Banned Books Week
Updates
Recent Focus Cases
Jamphel Jangchub,
CHINA/TIBET - released
Banned Books Week 1993–5, 2000
Accused, among other things, of distributing leaflets advocating Tibetan independence, Jamphel Jangchub’s 19-year sentence was reduced in 1994, reportedly because of good work in the vegetable garden of Drapchi Prison in Lhasa.
Zaw Thet Htwe,
MYANMAR - released
Banned Books Week 2004
Sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe was released in early January 2005, along with journalist/bookseller Thein Tan and journalist/poet Aung Myint, head of the information department of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon.
Bui Minh Quoc,
VIETNAM - released
Banned Books Week 2002
Former magazine editor Bui Minh Quoc, who campaigned for political and media reform, has been released from detention.
Zouheir Yahiaoui,
TUNISIA - died
Banned Books Week 2003
Internet journalist & former prisoner of conscience Zouheir Yahiaoui died of a heart attack on 13 March 2005, his family said.
Nguyen Dan Que,
VIETNAM - restricted Banned Books Week 2004
Writer and medical doctor Nguyen Dan Que, who had spent 20 of the last 26 years in prison for criticizing the government’s human rights record, was released in an amnesty announced in late January 2005, but remains (as of June) under surveillance, with restrictions on his movements outside his home and on telephone and Internet communication.
Ali Lmrabet,
MOROCCO - banned
Banned Books Week 2003
After Ali Lmrabet was released January 2004, he has been working for the Spanish daily El Mundo while waiting for final permission to open a new weekly newspaper in Morocco. But after he wrote an article in El Mundo on Polisario Front prisoners of war in November 2004, authorities undertook to discredit him in the Moroccan media, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Sumi Khan,
BANGLADESH - threatened
Banned Books Week 2004
The lives of Shaptahik 2000 magazine writer Sumi Khan and two other Chittagong journalists are in danger. Death threats have been sent to their offices, purportedly by local Islamist groups on whose activities they have reported. The letter to Sumi Khan told her to retract immediately all the articles that she had written on Islamist groups, and threatened grenade attacks on her home and office if she ever reported on these issues again. Sumi Khan was stabbed and seriously injured in April 2004 as she was on her way to send a report to her editor. She had written investigative articles about the alleged involvement of local
politicians and Islamist groups in attacks on members of minority communities. Before the attack she had received anonymous threatening phone calls, warning her not to “defame’’ people, and her attackers apparently yelled at her that she would be killed if she did not stop writing. At least four journalists have been killed in the past year in Bangladesh and dozens have been threatened or seriously injured in violent attacks, related directly to issues being reported. No one has been brought to justice for these threats and attacks, so many journalists and human rights defenders live in a constant state of fear.
U Sein Hla Oo,
MYANMAR - released
Banned Books Week 2000 & 2002
A mass release of prisoners in Myanmar on 6 July 2005 included U Sein Hla Oo, a former news editor, film critic, and NLD Member of Parliament-elect, who had been in Myitkyina Prison following his 1994 re-arrest for communicating “fabricated news” to foreign journalists & diplomats and distributing political materials. He had been sentenced to 7 years and was required to finish an earlier sentence also.
1990–2004 CASES-prisoners released:
Jack Mapanje, poet in Malawi
Nguyen Chi Thien, Vietnamese poet
Miriam Firouz, Iranian writer
Nguyen Khac Chinh, novelist & poet, Vietnam
Wang Xizhe, Chinese writer & editor
María Elena Cruz Varela, poet in Cuba
Duong Thu Huong, Vietnamese writer/dramatist
6 Indian theater artists in the United Arab Emirates
Münir Ceylan, Turkish union spokesman
Nguon Non, editor of Khmer newspaper, Cambodia
Zikrayat Mahmud Harb, newspaper editor in Kuwait
Tri Agus Susanto, Indonesian student magazine worker
Wei Jingsheng, Chinese writer & democracy advocate
Christine Anyanwu, news magazine editor in Nigeria
Kim Ha-ki, South Korean novelist
Thich Quang Do, scholar/monk, Vietnam
Usama Suhail ’Abdallah Hussain, journalist in Kuwait
Drs Adnan Beuransyah, Indonesian journalist
Ma Thida, physician/writer in Myanmar
Gao Yu, economics editor in China
Ragip Duran, Turkish journalist
Zhang Jingsheng, Chinese songwriter, activist
Mohamed Nasheed, journalist in the Maldives
Freddy Loseke, DRC newspaper editor
Faraj Birqdar, Syrian poet
Esber Yagmurdereli, Turkish playwright
Daw San San Nwe, activist/writer in Myanmar
Mirtha Bueno, student in Peru
Lucien Messan, Togo journalist
José Gallardo, general & critic, Mexico
Hassan Bility, Liberian journalist
Ibtisam al-Dakhil, jounalist in Kuwait
Zouheir Yahiaoui, Tunisian website operator
Ali Lmrabet, newspaper editor in Morocco
Le Chi Quang, Vietnamese writer
Zaw Thet Htwe, Myanmar sportswriter
Bui Minh Quoc, journalist & poet in Vietnam
Ko Khun Sai, activist/writer in Myanmar
Jamphel Jangchub, Tibetan leafleter
Nguyen Dan Que, Vietnamese writer
Sein Hla Oo, news editor & film critic in Myanmar
Ilker Demir, after the first year of AI Banned Books Week observance:
“I would like to thank all Amnesty members who worked on my behalf. I will never forget what you have done for me.”
Ilker Demir, Turkish journalist*
