Funder, Politkovskaya on The Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Anna Funder on Courage from Australian Broadcasting Corporation on FORA.tv

Today is the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, an annual day intended to recognize and support writers who resist repression of the basic human right to freedom of expression sponsored by PEN International. The timing is perfect for our reading of Anna Funder's Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall because it gives me a reason to share the author's thought-provoking PEN lecture made on this day in 2008. Her talk on the subject of courage takes the life and death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy) as her starting point and moves to discuss the courage required for dissent in Germany and the relationship between courage and culture. (There's also some Q&A relating to Stasiland).  

If you haven't got time for the lecture, I recommend this little audio nugget from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a brief Funder interview where she talks about her motivation to bear witness.

Please visit the PEN International page to learn more about the imprisoned writers like poet and songwriter Ericson Acosta of the Phillipines and journalist and blogger Eskinger Nega of Ethiopia and take action on their behalf.  For an update on the never-ending investigation into Politkovskaya's murder see this recent article in the Washington Post.

Rights Readers Round-up

Just a few loose ends to round-up regarding some of our favorite Rights Readers authors:

Elena Kudimova, discusses a new collection of essays by her late sister, Anna Politkovskaya, Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches on WNYC.



Get a taste of Reza Aslan's (No God But God) new program on KCET-- Globalwatch.  Tell me what you think!

Daniel Alarcon (Lost City Radio) reads and discusses a Roberto Bolaño (Amulet) short story for the New Yorker. 


BBC World Book Club has a great interview and discussion with Jo Nesbø about his novel Redbreast.

Rights Readers Round-up

Our periodic round-up of what's been happening with our favorite authors:

Martha Minow (Between Vengeance and Forgiveness) has been appointed Dean of Harvard Law School.

A retrial has been ordered for some of the alleged conspirators in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia).

Amira Hass (Drinking the Sea at Gaza) speaks with Amy Goodman about editing her mother's Holocaust memoir (Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944-1945--Hanna Levy-Hass).

In the wake of the sentencing of two American journalists to hard labor in North Korea, the NYT discusses sources of information regarding life in North Korea which of course includes Kang Chol-hwan's (The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag). Also noted is this video of the camp where Kang lived. Take action for Laura Ling and Euna Lee here.

Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) received the Jefferson Award for public service and more recognition from the National Education Association. National Geographic notes a Pakistani honor and investigates his project's Taliban problem.

Toni Morrison has been promoting a volume she edited on censorship (Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word) which includes essays by Rights Readers favorites Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk and Nadine Gordimer, The NYT reports,

Morrison, looking regal and speaking in a warm, languid voice, talked about how she had proudly framed and hung in a bathroom a letter that said that “Song of Solomon” could not be distributed among Texas inmates because “it might stir inmates to riot.” She let that sink in for a few seconds. “I thought, ‘what a powerful book.’ ”

Speaking of censorship... Jose Saramago (Blindness) has found himself at the center of the struggle for press freedom in Italy. The BBC has a good profile on the Nobel Laureate in anticipation of his forthcoming book, Death with Interruptions.

Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) has sanctioned a reworking of some of her material to promote Iranian democracy. The Guardian quotes the creators of the mash-up,

"Her cartoon are about her life but to my generation of Iranians (at least in the West) they have become more than that, they have become iconic. The fact that images from 30 years ago can tell a story about what is happening now makes them all the more powerful.

"Unlike her original work, Persepolis 2.0 is filled with flaws and inaccuracies, but the bottom line is that it has helped spark hundreds of conversations and that's more than we could have expected."

Californians! Read Sister Helen Prejean's (Dead Man Walking) no-holds-barred letter to the Department of Corrections regarding revisions to California's lethal injection protoccol.

Were you aware of Amnesty International's contributions to the history of comedy? Fun interview with Monty Python vets from WNYC here.

Rights Readers Round-up

Just catching up on some of our Rights Readers authors:

Excellent interview with Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist) on the BBC World Book Club.

Daniel Alarcon (Lost City Radio) discusses editing a collection of short stories by Latin American writers with the The New Yorker. Names to watch for?

Arundhati Roy (The Cost of Living) on the crisis in Sri Lanka. Follow the latest on Sri Lanka on AIUSA's Human Rights Now blog.

Going back a couple months on this one, but here's a New Yorker podcast on the Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy) trial. Amnesty insight here.

Tribute to Reinaldo Arenas (Before Night Falls) at PEN World Voices. Francisco Goldman (The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?) participated in a panel too.

Anna Politkovskaya Update

The New York Times reports reports that three men were acquitted of murdering Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (Rights Readers selection: Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy) CPJ responds. The Guardian has more.

Update: AIUSA responds.

Our Visit with Congressman Schiff

Yesterday, several members of our Amnesty chapter made a visit to Congressman Adam Schiff's district office here in Pasadena. While we will be waiting to see what actions Rep. Schiff takes as a result of our discussion, we all felt it was a very productive visit.

