Sign Russia/Ukraine Statement – Deadline 7th August 28/07/14 Dear PEN members, dear friends, As you already know, on 11th June Swedish PEN hosted a meeting of PEN International in support of the dialogue between Russian and Ukrainian writers, members of PEN. At the end the meeting a statement was written that was circulated and supported by former presidents of our organization, Nobel laureates and members of the Swedish Academy. It was well received in the international Press. Several writers have approached us asking for the possibility of signing the statement, too. This is why we are circulating the statement again to all centres and friends of PEN international. If your Centre wishes to sign the statement (below), or some of your members want to sign it personally, please send a response to my assistant Eva Okunbor, on [email protected], before August 7th. When the statement was first debated all of us saw the central problem which propaganda represents in dealing with the Russian/Ukrainian conflict. The crisis surrounding the shooting of the airplane has only accentuated the destructive role of propaganda. With kindest regards, Carles Torner Executive Director | PEN International PEN International conference on the Russian/Ukrainian situation Stockholm, 11th June 2014, hosted by Swedish PEN Russian and Ukrainian PEN affirm their unity against the waves of propaganda destroying the language of public discussion. At a gathering of writers held in Stockholm by PEN International and Swedish PEN, Ludmila Ulitskaya, vice-president of Russian PEN, spoke of “the lies poisoning minds which have no other sources of information” and Aleksandra Hnatiuk, from Ukrainian PEN, of “propaganda designed to create enemies.” PEN International has been organizing meetings of writers across Europe bringing together Russians and Ukrainians with their colleagues from around the world. In times of actual and threatened violence PEN believes that channels of public discussion must be kept open. PEN International President, John Ralston Saul, said, “Peace and stability is not about deals done behind closed doors, but the ability of people to talk to each other in public.” For three months there have been incessant acts of aggression towards Ukraine from the side of the Russian Federation. There has been the illegal annexation of Crimea, which makes us deeply worried about the rights of the Tatar population, and following it armed groups have created violent disorder in the eastern parts of Ukraine with the goal of destabilizing the country. Ukrainian PEN has talked about journalists and citizens being shot, murdered, kidnapped and tortured. Russian PEN points out that such violence is dependent upon the co-opting of language: “Words are the only means we have to construct meaning and express reality. The Russian authorities are currently using words to destroy meaning. It goes without saying that this is a crime against culture.” PEN is particularly concerned about the tsunami of anti-free expression laws emerging in Russia, which include treating international NGO’s as foreign agents; anti-gay laws; a law permitting the blocking of websites without a court order; laws against discussing Russian history; a Religious Defamation law. In the name of security, human rights are being dangerously undermined. People wonder if we are faced by a war of interests or a war of values, or both. In either case, the only real security lies in opening channels of free expression. Those on the front lines of this situation are often the journalists, in whatever country. We admire their courage and appeal to those under pressure to remember, in Lev Rubinstein’s words, that “propaganda is the collapse of language.” +++++++++++++++ This statement has been written after a series of meetings of Russian and Ukrainians writers, including Alexei Simonov, Lev Rubinstein, Andrey Kurkov, Myroslav Marynovych, Mykola Riabchuk, Leonid Finberg, and foreign colleagues. The meetings took place in the cities of Kiev, Bled and Warsaw. The participants in the Stockholm meeting were PEN Centres of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia and Germany. The statement has been signed by: Ludmila Ulitskaya, Vice-president of Russian PEN Alexandra Hnatiuk, Ukrainian PEN John Ralston Saul, President of PEN International Takeaki Hori, International Secretary PEN International Jarkko Tontti, International Treasurer PEN International Markéta Hejkalová, Board of PEN International Tone Peršak, Chair Writers for Peace Committee PEN International Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair Writers in Prison Committee PEN International Josep Maria Terricabras, Chair Translation & Linguistic Rights Committee PEN International Carles Torner, Executive Director PEN International Tomas Tranströmer, Literature Nobel Laureate 2012 Mario Vargas Llosa, Literature Nobel Laureate 2011 & ex-president of PEN International Per Wästberg, former president of PEN International & member of the Swedish Academy. György Konrad, former president of PEN International Ronald Harwood, former president of PEN International Homero Aridjis, former president of PEN International Peter Englund, member of the Swedish Academy Kjell Espmark, member of the Swedish Academy
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 11:14:35 +0000
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