FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Egypt PEN reiterates its support for the Egyptian Youths’ Revolution and their calls for free expression along with political and economic reform. The first stage of this revolution is over. Before we move on this is the time to send our condolences to all those families whose children were sacrificed while struggling for the liberation of our country from a corrupted regime that had usurped power for 30 years. We, of Egypt PEN, associate ourselves with their demands.
The Youths’ Revolution unified the people of Egypt in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt around the common goals of reconstructing our society and addressing the unacceptable levels of inequality and poverty in the country. This can only be accomplished through the restoration of full freedom of expression, which means freedom of the mass media – whether print, radio, television, or Internet. We call for the end of all forms of censorship of creativity, the end of book seizures, and an end to the censorship of dramatic works. We call for the abolishment of all penal laws that imprison people on grounds of their political or religious views. All of this can only be accomplished with the ending of the Emergency Laws.
The Youths’ Revolution has demonstrated that both free expression and ideas based on facts are powerful weapons when people are faced with oppression. What has been lost over three decades cannot be restored over night. However, we call upon the Council of the Armed Forces to uphold the promise of the Youths’ Revolution by adhering to the principles of free expression and transparent democracy.