We spoke first about our concern for human rights in Eritrea, and urged him to contact Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (as several other Congresspersons have already done) to ask her to inquire into the status and treatment of Eritrean prisoners of conscience, including imprisoned opposition figures, journalists and religious leaders. Rep. Schiff appeared very receptive to this request. We were happy to have informed him of our on-going interest in the human rights crisis in Eritrea as we know it is easy to overlook among the more headline-grabbing international conflict zones.

We had noted Congressman Schiff's interest in press freedom from his website. You can read a recent floor speech he gave on World Press Freedom Day here and it appears that he intends to be a leader on this issue. This is good news for our work on behalf of Eritrean journalists, as well as Russian journalists such as the late Anna Politkovskaya (Rights Readers selection Putin's Russia). But we also thought this was a great opportunity to ask the Congressman's support for the Global Online Freedom Act (H.R. 275) which would help ensure that the Internet remains an open forum for free expression in every part of the world, and help American companies resist pressure from authoritarian governments to compromise their principles. The act may help to prevent cases such as Chinese Journalist and Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience Shi Tao whose identity was revealed to Chinese authorities by Yahoo! and who subsequently received a ten year sentence for exercising his right to free speech. You can help urge the Congressman to support this legislation by taking action here.

Finally, we got ahead of Amnesty's effort to turn activists out to lobby for fair judicial proceedings for Guantanamo detainees in conjunction with the annual International Day for Survivors of Torture in late June and asked for Rep. Schiff's support for H.R. 1416 The Habeas Restoration Act. The right to challenge one’s detention in front of an independent court is one of the most fundamental protections against arbitrary detention and other human rights violations. We're all proud of our judicial tradition and these are the principles we want to export not hide from! Rep. Schiff emphasized that he opposed the revocation of habeas and was very receptive to supporting this bill, commenting that he might look into a broader approach. (Broader is good! How about we close Guantanamo?!) In any case we suggest that you urge Rep. Schiff to become a co-sponsor of the bill here.

You can also take action on H.R. 275 and H.R. 1416 at Congressman Schiff's website.

We'll keep you up to date on these actions when we get more information.

Thank You!

Russian Human Rights Defender Oksana Chelysheva thanks you for sending cards of support!





Oksana Chelysheva reports on the Russian government's response to recent demonstrations at opendemocracy.net.

How did mighty Russia, a country of 140 million, with a huge nuclear arsenal and pretensions to superpower status react? First the authorities tried to ban the day outright. It was "illegal" (it wasn't). It was going to trespass onto church-owned holy land (it wasn't). It would be "violent" (it wouldn't). Then the serious harassment and round-ups began...

Also, the Guardian reviews Anna Politkovskaya's Russian Diary.

Frontline: Requiem

Opps! I went to tape the PBS Independent Lens broadcast of Race to Execution (which was quite good and I hope becomes available to activists on DVD) and realized that the preceding Frontline/World program offered a segment in which a Filipino journalist paid tribute to slain colleagues around the world such as Anna Politkovskaya and Hrant Dink. Luckily, you can view the segment, Requiem, online. Also checking out the resources at the site I learned that the Phillipines is second only to Iraq this year in journalists killed in the line of duty, so to speak. If the tribute moves you to take action, our newsletter this month featured two actions for journalists: Eritrean journalist, Fessahaye Yohannes who died in custody and whose death should be investigated, and Bangladeshi journalist Sumi Khan who has been attacked and threatened.

Politkovskaya Update

Just as we were about to move on to next month's topic, news comes that a new Anna Politkovskaya book will be released in May and the Guardian has published three excerpts:

'Beslan is quietly going out of its mind'

'Fascism is in fashion'

'Inside the dragon's lair'

The Reporter's Game

The Los Angeles Times brings us an article on activist gaming and among some familiar examples, (Darfur is Dying), we learn that in the virtual world, we too can become Anna Politkovskaya, or more precisely Amira Hass,

In Global Conflicts: Palestine, you control a freelance journalist who roams the streets of Jerusalem armed with nothing but a pencil and a steno pad. Your editor asks you to cover Israeli Defense Forces security raids, border checkpoints, and even martyrdom; you're asked to interview families of the victims and of the bomber alike. As you speak to Arabs and Israelis around town, you carefully pluck their best quotes, the object being to write a balanced, thorough newspaper article at the day's end.

Our March Author: Anna Politkovskaya

A final set of links for Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia:

The Guardian has an interview and an article in which she explains what keeps her going,

Why am I going on at such length about this? Only in order to explain that people in Chechnya are afraid for me, and I find that very touching. They fear for me more than I fear for myself, and that is how I survive.

Open Source has an audio interview with some of Politkovskaya's journalist colleagues following her death. (BBC Woman's Hour has an interview from the time of the publication of Putin's Russia, but the BBC's A/V set-up and I don't get along.)

Radio Free Europe has a transcript of Politkovskaya's last interview, two days before her death and this site has her last article.

If you are still curious, check out this list of links.

