About New Zealand PEN
The NZSA is the Aotearoa New Zealand PEN Centre, and affiliated to International PEN.
Pen International works on behalf of writers everywhere whose freedoms of speech and expression are threatened.
NZSA meetings have an Empty Chair on stage, to represent writers around the world who are persecuted and/or imprisoned for exercising their rights to free speech.
November 15 is the PEN International Day of the Imprisonned Writer. We celebrate that in NZ as Courage Day.
PEN INTERNATIONAL 2026 CASE LIST
To mark World Book Day, PEN International launches Writers Under Siege: Defying Silence – PEN International Case List 2026.
Across regions, writers continue to face imprisonment, threats, censorship and forced exile. In 2025, PEN International documented 140 cases of persecution worldwide, including 32 writers imprisoned, 26 subjected to harassment, 23 facing judicial harassment, and 12 victims of enforced disappearance. Among them:
- Indian journalist and author Rana Ayyub continues to face death threats and harassment for her reporting.
- Belarusian Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski was released from prison but forced into exile.
- In El Salvador, journalist and author Óscar Enrique Martínez D’Aubuisson left the country after threats and reports of an arrest warrant linked to interviews exposing alleged government ties to gangs.
- In Eritrea, the fate of 12 writers and journalists, detained for nearly 25 years, remains unknown.
- In Algerian poet Mohamed Tadjadit has been repeatedly imprisoned for his writings and activism.
Explore the full list through the link about and learn more about the situation in the Asia-Pacific here.
World Press Freedom Day 2026
PEN International urges journalists be released on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May. In 2026 they focused on the at least 26 Ukrainian journalists held in Russian captivity. Read the full release here.
Other Important links
The NZSA Writers in Prison Committee (WiP) writes hundreds of letters each year supporting writers who have been imprisoned for expressing their views.
A Guide to Defending Writers at Risk: PEN International’s campaigning handbook.
Identity on Trial: Persecution and Resistance