression. Both of them are serving jail sentences in Iran and Vietnam, respectively, and it is unlikely that either will be able to receive the prize at PEN's award ceremony in New York City on 20 April 2004.
Zarafshan, a writer and lawyer who belongs to the Iranian Writers' Association and the Iranian Bar Association, is serving a five-year prison sentence for "spreading state secrets" and "possessing firearms and alcohol." He has denied the latter charges, saying authorities planted arms and alcohol in his office, according to PEN. Zarafshan was a legal advocate for the families of two journalists who were murdered in Tehran in 1998. In October 2000, he alleged in a public speech that Iran's intelligence services were responsible for the murders, after which he was detained for a month, PEN notes.
In Vietnam, Le Chi Quang was sentenced in November 2002 to four years in prison and three years of house arrest for "acts of propaganda against the state" and "communicating with overseas elements via the Internet." PEN says the charges against him stem from an essay he distributed on the Internet, which criticised Vietnamese authorities for giving up too much territory to China during border negotiations in 1999 and 2000. Le Chi Quang reportedly suffers from serious kidney problems and has been denied appropriate medical treatment, says PEN.
Since 1987, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards have been given annually to literary figures who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Twenty three of the 27 awardees who were in prison at the time they were honoured have been released, notes PEN.
For more information on this year's award winners, visit: http://www.pen.org/freedom/pressrel/BGA%202004.html
Click here to see past winners of the award: http://www.pen.org/freedom/bga.htm
For updates on free expression conditions in Iran and Vietnam, visit:
- IFEX Alerts and Reports on Iran: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/221/
- IFEX Alerts and Reports on Vietnam: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/164/
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