Putin's Russia: More Background

More background for our discussion of Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia:

NPR obligingly ran a five-part series on Russia last week. Included in the web features is this handy guide to opposition leaders. Their guide doesn't include Garry Kasparov, but as one of our Intrepid Readers points out, the NYT fills the gap. Meanwhile, the Independent runs down the list of Russian journalists who have been assassinated.

Democracy on Deadline

Last year Independent Lens aired the film Democracy on Deadline: The Global Struggle for an Independent Press which followed several brave and determined journalists as they tried to shine some light on dark places. You can still check out the journalist profiles on the website, including Anna Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia) and Israeli reporter Amira Hass (Rights Readers selection Drinking by the Sea at Gaza) as well as Nigerian Chris Anyanwu, a former prisoner of conscience. The site also has a handy list of links to organization supporting freedom of the press.

And while we are on the subject of courage in journalism, Amnesty International USA announced the award of the Ginetta Sagan Human Rights Award to Mexican reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro yesterday.

International Women's Day Action - Chechnya

We have so many actions to call attention to on International Women's Day that we are going to have to spread them out over more than one day. But let's start with one that relates to our selection this month, Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia. Urge Russian President Putin to stop violence against women in Chechnya,

Since 1999, female civilians have particularly suffered due to the armed conflict in Chechnya, as Russian federal forces have committed rape, torture, disappearances, and killings. Chechen armed groups have also indiscriminately attacked civilians, including women and girls. In a climate of impunity, women and girls are routinely denied justice. Act now and urge President Putin to prosecute all allegations of violence against women.

Some examples:

"Madina": Madina (not her real name) is 24 years old. In April 2004 she was detained by Russian Federal forces and taken, blindfolded, to the main Russian military base in Khankala, Chechnya. She was tortured dailiy with electric shocks, the wires connected to her bra. She was stripped, threatened with rape and repeatedly beaten. After two weeks she was told a mistake had been made and was released.

"Aset": Russian federal forces detained Aset (not a her real name) at a checkpoint in June 2003 and accused her of wanting to be a suicide bomber. According to relatives, she was chained to a bed and gang-raped every night, and was unable to stand or walk when released six days later. Aset has four children. Her husband was reportedly killed at their home by Russian forces in April 2003.

And more here. Send a message now!

Novaya Gazeta

Continuing our exploration of Anna Politkovskaya and Putin's Russia:

Some of our more linguistically talented Readers may want to check out the online version of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Politkovskaya wrote for. The rest of us can make due with this interview with ther editor,

I know that our newspaper can be found everywhere in Chechnya, it is sold and photocopied. People from Chechnya queue up for Politkovskaya But I tell her: You are not a Chechen Joan of Arc. You can’t save the entire Chechen people.

This year I have sent her on an assignment to Chechnya only twice. That’s all I would let her do. But in my absence she “extorted” a signature from my deputy Sergei Sokolov. Then she calls me from there and says with malicious glee: “I’m in Chechnya”

But that’s Politkovskaya. I once said to her: “That’s not a car you parked just now, it’s a broomstick.”

Our March Author: Anna Politkovskaya

We'll have more links in the next couple of weeks as we read Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia but for starters, here are a couple of tributes to the late journalist: a photo collection from vigils held in Moscow and Finland after her death, and audio from a PEN American Center's tribute offering of readings and interviews (also available in podcast).

For March: Putin's Russia

For our March 18 meeting, we have selected the late journalist Anna Politkovskaya's, Putin's Russia. Be sure to participate in the Holiday Card Action offering condolences to her family and friends. (Note: This book will be available in paper on December 26.)

Hailed as “a lone voice crying out in a moral wilderness” (New Statesman), Anna Politkovskaya made her name with her fearless reporting on the war in Chechnya. Now she turns her steely gaze on the multiple threats to Russian stability, among them President Putin himself.

Putin’s Russia depicts a far-reaching state of decay. Politkovskaya describes an army in which soldiers die from malnutrition, parents must pay bribes to recover their dead sons’ bodies, and conscripts are even hired out as slaves. She exposes rampant corruption in business, government, and the judiciary, where everything from store permits to bus routes to court appointments is for sale. And she offers a scathing condemnation of the ongoing war in Chechnya, where kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture are begetting terrorism rather than fighting it.

Sounding an urgent alarm, Putin’s Russia is both a gripping portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of a great and intrepid reporter.

Anna Politkovskaya

We came close to reading Anna Politkovskaya's account of the war in Chechnya, The Dirty War. And its still not too late for us to read her latest, Putin's Russia. Now comes news of her brutal death, so I'll take this moment to note this article on the Chechen conflict she wrote for Amnesty Magazine and AI's concern for her safety in this report. Would that we could have done more. She was certainly brave and relentless to the very end, reportedly at work Saturday finishing an article for the about torturers in the government of Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the pro-Kremlin premier of Chechnya.

Update: Amnesty press release here. Second update: Amnesty expresses concern for other Russian journalists here and you can take action on behalf of one of them here.

Tags: Russia Chechnya Politkovskaya