Turkey and Twitter
Major authors have joined a PEN International appeal to end the Turkish government's attempts to block access to Twitter. A letter from Zadie Smith, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk (pictured), Salman Rushdie and other writers says Turkey's social media ban is an 'unacceptable violation of the right to freedom of speech'.
Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Read more on the Guardian website.
Defending democracy
On International Human Rights Day 562 authors, including 5 Nobel Prize laureates, from over 80 countries joined together to launch an appeal in defense of civil liberties against surveillance by corporations and governments. The statement can be read on the change.org petition page set up by Writers Against Mass Surveillance.