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Release of Cheng Lei (left) but Yang Hengjun (right) still imprisoned
We are thrilled to report that Cheng Lei has been released but we remain fearful for author Yang Hengjun who remains in detention. After more than three years in detention in China, Cheng Lei has returned to Melbourne. Cheng was arrested in 2020 and charged with ‘illegally supplying state secrets overseas’. Cheng’s family and supporters maintain her innocence.
Supporters of Yang Hengjun are calling for greater pressure on Chinese authorities to secure his freedom. He is an author and blogger and has been detained in China since 2019. China has accused Yang of being a spy which he has denied. He is also a pro-democracy activist and has posted comments on social media that have been critical of China’s government. He is apparently in poor health.
Prime Minister Albanese is expected to visit China later this year and claims that the Australian government is using all diplomatic channels to ensure Yang’s release and return to Australia.
Event: ‘Why Australian media is dangerously exposed, why it matters, and how to fix it’ with Peter Greste
Fri 3rd Nov 2023, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm AWST
City of Perth Library, Auditorium
573 Hay St, Perth WA 6000, Australia
Sign up here: https://events.humanitix.com/not-so-free-why-australian-media-is-dangerously-exposed-why-it-matters-and-how-to-fix-it
When it comes to media freedom, Australia is in bad shape. Since 9/11, the federal government has passed more 90 national security laws – more than any other country on earth. Much of it criminalises otherwise legitimate journalistic investigations, exposes journalists’ data and intimidates whistleblowers.
The situation is so serious that from 2019 to 2022, Australia slipped almost 20 places in the World Press Freedom Index.
At the same time, public confidence in journalism – never very high in the first place – is now at an all-time low as standards have continued to slide in the face of collapsing news revenues. All this, at a time when we need reliable, high-quality news and information more than ever before.
So, how do we fix those problems? Macquarie University’s Professor Peter Greste has some big ideas that could radically transform the relationship between media and the government in a way that works for us all.
Event: ‘Writing freedom: Behrouz Boochani in conversation, in person’
(Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/writing-freedom-behrouz-boochani-in-conversation-in-person-tickets-721062706967)
In acknowledgement of the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer, PEN Perth is proud to host Behrouz Boochani in person for the PEN Perth Annual Lecture 2023. He will be joined in conversation with award-winning translator, Omid Tofighian and academic, Anne Surma. Together, they will discuss defiance, resistance, displacement in relation to the act of writing freedom, asking what does it mean to bear journalistic witness? What is the power of poetics, collaboration and writing for freedom?
Behrouz Boochani is an award-winning Kurdish–Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and film maker. His memoir No Friend But the Mountains (Pan Macmillan 2018, trans. Omid Tofighian) was written during his seven years of incarceration by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island prison. The book was famously written one WhatsApp text at a time. His new book, Freedom, Only Freedom, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2022.
Omid Tofighian (left) is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate. His publications include Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues, and translation of No Friend But the Mountains and Freedom, Only Freedom.
Anne Surma (centre) is an academic, editor, and writer, with an abiding interest in refugees writing about their experiences as well as public writing about refugees. Anne will lead the conversation.
Baden Offord AO (right), PEN Perth member, is a writer, human rights scholar and activist who will MC the event.
penperth.com 