Publisher and former director of the Aschehoug publishing house, William Nygaard,  was last night elected new president of Norwegian PEN. Nygaard has been a board member for many years and is now replacing Anders Heger who steps down after chairing Norwegian PEN since 2007

Death threats, physical attacks, an emergence of hate speech and accusations of official censorship of critical media have escalated the perilous situation for freedom of expression in Tunisia, according to a statement today (28. February) from the Tunisian Monitoring Group.

A delegation from PEN International , including Norwegian PEN, recently completed a weeklong mission to Turkey. Speeches and debates at the Book Fair in Istanbul and political meetings in Ankara, including Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, was on the agenda. The latter stated that "freedom of expression abuses casts dark shadow over Turkey's development."

Norwegian PEN has awarded this year´s Ossietzky prize to Norwegian-Pakistani singer, music producer, composer, film maker and human rights activist Deeyah.  Deeyah was born in Oslo in 1977 and was signed as an artist by a record company at the age of 13.  But the Norwegian-Pakistani community criticized both her and her family´s encouragement of her musical career, and at age 17, after continued harassment and fearing for her personal safety, Deeyah left Norway for the United Kingdom.

On 2 April 1997, while covering a protest against the proposed reunification of Belarus with Russia, Khalip witnessed her father, a documentary filmmaker, get beaten unconscious. She herself was clubbed by riot police.  Her case is the first of 23 cases highlighted in the IFEX campaign against impunity which started on November 1st.  View the whole campaign on this link.  See the PEN International campaign against impunity focusing on Latin America here.

"It is said that freedom of speech is not just a human right, but the fundamental human right. Without this right all other rights are in jeopardy. But why should we have freedom of speech when it continually insults, hurts and stirs up groups in society", asked Norwegian PEN boardmember Peter Normann Waage during the "Courage"-conference in Bergen, October 23rd.

Well known Norwegian singer Per Vollestad yesterday cancelled a planned engagement to sing Edvard Grieg´s songs at the Russian embassy in Oslo.  "The sentence and the silencing of free expression cannot be tolerated", Vollestad told Norwegian press