Kharkiv & Iran Turkey, Sansal & Assange: The Campaigns of PEN Berlin
Overview of ongoing and concluded campaigns
Free Boualem Sansal! [2024/25]
DLF Kultur, report by Dieter Nürnberger, March 4 2025: »Members of the writers’ association PEN Berlin demonstrated in front of the Algerian trade fair stand for the release of Boualem Sansal, the French-Algerian writer who has been on a hunger strike for almost three weeks. (…) For Daniel Kehlmann, one of the most successful novelists in the German-speaking world, solidarity is self-evident. [He] speaks of a harmless sentence with serious consequences: ›The harmless sentence was that, in his opinion, Western Sahara traditionally belongs more to Morocco than to Algeria. For such a sentence − essentially an interpretation of historical circumstances, about which one could have a discussion if one wished − he was arrested for high treason, and it took some time before it even became known that he was in prison.‹« MORE ON THE »FREE BOUALEM SANSAL« CAMPAIGN
Fundraising campaign for independent media in Turkey [2025]
Journalism is not a crime. And not for nothing.
Noone but the people of Turkey can fight the battle for press freedom, freedom of expression, democracy and the rule of law. But we can stand by their side.
This is why PEN Berlin is launching a fundraising campaign to support independent media outlets in Turkey with the support of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, the German Journalists’ Association, the German Journalists’ Union, in ver. di, the Media Association of the Free Press, Reporters Without Borders, the taz Panter Foundation and the ver.di trade.union.
MORE ON THE DONATION CAMPAIGN
Free Free Toomaj, Free Saman! [2023–25]
The rapper Saman Yasin, who comes from the Kurdish part of Iran, had been imprisoned since October 2022 for writing lyrics critical of the regime. Joachim Helfer, board member of PEN Berlin, said: »Saman Yasin is finally free, and our other Iranian honorary member Toomaj Salehi has been free since December 2024. This is probably a consequence of the critical situation in which the Islamic Republic of Iran currently finds itself. But it also shows that international solidarity and commitment to human rights can make a difference.«
MORE ON THE »FREE TOOMAJ, FREE SAMAN« CAMPAIGN
Fire Trucks for Kharkiv [2022/23]
PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel and co-initiator Liane Bednarz handed on 7 January over urgently needed supplies to our Ukrainian colleague, writer, musician, and German Peace Prize laureate Serhij Zhadan: Two IVECO fire-fighting trucks, each with a 20kVA generator, a trailer with twenty-eight 8kVA diesel generators, one 50kVA diesel generator, two 6.6kVA gasoline generators, 6x6kW construction heaters, and seven 1000-liter frost-proof drinking water tanks. Spare tires, packing material and tools were also delivered. With the second delivery on April 2023, the campaign »Fire trucks for Kharkiv« collected donations in the amount of 196,554.85 (one hundred and ninety-six thousand five hundred and fifty-four!) Euros.
MORE ON THE CAMPAIGN »FIRE TRUCKS FOR KHARKIV«
Free Julian Assange! [2022–24]
Finally – Julian Assange, the longest serving political prisoner in the Western world, is free and on his way home to Australia. PEN Berlin welcomes the release of its honorary member with great relief. While we welcome the good news and understand Assange’s decision to make this deal with the US authorities, we should not forget that 14 years of a man’s life have been stolen from him, while those responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq have never even been charged. The fact that, after all these years of overzealous prosecution, a deal had to be struck to allow the US to »save face« does not bode well for the state of press freedom in the Western world. MORE ON THE »FREE JULIAN ASSANGE« CAMPAIGN