Heroic Ethiopian Journalist Eskinder Nega, Turkish Publisher Ragip Zarakolu Honored in New York

Noting that “prison has been Eskinder’s home away
from home for the past two decades,” she told the audience, “If Eskinder were standing here, he would accept this award not
just as a personal honor, but on behalf of all Ethiopian journalists who toil
under withering repression in Ethiopia today, those forced into exile over the
years, those in prison with him now, and even those who serve in state media
for no other reason than making a living.”

Master of Ceremonies Charlayne Hunter-Gault praised the awardees for “embodying the core values
of PEN,” an organization that is celebrating its 90th year of programming in
defense of freedom of expression and an open exchange of literature and ideas
around the world. Hunter-Gault called it “a
disturbing sign of the times” that both of them “stand accused of terrorism for
their courageous, and peaceful, advocacy for freedom of expression.”

Eskinder Nega has been
publishing articles critical of the government since 1993, when he opened his
first newspaper, Ethiopis, which was soon shut
down by authorities. He was the general manager of Serkalem
Publishing House, which published the newspapers Asqual,
Satenaw, and Menelik,
all of which are now banned in Ethiopia. He has also been a columnist for the
monthly magazine Change and for the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which are also banned. He has been
detained at least seven times under Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi, including in 2005, when he and his journalist
wife Serkalem Fasil were
imprisoned for 17 months on treason charges for their critical reporting on the
government’s violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections. Their
newspapers have been shut down and Nega has been
denied a license to practice journalism since 2005, yet he has continued to
publish columns critical of the government’s human rights record and calling
for an end to political repression and corruption.

Nega was again arrested on September 14, 2011, after
he published a column questioning the government’s claim that a number of
journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticizing the
arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe
Eshetu on terror charges earlier that week. Shortly
after his arrest, Nega was charged with affiliation
with the banned political party Ginbot 7, which the
Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization. On November 10, Nega was charged and further accused of plotting with and
receiving weapons and explosives from neighboring Eritrea to carry out
terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. State television portrayed Nega
and other political prisoners as “spies for foreign forces.” He is currently
being held in Qaliti Prison, and his trial is
ongoing.

In a moving tribute film introducing Nega, PEN
President Peter Godwin and journalist Jason McLure
called Eskinder’s prosecution “a cautionary tale”
about the use and spread of antiterrorism laws to prosecute terrorists. “His
case really highlights the way that terrorism has come to be used as a catchall
for a way to go after your political opponents or people who are critical of
you,” McLure said.

PEN has for years been tracking the misuse of anti-terror and national security
laws in Turkey to limit dissent—and publisher Ragip Zarakolu is one of those who has frequently been jailed for
allegedly supporting terrorism, most recently in October 2011 in a round-up of
human rights activists who have been charged with “aiding and abetting an
illegal organization.” After more than five months in a high security prison,
he was released on April 10, 2012, pending trial, and faces up to 15 years in
prison.

Since founding the Belge Publishing House in 1977
with his late wife Ayse Nur,
Zarakolu has defied Turkey’s censorship laws by
translating and publishing Turkish editions of works by Armenian, Greek,
Kurdish and other writers, dealing with such forbidden subjects as the Armenian
genocide and the repression of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. Among the titles
published by Belge is the Turkish edition of Black
Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past by American poet
and academic Peter Balakian, who presented the award
at the ceremony.

“His life’s work is an emanation of who he is,” Balakian
told the audience. “He is humble about his work, but he is confident about what
his work is and means.”

“And yet,” he continued, “He has been rewarded by his government with endless
trials, harassment, persecution, and several imprisonments; and his publishing
company was bombed and destroyed. Through all of this, Ragip
has proceeded with calm, with patience, with perseverance, with grace and
dignity, with great courage, and with a love of what he does. He has said, ‘I
am not an activist, I’m a publisher.’”

In introducing the evening, Godwin pointed to PEN’s 90th anniversary, but noted
that, “With the exception of a few modest celebrations, we are spending this
year doing what we always do: working to protect the freedom to write, and the
freedom to read what others are writing, anywhere on earth. In today’s
interconnected world, more than ever, silencing of a writer anywhere abridges the
right of people everywhere to hear their voices.”

Author Barbara Goldsmith picked up the theme at the close of the evening,
telling the evening’s honorees, “We will not desert you. We will never desert
you. We will not desert you or any of your compatriots who are fighting for
freedom of expression.”