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The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-14698, in the name of Ruth Maguire, on the day of the imprisoned writer 2024. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I call Jackie Dunbar to open the debate.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises 15 November 2024 as the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, a day when people across the world, including in the Cunninghame South constituency, stand in solidarity with writers who have been persecuted, exiled, imprisoned and killed for exercising their right to free expression; notes with grave concern what it sees as the growing threats to free expression in a world increasingly marked by conflict and war, where writers, it considers, are often the first targets of repression; recognises what it considers to be the alarming rise of authoritarian regimes that use censorship, imprisonment and violence to silence dissenting voices, with a particular focus on the plight of female writers, who, it understands, face compounded risks of persecution; emphasises the reported growing number of female writers who are being imprisoned for, it believes, courageously campaigning for equal rights, freedom from discrimination, and access to education and healthcare; acknowledges what it sees as the critical role that writers play in exposing the truths of war, authoritarianism and social injustice; condemns the widespread use of imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killings to intimidate and eliminate writers, as documented by organisations such as PEN International, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, ARTICLE 19, and Reporters Without Borders; notes the calls for governments worldwide to uphold their duty to protect the right to free expression for all, to ensure justice for writers who have been murdered, persecuted and imprisoned, and to address what it sees as the global climate of impunity that undermines trust in justice systems and emboldens further attacks; further notes the support for the ongoing efforts to secure protection for persecuted and imprisoned writers, and honours and commemorates those writers who have lost their lives or freedom for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
12:48
I am honoured to have been asked by Ruth Maguire to lead her members’ business debate today as she is unable to be here. The following are Ruth’s words and not mine, but I totally associate myself with them.
Freedom of expression is not just a right. It is the foundation of a fair and open society. I am grateful to colleagues across the chamber who attended the event last night and are here today, standing in solidarity with those who are punished for exercising their right to free speech. On 15 November each year, PEN International and PEN centres around the world mark the day of the imprisoned writer and stand in solidarity with at-risk and imprisoned writers around the globe. It is a moment to call for all imprisoned writers to be released and all at-risk writers to be protected.
Globally, too many writers are in prison—journalists, novelists, poets, essayists, translators, publishers, editors, playwrights, cartoonists, bloggers and social media writers. Writers are threatened, attacked or murdered for their work. The call to stand up for freedom of expression is now more desperate than ever. Too many are silenced simply for speaking out—their voices are being suppressed in an effort to control truth and limit freedom. I am sure that colleagues will agree that freedom of expression and debate is essential to a healthy democracy. However, as authoritarianism broadens its arms globally, it is vital that we call on Governments worldwide to ensure that individuals can express themselves without fear of retribution.
The Reporters Without Borders annual world press freedom index, which measures the state of press freedom in 180 countries, records that, worldwide, 578 journalists are currently detained, and 49 have been killed since January this year. That is a worrying trend of suppression and silencing across the globe.
This year, Scottish PEN is highlighting the case of Eman Alhaj Ali, a 22-year-old Gaza-based journalist, writer and translator from Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Her byline appears in many online publications, including Al Jazeera news. Eman has endured six wars, been displaced at least seven times, and lost her home, her university and countless loved ones. Even now, with her safety and that of her family at risk, Eman bravely continues to provide disturbing updates on the situation in Palestine. Her unwavering determination to continue writing and to highlight to the world the horrific scenes in Gaza serves as a reminder to us all of the importance of truth and of a free press.
Tragically, Eman’s story is not unique. There has been a significant rise in the number of female writers who are subjected to suppression, imprisonment and increased violence. Although, globally, the average proportion of writers in detention who are women is around 15 per cent, approximately a third of jailed writers in Russia and Israel are female.
We all know the effect on human lives of the on-going Israeli incursion into Palestine, but writers and journalists are becoming increasingly targeted by military forces. More than 130 journalists have been killed since the start of the conflict—and online campaigns are targeting individual journalists, making Israel one of the top 10 countries of concern for writers in 2024, alongside China, Iran and Russia. That is shameful for the lawmakers of Israel, and a stark reminder of the urgent need to safeguard freedom of expression and ensure that those who are responsible for suppression are held accountable.
Writers everywhere inform the public. They speak out for the marginalised, interrogate power, challenge censorship and speak the words that others need to hear. When they are censored, imprisoned, attacked or murdered, the world loses vital voices that strengthen democracy everywhere. On the day of the imprisoned writer, we all need to read the words that others have tried to silence, and show that censorship or imprisonment cannot silence the voices of writers.
We move to the open debate.
12:53
I thank Ruth Maguire for securing parliamentary time today for such an important topic.
Margaret Atwood said:
“A word after a word after a word is power”.
Everyone should be free to read and write, but women and girls in Afghanistan face what Human Rights Watch describes as
“the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis”.
