11 January 2006

CHINESE WRITER, ACADEMIC HONOURED FOR DEFENDING FREE EXPRESSION


The Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) is honouring a Beijing-based writer and a university professor with awards recognising them for promoting and defending the right to freedom of expression.

Wu Si is the recipient of the 2005 Free-to-Write Award in honour of what ICPC calls his "persistent writing with a free spirit."

Since 1996, the Beijing-based writer has been executive editor-in-chief of the magazine "Yanhuang Chunqiu" ("Chinese History"). In recent years, he has published several books that have received widespread acclaim among intellectuals, including "Chen Yonggui in Zhongnanhai: An Experiment to Reform China."

ICPC is also honouring Lu Xuesong, a female university teacher in Jilin province, with the inaugural Lin Zhao Memorial Award for her "brave effort to promote freedom of expression in her teaching."

A teacher at the Jilin College of Fine Arts, Lu was suspended by school authorities in 2005 after she showed a film about Lin Zhao, a student who was imprisoned in the 1950s for criticising the Chinese Communist Party.

ICPC is an affiliate of International PEN, the worldwide network of writers dedicated to defending freedom of expression.

For more information, visit:
- ICPC: http://www.penchinese.net/en/enindex.htm
- The Case of Lu Xuesong: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20050804_1.htm
- Academic Censorship in China: http://tinyurl.com/apfbm


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