Turkey: Nervin Berktaş tried in connection with controversial book

November 25th, 2010

Writer Nevin Berktaş, author of the book “Difficult places that challenge the faith: Prison Cells” (published by Yediveren Yayınları in 2010), is being tried on charges of “spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation”. The case about Berktaş’s book has been pending for ten years. The book is related to the 22 years the writer spent in prison after the 1980 military coup and describes the process of resistance in prison cells. The health conditions of the writer are reportedly very bad, as a result of the hunger strikes she carried out in 1984 and 1996.

Hong Kong: the other face of China

September 10th, 2010

Freedom of expression is alive and kicking in the Special Administrative Region. Priyanka Boghani reports
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Malta bans Irvine Welsh novel

May 18th, 2010

A book by the Scottish author Irvine Welsh has been banned in Malta. The University of Malta has taken Walsh’s novel Porno off its library shelves. Malta’s censorship laws state that “obscene or pornographic” literature should not be available to the public and the country’s classification board must approve all literature. Porno, a sequel to the Walsh’s best-selling Trainspotting, features characters involved in the porn industry.