What the Taliban is doing to women is spine-chilling. As one Afghan woman said, the Taliban
“want us to die while we’re alive.”
It really is a real-life “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
However, women will not be silenced. The 21 female writers in Afghanistan who authored “My Dear Kabul” after the capital fell showed tremendous courage. The organisation Untold Narrative supported those courageous female writers and others to share their stories beyond the walls of their home and the borders of their war-torn country. That bravery shows the power of the pen, and the importance of freedom of expression.
Since I was elected as an MSP back in 2021, freedom of speech has loomed large over the political landscape. Legislation such as the controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 has facilitated discussion and debate over the balance of rights and the important question of who decides—who actually decides.
In December 2022, I attempted to attend the screening of the documentary “Adult Human Female” at the University of Edinburgh. I was shocked at the vitriol and aggression from the protesters who succeeded in preventing the screening from taking place on multiple occasions. Freedom of speech was censored in the very environment where it should be sacrosanct.
We have seen gender-critical female writers in Scotland such as Magi Gibson and Jenny Lindsay ostracised by publishers and Scotland’s cultural community for criticising gender identity ideology. In her latest book, “Hounded”, published by Polity, Jenny Lindsay has written about the human cost of speaking out and the cultural authoritarianism that she is experiencing and has experienced in Scotland. She said:
“the harms women face for speaking out are both disproportionate and anathema to the project of social, liberal democracy.”
Jenny is right. What is happening represents a slippery slope towards censorship and repression, and it is happening in Scotland. I thank Scottish PEN for issuing a robust defence of Jenny, calling out the culture of fear that has pervaded online communities and has prevented healthy criticism and debate.
It is often writers who are unwilling to surrender to moral cowardice, but they are also the ones who bear the human cost of refusing to stay silent. That cost might involve the loss of income, credibility, professional opportunity and their peers—or, as Ruth Maguire’s motion notes, it can mean persecution, imprisonment and death. We must speak out and we must stand against what is happening, and, ahead of the day of the imprisoned writer, we must remember all those writers who have lost their freedom and who have lost their lives for speaking freely.
12:57
I thank Ruth Maguire for lodging this important motion and Jackie Dunbar for leading off today’s debate.
The motion is a call for us to show our solidarity, to be international in our outlook, to stand up for the principle of freedom of expression as a fundamental freedom and a fundamental principle, to champion the right to be able to challenge power and the distribution of that power, to challenge orthodoxy, to have the courage to do the right thing, to promote alternatives and to at least contemplate that another world is possible. So, to those Governments across the world that are persecuting and imprisoning journalists and bloggers, playwrights and poets, academics and public intellectuals, we say that, although you can imprison a human being, you can never prevent the birth of an idea; that you cannot crush the human spirit.
I am struck by some of the powerful cases on the PEN website of imprisoned writers, such as Mahvash Sabet, a poet and teacher who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in Iran, and the Kurdish journalist Nedim Türfent, who languished in a Turkish jail for six years and has said:
“I want you to know that your letters, which have rendered iron curtains meaningless and ineffective, have filled my two-step-long cell with resistance, resolve and hope.”
We think of the intimidation of journalists around the world and of the killing of journalists in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank. The International Federation of Journalists has reported that at least 130 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza alone in the past year. We know that Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah was stormed in September by Israeli troops, who confiscated equipment, disrupted live broadcasts, ordered a shutdown and boarded up the entrance.
We also recall the case of Julian Assange, who was targeted for exposing US military atrocities in Iraq in what Amnesty International described as
“nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression.”
Assange spent seven years in exile and five years in prison—not in Russia, not in Saudi Arabia, but under lock and key right here in this country.
Today, I think of the shrine in Valletta to Daphne Caruana Galizia, which I visited in 2020. The campaign for justice for Daphne continues.
Those are all reminders of why tomorrow’s day of the imprisoned writer is so important.
I will say a few words, in conclusion, about a thinker and intellectual of courage from half a century ago, Rudolf Bahro. In the mid-1970s, living in East Germany, he wrote down ideas that had been fermenting in his mind since the Prague spring of 1968. That resulted in the publication of “Die Alternative”—or “The Alternative in Eastern Europe”—in 1977 in West Germany, which led to his interrogation, arrest and imprisonment in East Germany. In the end, he served two years of an eight-year sentence in Bautzen prison, but Bahro was no typical dissident. He recognised and embraced the socialist tradition, was well schooled in Marx and wrote of the alternative to actual, existing socialism. While I cannot agree with everything that he wrote, he was challenging and stimulating, and later helped to form the German Green party before famously leaving it, claiming that we had to take a “longer run-up” to reach the post-industrial utopia that he stood for. He died in 1997 at the age of 62.
