INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE IMPRISONED WRITER

At a PEN talk in Melbourne I found that November 15 is ‘International Day of the Imprisoned Writer’. Why on earth do we need a day like that? We should be celebrating fun days like January 15, Strawberry Ice-cream day, January 21, Squirrel Appreciation day, or more importantly March 27, Spanish Paella day and my birthday. The World should be focused on positive things and enjoyment.

Oh, if this was only so, but the reality is that as I sit at home typing this after my nice coffee to revive my tired brain there are 100s of writers locked up in prison or treated worse still and on too many occasions, killed. Vale Jamal Khashoggi. The numbers are a bit vague as the countries that do this are not always the most open to examination and review. I don’t need to worry too much about this as I am in a safe country, Australia, that mostly treats its journalists well although there have been a few police raids lately.

PEN is an ‘Organisation of Writers’ that promotes literature and more importantly defends freedom of expression, something that should be a right for all and when it is denied it must be called out and opposed. There are many people out there with many opinions and I do disagree with a lot of them but the quote ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’ should be the foundation of modern commentary. We all need to speak up in a civilised way that will be heard by the leaders and supported by the public. One of the problems is that the general public does support this but does little to ensure that it happens.

Spend the day doing something positive so that we can pass the day in a more fun way. It’s also Spicy Guacamole Day and if that was all the day was the world would be much better.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia