PEN VOICES

Sydney PEN president Mark Isaacs interviews former PEN Prisoner of Conscience and Kurdish-Iranian writer, Behrouz Boochani, and Dr Omid Tofighian, translator of his book "No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison". This was Behrouz’s first public speaking event since he escaped from Papua New Guinea. Just one week earlier, Behrouz made a secretive journey to New Zealand with the assistance of close friends, Amnesty International and UNHCR. Behrouz was one of hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees who were exiled to Manus Island, Papua New Guinea for more than six years by the Australian government as part of Australia’s punitive border control policies. This event was recorded by Wollongong Writers Festival in November 2019.

Journalism is at its second crossroads in two decades: not one of means, but of privilege. Listen to the editor-in-chief of Schwartz Media, Erik Jensen, deliver the 2019 Sydney PEN Free Voices lecture at the Sydney Writers Festival.

For the 2019 Day of the Imprisoned Writer, PEN Sydney invited Walkley Award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster Quentin Dempster to interview Jennifer Robinson, counsel to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Hosted in November 2019, this revealing and insightful conversation sheds some light on Julian Assange’s deteriorating condition in Belmarsh prison and the ongoing legal battle to defend him.

Australian citizen and journalist, Yang Hengjun, was arrested in China on suspicion of espionage in January 2019. Since then he has been imprisoned by the Chinese authorities, enduring interrogation and alleged torture. In August he was charged with espionage, a move that could see him facing severe penalties including more than 10 years in prison. Sydney PEN is advocating for Yang’s release and PEN International is investigating his case

When two Saudi journalists flew to Australia on 12 October 2019, the last thing they expected was to be arrested and placed in immigration detention. So what happened? And why is PEN being involved?

Sydney PEN and the University of Technology Sydney hosted 2019 Miles Franklin award-winning novelist Melissa Lucashenko as she delivered a PEN Free Voices address for the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. This is a lecture that all Australians need to hear.

In this episode of PEN Voices, Bangladeshi poet and journalist Humayun Reza speaks about the challenges some writers face in Australia.Produced by Mick Paddon and Humayun Reza of Eastside Radio.Supervising production by Sharon Davis.For more information about PEN International go herehttps://pen.org.au/collections/membership

In today's episode we hear from PEN Prisoner of Conscience and Kurdish-Iranian writer, Behrouz Boochani, about his new book "No Friend But the Mountains". Behrouz is one of more than 1500 asylum seekers and refugees who have been detained on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea for over five years by the Australian government as part of Australia's punitive border control policies. Sydney PEN connected with Behrouz by phone as he remains detained on Manus Island.