This debate is about solidarity and hope. It is about the alternative. To all writers in prison right across the world, our message from this Parliament today is that you are not forgotten. Your ideas will not be buried. Your spirit shines on. Solidarity!
13:02
I thank my colleague Ruth Maguire, whose motion brings this important issue to Parliament for debate today, and Jackie Dunbar for opening the debate. I welcome the opportunity to mark the day of the imprisoned writer, which is organised every year by the organisation PEN International. Since the day’s introduction, PEN has marked the date by calling for the release of imprisoned writers, advocating for better protection for journalists and fighting for justice for writers who have lost their liberty or their life. Across the world, writers, readers and free speech advocates are coming together to recognise those who are jailed for their work and to call for their release. Since its inception 100 years ago, PEN International has worked tirelessly to draw attention to violations of writers’ rights and to support those who have been repressed and their families. The organisation believes that there are more incarcerated writers in the world today than at any time since world war two.
Every year, countless writers are harassed, persecuted, detained, or even killed for practising their profession. Others continue to work in the face of threats, intimidation or intrusive surveillance from state authorities. In a world marred by conflict and repression, where the threat of misinformation and disinformation is rife, it is more important than ever to appreciate and value the work of writers, who make extreme personal sacrifices to preserve and report the truth.
Last month, I joined several of my colleagues, including Ruth Maguire, who secured this debate, in becoming a godparent of political prisoners in Belarus. My godchild, Zhanna Volkava, is currently serving three years in prison for charges including insulting the President. My colleagues and I signed up to the project with the shared hope that it would bring further international attention to the human rights situation and the suppression of freedom of expression in Belarus, and that it would raise awareness of and support for other political prisoners, many of whom are journalists and writers.
The Belarusian chapter of PEN International operates from a base in Poland, after it was outlawed by the Belarusian Government in 2021, and it continues to monitor and support writers in the country who have faced persecution and imprisonment. I would like to take a moment to recognise just a few of those writers by name.
Ihar Karnei is a journalist, essayist and author of texts about cultural and historical heritage in Belarus. In July last year, Ihar was arrested at home and held in a pre-trial detention centre. This March, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for working with a so-called extremist formation. That formation was the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which is widely and internationally recognised as a human rights organisation.
Katsiaryna Andreeva is a journalist and co-author of a documentary book that was banned by Belarusian authorities. In 2020, she was detained after reporting on a memorial for the artist Raman Bandarenka, who is widely believed to have been killed by security forces. While in detention in 2022, she was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment on charges of state treason, which Amnesty International has called bogus. Her husband, journalist and co-author of the banned book, Ihar Ilyash, was arrested on 22 October last year. Last week, it became known that he is currently being held in a pre-trial detention centre on unknown charges, and there are deep concerns for his safety and wellbeing.
Ihar, Katsiaryna and Ihar have been imprisoned for exercising rights that many of us take for granted: to speak our mind, to attend peaceful demonstrations, to write and publish, and to speak truth to power. PEN Belarus continues to advocate for them and their families, and for all imprisoned writers and other political prisoners in Belarus, as other PEN chapters do for others across the world.
I welcome the opportunity to commend PEN’s work, as well as the work of other organisations that call for the protection of all writers who are at risk or under threat, and to celebrate the power and the courage of the written word across the world.
13:07
I thank Ruth Maguire for her important motion and Jackie Dunbar for ensuring that the debate could take place today.
In Stockholm, in five days, the Edelstam prize for exceptional courage in the defence of human rights will be received by Betlehem Isaak, on behalf of her father, Dawit. Dawit, a novelist, playwright and journalist, has been in prison in Eritrea since 2001, without charge, without trial and without access to legal advice or to his family. He is exceptional, but his situation is not—not in Eritrea and not in the world.
PEN International believes that more writers are incarcerated now than perhaps at any time since the second world war, as Clare Haughey has already outlined. Some of their names may be familiar to us, such as Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Egypt, author of “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”, and Narges Mohammadi in Iran, who won last year’s Nobel peace prize. Others are less famous. Many are almost unknown.
Women, especially, are less likely to be recorded, less likely to have access to networks of communication and more likely to be silenced by isolation and violence. As of May this year, 91 women journalists were known to be imprisoned. Many others are threatened with the same if they continue to write and refuse to be complicit in their own silence. They are women who speak about the patriarchy, violence and the oppression of others.
Narges Mohammadi’s work “White Torture” tells of her fellow women prisoners and their years in solitary confinement. In Brazil, Schirlei Alves was sentenced to a year’s incarceration under defamation laws for reporting on a rape trial. Sophia Huang Xueqin, founder of the Chinese Me Too movement, was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison. Violence, fast and slow, oppression, apartheid and genocide are realities that cry out for expression—for humans to bear witness.
