There is still much work remaining to be carried out in Tunisia before the country is a true democracy.  "The president may have fled, but far too many of his previous supporters still hold central positions in the media or in the transition government and its administration.  We therefore cannot trust the government."

Tunisian journalist and human rights activist Kamel Labidi has been exiled for years, living in Egypt, USA and France.  He has also worked as an advicer for the Tunisian Monitoring Group.  Here is his recent letter from Tunisa.

Says the chair of the Tunisian Monitoring Group (TMG) and one of the editors of Index on Censorship, Rohan Jayasekera, commenting on the recent urising in Tunisia. 

On the evening of Wednesday 12th January, the 25 years old writer Maria Amelie was arrested for breaking Norwegian immigration laws.  Norwegian PEN and the Norwegian Writers Union protest this infringement on a Norwegian writer and the subsequent criminalilzation of a free, Norwegian voice.  She now risks being deported to Russia.

In his weekly collumn in the Norwegian daily "Dagsavisen" on December 11th, Norwegian PEN president Anders Heger draws parallells between the peace prize and a Turkish court case: "It is not respectful to support the power.  That is licking people´s backs.  Respect is to speak out."

PEN International´s Writers in Prison Committee will focus on five cases on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, 15th November 2010.  Since last year 39 writers, editors and bloggers have been killed, of these 29 were journalists.

At the PEN International 2010 congress in Tokyo, Eugene Schoulgins term as international secretary ended after three years.  But Schoulgin was elected vice-president and tells Norwegian PEN that he plans to follow up on some of the work he carried out as int. secretary.