August & September 2014 Letter from PEN International President John Ralston Saul

Dear PEN members, dear friends,

In a few days we will gather in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, at the invitation of Central Asian PEN, for the 80th PEN Congress. We will be coming together at a time of growing violence in large parts of the world. Whatever our particular opinions, none of us can help but see what is happening in Iraq/Syria/Palestine/Israel/Russia/Ukraine/Honduras to name only few crises.

As has always been the case, each outbreak of state or insurgency violence includes an assault on free expression. Writers are killed or silenced. Debate is silenced or sidelined. Propaganda flourishes. What is happening now is no exception.

I should add that in many countries the use of moralizing laws to divide societies and limit free expression continues to grow; the taste of many Western governments for surveillance and secrecy has not abated; the use of populism to target specific communities and undermine civil debate continues to spread; and there has been no improvement in other areas such as impunity in Latin America or openness to debate in China.

And so we gather at a somber time which requires from us careful thought as to how we can have an impact on these situations.

As with all congresses, this one will involve a few hundred of us out of tens of thousands of our members. But it does seem that more than 175 members from as many as 80 Centres are coming to Bishkek, if we are able to resolve some of the visa issues, which we consider disturbing and unacceptable. A number of our members have been turned down in their request for a visa. We have been working hard on this issue since June. We are continuing to work on it full time.

The 80th Congress will be an important and complex meeting as we enter an area of the world in which PEN has never gathered. There will be solid briefing material which will be essential to our conversations there.

One piece of very good news is that we have now confirmed Carles Torner as our Executive Director. He has been with us since April on an interim basis. He has done a wonderful job in this crossover period and is now officially confirmed in the position.

Many of you know Carles well. He has a long experience with PEN. He is a well-known novelist, a Catalan, speaks our three official languages as well as others, has an impressive managerial experience. Perhaps most important, as Chair of the Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee during the 1990s he led in the development of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. He will of course be with us in Bishkek.

Welcome Carles!

With best wishes,
John Ralston Saul
International President