The mythical representation of the Che Guevara icon has been undoubtedly useful propaganda for the Cuban government, but, argues Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, the most surprising, unexpected blow to the myth is capitalism’s appropriation of his image as a kind of trademark.
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The week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature. Featured this week: Banned Books Week, PEN International passes resolution on Tibet, Chile investigates Pablo Neruda’s death, and jailed Pussy Riot member on hunger strike.
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Tarik Günersel discusses the significance of Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta’s appearance at this year’s PEN International Congress, held in Iceland September 9-12, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Chile, September 11, 1973.
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In the wake of a recent wave of arrests aimed to smother free speech in China, Tienchi Martin-Liao examines the laws most frequently used to charge dissidents and influential social media voices, and how they’ve been modified to include new offenses.
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Fiction and reality blur on a crumbling internet. “S was lost in his fury. He realized that his old friends, with whom he had shared revolutionary ambitions and hopes in these online communities, had passed into exile, outside the realm of Java, Twitter, and Facebook.”
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Egyptian writer and columnist Hamdy El-Gazzar talks about writing a novel, specifically his novel Secret Pleasures, as a way to discus what is “happening and happened in Egypt since the Kefaya movement appeared in 2004.”
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The week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature. Featured this week: imprisoned Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja releases audio message, and German-Iraqi Abbas Khider wins Literature in Exile Prize.
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