Add your name to PEN SA’s call for the release of Dr Stella Nyanzi
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Please fill in the online form here if you would like PEN South Africa to add your name to their appeal to the Ugandan President to release Dr Stella Nyanzi.
SA PEN STATEMENT ON THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF DR STELLA NYANZI
PEN South Africa, an affiliate of PEN International, an organisation representing writers, editors and translators who have pledged themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression or censorship and to uphold freedom of the press, is greatly concerned by the arrest and imprisonment of Dr Stella Nyanzi, a celebrated and respected Ugandan activist, feminist, writer and academic.
On April 10th 2017, Dr Nyanzi was charged with ‘cyber-harassment’ and she was subsequently arrested and imprisoned by the Uganda government for criticising President Museveni and his wife, Janet Museveni.
We, at South Africa Pen, are greatly concerned by Dr Nyanzi’s arrest, by her on-going imprisonment, by the nature of her detention (there have been reports that she has been forbidden any books but the Bible), and that the press were not allowed to attend her court hearing. Alone, these actions signal a distressing violation of freedom of speech, together they promise an unacceptable precedent for future punishments.
South Africa Pen joins the growing chorus of voices within Uganda and throughout the world in calling for the charges against Dr Nyanzi to be dropped and for her immediate release.
We write this letter on the 27th of April 2017, South Africa’s Freedom Day. It is a day on which we reflect not just on the freedoms and challenges we face today as a nation, but also on the tremendous role that other African countries, like Uganda, played in our liberation. Our call for Dr Nyanzi’s release is therefore not one made in isolation, but rather with the understanding that our nations’ histories are intertwined, that our present (and future) continental freedoms are inter-connected, and that solidarity around freedom of speech is essential.
Yours Sincerely
Margie Orford
President PEN South Africa
Please fill in the online form here if you would like PEN South Africa to add your name to their appeal to the Ugandan President to release Dr Stella Nyanzi.
Categories International Non-fiction
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