Council of the Belarusian PEN-Center decisively protests against “absurd and unmotivated” accusation, laid out in the newspaper “Literature and art”. In a statement, circulated on September 17, the PEN-center’s leadership confirms that the weekly almost imposes censorship while the materials’ fate is determined by the officials from the literature holding, set up in spring this year, reports BelaPAN.
According to the honored vice-president of PEN-center, national poet of Belarus Rygor Baradulin, the organization “has long been a hindrance to our system of power, which is building a village socialism, seeking to annihilate the association of art by any means possible”. “PEN-center has been formed as a free and independent organization of writers and journalists, who stand for their free opinion and freedom of writings,” – underscored Borodulin: “What can one expect from the state, whose anthem and coat of arms don’t reflect its historic traditions, while the top state officials don’t speak Belarusian and try to return the past?”
Famous Belarusian writer Vladimir Orlov noted that a direct reason for passing the statement was the newspaper’s publication, reading that the PEN-center, which involves a small group of writers, was set up by the anti-Slavic forces in many countries. “Let me remind once again to the newspaper’s personnel that the PEN-center was founded in order to protect the rights of journalists, writers and the freedom of speech, uniting such distinguished writers as Vasil Bykov, Rygor Baradulin, Gennady Buravkin, Sergei Zakonnikov and Svetlana Aleksievich. PEN-center’s foreign members are Nobel laureate Cheslav Milos and Czech president Vatslav Gavel. None of the afore-mentioned persons, if my memory doesn’t fail me, has ever been guilty of anti-Slavic agitation,” – said Orlov.
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