Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, the PEN Emergency Fund and Oxfam Novib each year give the Oxfam Novib/PEN International Free Expression Award to writers who continue to work for freedom of expression in the face of persecution. The award is given in recognitions of writers’ significant contribution to freedom of expression around the world and as a distinctions to writers and journalists committed to free speech despite the danger to their own lives. The 2018 award winners were Eskinder Nega and Milagros Socorro. See our press release here.
2017
Ashraf Fayadh (Saudi Arabia/Palestine), poet
Malini Subramanian (India), journalist
2016
Amanuel Asrat (Eritrea), poet, writer and editor-in-chief
Can Dündar (Turkey), writer and journalist
Omar Hazek (Egypt), poet and writer
To read PEN’s announcement of the 2016 winners click here.
2015
Razan al-Maghrabi (Libya), writer and journalist
Jila Bani-Yaghoub (Iran), journalist and women’s rights activist
Bahman Ahmadi-Amouee (Iran), journalist
Abdelmoneim Rahama (Sudan), poet, writer, journalist
To read PEN’s announcement of the 2015 winners click here.
2014
Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim (Somalia), freelance journalist
Oksana Chelysheva (Russia), journalist, activist
Dina Meza (Honduras), journalist, activist
To read PEN’s announcement of the 2014 winners click here.
2013
Samar Yazbek (Syria), writer and journalist
Enoh Meyomesse (Cameroon) writer, activist
Nargess Mohammadi (Iran), journalist activist
Deo Namujimbo (Congo), journalist
Busra Ersanli (Turkey), writer, academic
To read PEN’s announcement of the 2013 winners click here.
2011
Andrei Nekrasov (Russia), film and journalist
Sakit Zahidov (Azerbaijan), journalist and poet
Nedim Şener (Turkey), journalist
J.S. Tissainayagam (Sri Lanka), journalist
2009
Chi Dang (Vietnam), writer
Maziar Bahari (Iranian-Canadian), journalist
Irakli Kakabadze (Georgia), writer
Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge (Sri Lanka), journalist
Daniel Coronell (Colombia), columnist
2008
Dejan Anastasijevic (Serbia), journalist
Pierre Roger Lambo Sanjo (Cameroon), writer
Christopher Mlalazi and Raisedon Baya (Zimbabwe), playwrights
Maung Thura and Saw Wei (Burma), poets
2007
Fatou Jaw Manneh (Gambia), journalist
Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus), writer
Lydia Cacho Ribeiro (Mexico), writer
Ekbal Baraka Ekbal (Egypt)
2006
Simon Mol (Poland), journalist
Andrei Dynko (Belarus)
Roya Toloui (Iran/Kurdistan)
Faraj Bayrakdar (Syria)
Hrant Dink (Turkey)
2005
Sihem Bensedrine (Tunisia), journalist and human rights activist
Neziha Rejiba (Turkey), journalist and editor
Sarah Mkhonza (Swaziland), novelist and columnist
Claudia Anthony (Sierra Leone), journalist and editor
Duong Thu Huong (Vietnam), novelist