The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. Read our statement:

Comics friends! Please look at what @trungles.com and a bunch of other comics people are doing and join in! #IceOutComics

ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings

"When they finished work, they weren't going to a home. They were going to a shelter." "[A]ctively written out of the story we as a nation have told ourselves about who becomes homeless, and why." "[P]eople are not falling into homelessness; they're being pushed." #Georgia #USA #Housing #Labour

Palestine Action-linked hunger striker Qesser Zuhrah taken to hospital

Culture might seem a less consequential right than due process or free assembly. Its infringement by the US government makes less spectacular news than police action or protests. In this way, the repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported.

"There was a big, plastic sculpture on the wall, which read, in Mandarin: 'If you don’t occupy the ideological battlefield, someone else will.'" Read Mongolian journalist Soyonbo Borjgin’s memoir of re-education. www.equator.org/articles/the...

For those of you not familiar, Alaa was an Egyptian political prisoner for much of his adult life. He was deprived of time with his son, his siblings, and his mom who went on hunger strike and nearly died trying to free him just in the last month. He was just released via a presidential pardon.

If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support: • 404 Media • Defector • The Flytrap • Flaming Hydra • The Appeal • Aftermath • Racket • Hell Gate • The 51st • The Colorado Sun • Range Media • Discourse Blog • Pop Heist

I can't begin to describe to you the suffering my family in Gaza is going through right now and I am a writer. Words fail me completely, there's no description. I just gasp and hope that you don't forget my words. Keep thinking of this post even when you forget us.

"Most countries facing pressure to take American detainees are African. In June, the US Supreme Court authorized the expulsion of eight detainees, who had endured months inside a shipping container in Djibouti, to South Sudan." africasacountry.com/2025/09/colo...

Today, PEN International President Burhan Sonmez reaffirmed our association’s commitment to writers everywhere. Built on the defence of free expression, PEN International continues to stand firm against threats that silence voices around the world.

When the world loses journalists like Anas al-Sharif, we lose access to the truth in Gaza. Palestinian journalists deserve our protection, not just sympathy. We demand the international community act. CPJ MENA Regional Director Sara Qudah’s op-ed in @thenewarab.bsky.social⤵️ tinyurl.com/2s47sfp2

Dana Awartani, a Palestinian-Saudi artist, records sites of destruction by mapping them onto translucent fabric, tearing holes that correspond to damaged places before carefully stitching them back together. The result is a web of half-concealed cartography, a meticulous record of violent erasure.

Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish students are directly affected, is telling, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

CPJ condemns the decision by ICE not to comply with a federal immigration judge order that granted bail to journalist Mario Guevara, who was originally arrested on First Amendment-related charges. Those charges were dropped on June 25. CPJ calls for Guevara’s immediate release. cpj.org?p=494636

Azerbaijani prosecutor demanded 16 years of prison to doctoral student and peace activist Bahruz Samadov. Azerbaijani state is destroying the life of all those who dare to think and act freely: oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...

JUST IN: US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil reut.rs/3HJxscO

Amir Hussain considers prison literature and the state-led suppression of language.

"Without these endowments, what holes will be torn in the fabric of American culture?" @thefrontlist.org considers the impact of Trump's coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...

Imagining a "Wikipedia Liberty Index," Ryan McGrady says real or threatened censorship of Wikipedia is a lagging indicator of a state's attitudes towards free press, free speech, academic freedom, and free expression in general, and a real-time indicator of active efforts at suppression.

For most of our existence, WWB has received funding from the NEA. Now, like many others, we must chart a path forward without it. But our readers still deserve access to dazzling global writing. Please donate or share our work to support our mission of bringing the world close through literature.

Badar’s fellowship is partially subsidized by the Scholars at Risk program, which works with U.S. universities to host international scholars facing threats in their countries. He never imagined that a country with a Scholars at Risk program would one day pose a risk to scholars. A powerful essay ⤵️

“We will not be lost forever.” In her poem Death or Life, Inside or Outside the Maze, Ma Thida reflects on repression and resilience in Myanmar. Her words, written during unrest and revisited after the earthquake, are a call for hope. PEN International stands with all those affected.

"People that have not been exposed to as much diversity as others can learn a lot from reading these books....I hope we don’t have to keep fighting book bans. I hope it can be an awesome book club, where people get to learn about other people’s lives." -Student in DAYLO club #TLSky #FReadom

Ruth Marcus, an award-winning political columnist and longtime editor at The Washington Post, has resigned after her opinion piece criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos was killed.

We are deeply concerned for Alaa’s health after he began a hunger strike, just days after his mother, Dr. Laila Soueif, reluctantly agreed to deescalate from a full hunger strike to 300 liquid calories per day, following hospitalization and pleas from her daughters. (1/2)

Bubi is the language of the indigenous population of the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. The Ëvóvë/Ëbóbë Association organizes activities to strengthen this endangered language, but in 2025 they were banned. Listen to this poetry reading in Bubi from @pen-tlrc.bsky.social poetry marathon:

#Türkiye: We strongly condemn the arrests of Kurdish PEN members Mevlüt Aykoç, Sami Tan and Ronayi Önen – ostensibly for publishing teaching material in Kurdish – and urge their immediate release: www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/kurt-yazarla...