No not the people in these pictures are in prison. They are part of the WIPC meeting to organize the work to defend free speech all over the world. Some will follow one or two main cases: one honorary member in China and two in Tunisia. Others will cover the former East Blok and Russia,
and some will try to stay on top of the rapid actions, the urgent cases wherever in the world. The WIPC works in the same way as Amnesty International and sometimes we join our meager forces. The meeting was in a sunlit garden, exquisite pies and other fingerf ood was served by our most gracious hosts. Besides liberating the incarcerated writers we also try to raise awareness in youngsters and the general public to issues of freedom of speech and en passant that afternoon we tried to stop the wars, bring 
peace and see to it that everybody had clean water and food so that they would be strong enough to use their right to free speech. Sometimes we feel quite powerless, but then we realize being all writers, that the pen will always be mightier than the sword... It is a small but great team.
Putting writers in prison is a somewhat backward way of solving the eternal writers dilemma:
ReplyDeleteHow can I find a peaceful place to contemplate and create my writings without having to waste any of my precious time on the plebian tasks of providing food and shelter for myself?