SEPTEMBER 29, 2010
WORLD’S LEADING ADVOCATE FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION CONDEMNS IRAN,
TAKES FORMAL ACTION AT CHINESE EMBASSY IN TOKYO,
ELECTS FIRST ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY
More than 250 writers from several dozen countries, gathered in Tokyo for the 76th annual Congress of PEN International, expressed profound outrage at the sentencing yesterday of 35-year-old Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan to 19.5 years in prison on charges that include ‘propagating against the regime’, ‘insulting religion’, spreading ‘anti-revolutionary’ propaganda and obscenity.
Please find the press release in its entirety here.