Six months ago, PEN International commemorated world press freedom day by urging safety and access for journalists in Gaza. That call has not been heeded. As of this Monday, 71 journalists were reported to have been arrested since last October in Gaza, the west bank and Jerusalem.
I wish that I had time to tell all their stories, but one must suffice for now. Rula Hassanein is a journalist and editor who lives in Bethlehem with her husband and baby daughter, Elia. Elia and her twin brother, Youssef, were born two months prematurely. Youssef died three hours later; Elia survived, but with a weak immune system.
In March this year, when Elia was solely reliant on her mother’s milk, Rula was arrested and taken to prison. After frequent postponements of hearings, the military court ordered her release in July, but the prosecution appealed, and so she remains incarcerated, with her health—she has a chronic kidney condition—growing worse. As far as we know, and as far as we can find out, she is still there.
Writers are imprisoned, writers are silenced and writers are killed, including at least 137 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the west bank, Israel and Lebanon since last October. Some were killed indiscriminately; others were deliberately chosen. As the organisation Article 19 points out,
“Journalists are civilians. Targeting them is a war crime.”
All those absences, deaths, disappearances and detentions are grief-filled losses for families, friends and communities, but they are losses, too, for us all. We need truth telling and storytelling to find our way forward. We need the work of writers calling the powerful to account and calling new worlds into being, to feed and grow our own solidarity and imagination and our own vision of a better future.
Dawit Isaak’s personal motto is, “If you have the opportunity to write, do it.” The least that we can do is take our opportunities to speak.
13:12
For the record, I should perhaps observe that I am a journalist by profession and a published author.
I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing the debate to the chamber, and I thank Jackie Dunbar and all members for their contributions. I join them in supporting the day of the imprisoned writer. It is essential that we continue to stand in solidarity with imprisoned writers around the world and add our voices to calls for freedom and justice.
Threats, surveillance, attacks, arbitrary arrest, detention and, in the gravest cases, enforced disappearance or killings are too often the cost of reporting the truth. The protection of journalists and writers should be a global priority for safeguarding freedom of expression. The right to freedom of thought and expression underpins all democracy and is founded on human rights and the rule of law. However, those rights are increasingly being challenged. Reporters Without Borders has recorded, this year alone, 577 journalists or media workers being detained or disappeared, with an additional 49 losing their lives. Of those, 117 are women, of whom 11 have been killed or have disappeared.
The United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression noted in her report, “Journalists in exile”, which was published this year:
“In recent years, political repression has become the predominant factor forcing thousands of journalists to leave their countries ... Many have fled their home country to save their lives or to escape detention and imprisonment on trumped up charges.”
Over the past year, an unprecedented number of journalists have been killed while reporting on conflicts. They have made the ultimate sacrifice in their pursuit of reporting the truth, and this day is a day to remember each and every one of them. Their stories serve as a sobering reminder of the price that far too many people pay for standing up for basic democratic values.
I am sure that we as a Parliament all agree that those who are imprisoned should be released without delay, and that the murders and forced disappearances should be investigated fully so that those who are responsible are held accountable. Scotland’s long-standing commitment to human rights and freedom of expression is crucial in our pledge to support journalists and writers worldwide in their struggle for fair, open and democratic societies.
The number of imprisoned writers that I referred to earlier reminds us that, even though freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and is central to our ability to function both as individuals and as members of society, it cannot be taken for granted.
Many journalists act as human rights defenders—for example, when they report on human rights abuses and bear witness to acts that they have seen. They face major risks as a result of their work, and many of the fellows and alumni of the Scottish human rights defender fellowship have experienced those risks for themselves.
Our two current fellows stated:
“Journalists, and human rights defenders reporting or activating campaigns on issues such as corruption, human rights abuses, and systemic injustices are routinely targeted, which has bred fear and self-censorship.”
Through the delivery of our fellowship, we will continue to provide a place of protection and safety in Scotland, creating the conditions for human rights defenders to carry out their work effectively on their return to their home country.
As we mark the day of the imprisoned writer, we must remember that journalists and writers continue to be killed, injured and imprisoned around the world, especially where there is conflict but also at the hands of brutal dictators.
The shocking murder of the courageous journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow in 2006 was an early warning of the dangers that are faced by independent-minded journalists who operate in Putin’s Russia—dangers that have manifested themselves in Chechnya, Syria, now in Ukraine and, of course, in Belarus, too.
Journalists are the eyes of the world on conflicts wherever they occur. The fact that 137 journalists and media workers have died while covering the middle east conflict since October 2023 is a stain on the international community’s conscience.
We must acknowledge our duty to stand with those who are brave enough to raise their voices; to do everything in our power to maintain freedom of expression throughout the world; and to call for justice for victims, no matter where they are.
13:16 Meeting suspended.Previous
First Minister’s Question Time