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TAKE ACTION! COMMEMORATE PEN'S DAY OF THE IMPRISONED WRITER ON 15 NOVEMBER

Dzamshid Karimov, an Uzbek journalist who has been held in psychiatric detention for a year for covering human rights abuses and being an outspoken critic of the government, has been chosen as one of five writers to mark International PEN's Day of the Imprisoned Writer on 15 November. PEN urges you to send a letter on behalf of Karimov and the many writers jailed worldwide.

Besides Karimov, PEN is also highlighting the comedian and poet Zarganar, who was arrested in the recent crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Burma; Normando Hernández González, a Cuban journalist whose health is rapidly deteriorating in the face of prison-contracted disease; Fatou Jaw Manneh, a journalist facing a heavy sentence on charges of sedition for her articles criticising the Gambian president; and Yaghoub Yadali, an Iranian novelist given a one-year sentence for his fictional characterisation of the Lor ethnic minority, of which he himself is a member.

PEN is also commemorating the 51 writers and journalists killed since the previous Day of the Imprisoned Writer, 22 of whom were killed in Iraq.

Visit PEN's priority case pages for sample letters of appeal, as well as the names and contacts of domestic and international authorities: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1686/prmID/124

(13 November 2007)