Imprisoned Syrian activist wins PEN Pinter prize

Mazen Darwish shares award with novelist Salman Rushdie in fight toward ‘civilized values’ of free speech, human rights

By AP 10 October 2014, 2:24 am

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Lucie Morillon, head of research at French watchdog Reporters without Borders, holds a banner depicting Syrian human rights activist Mazen Darwish during a protest against violence in Syria, in Paris, Saturday, October 20, 2012. (photo credit: AP/Francois Mori)

An imprisoned Syrian journalist and human rights activist has won a major writing award celebrating free speech.

Mazen Darwish shares the PEN Pinter Prize with India-born British novelist Salman Rushdie. The award was announced Thursday at a ceremony in London.

Darwish was the director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression when he was arrested in February 2012 along with two colleagues. The three have been charged with “publicizing terrorist acts.”

Rushdie said Darwish “courageously fought for civilized values — free expression, human rights — in one of the most dangerous places in the world.” He said he hoped the prize would bolster calls for Darwish to be released.

The award was established in 2009 in memory of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter. It goes jointly to a British writer seen as sharing Pinter’s “unflinching, unswerving” gaze on society, and an international writer who has faced persecution, chosen by the British winner and writers’ organization PEN.