NewsRobert L. Bernstein, Publisher and Champion of Dissent, Dies at 96 June 4, 2019 Source: New York Times / www.nytimes.com / By Robert D. McFadden / Robert L. Bernstein, who built Random House into an international publishing giant and championed political dissent, freedom of expression and relief for oppressed peoples as the founder of Human Rights Watch, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was …
NewsIconic Thai rappers get human rights award May 31, 2019 Source: The Nation / www.nationmultimedia.com / ANTI-JUNTA rapper group Rap Against Dictatorship (RAD) has won this year’s Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, awarded by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, the band has announced on its website. The prize recognises those “who engage in creative dissent, exhibiting courage and …
NewsA Place for the Liu Xiaobo Bust April 18, 2019 Source: China Change / www.chinachange.org / By Yaxue Cao / In August 1988, two months after receiving his PhD in literature from the Beijing Normal University, Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) left the Chinese capital for a series of academic visits across Europe and the United States. The first place he went …
NewsCharles University: Where you can get a degree in Václav Havel April 18, 2019 Source: Expats.cz / www. expats.cz / By Katrina Modra / Prague continues to improve its position in the annual QS Best Student Cities ranking, climbing 13 places in 2018; it is also regularly named as one of the most budget-friendly cities for students and the best international study destination for, among …
EventsLiu Xiaobo lives! Prague event invitation April 9, 2019 Amnesty International, Art for Amnesty, Humanitarian China and DOX, with the support of the Vaclav Havel Library and Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, invite you to a very special event to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in China. The highlight of the event will be the unveiling …
NewsVaclav Havel Human Rights Prize-winning Turkish judge sentenced to 10 years January 26, 2019 Source: Stockholm center for freedom / http://stockholmcf.org / By SCF / Murat Aslan, president of the now-dissolved Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV), was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday on trumped-up charges of membership in a “terrorist organization” in reference to the faith-based civic Gülen movement. The Ankara …
NewsCourage Comes from Prison December 13, 2018 Source: China Change / www.chinachange.org / Liao Yiwu, December 10, 2018, International Human Rights Day, Berlin I’ve so often said that my courage and everything about me comes from prison. This is how I differ from other Chinese writers. In prison, I was tortured ‘til I could no longer bear it, …
EventsThe Plastic People of the Universe to play at Palác Akropolis December 3, 2018 Source: Prague TV / https://prague.tv / By Michaela Dehning / “It is better not to play at all than to play what the establishment demands,” once said Ivan Martin Jirous, the Czech dissident, poet and the artistic director of The Plastic People of the Universe. It would be difficult to …
News, TheaterRock ‘N’ Roll October 20, 2018 Source: Windy City Times / www.windycitymediagroup.com / By Jonathan Abarbanel / Playwright: Tom Stoppard At: The Artistic Home, 1376 W. Grand Ave., Tickets: 866-811-4111; TheArtisticHome.org; $34. Runs through: Nov. 18 This is a well-acted, intelligent production of a sprawling play with a tangle of themes and ideas intersecting symbolically if …
NewsGreta Thunberg receives top human rights honour Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award June 10, 2019 Source: The West Australia / https://thewest.com.au / By Miriam Fisher / Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement of school-children have been honoured with Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019. The 16-year-old activist achieved swift global fame last year when she skipped school to …
EventsBust of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo unveiled in Prague to mark 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre April 22, 2019 Source: South China Morning Post / www.scmp.com / By Agence France Presse / A Prague art gallery has unveiled a brass bust of the late Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. “It’s his …
EventsPrague’s DOX to commemorate Tiananmen Sq. massacre with unveiling of Liu bust April 22, 2019 Source: Radio Praha / www.radio.cz / By Ruth Fraňková / A bust of the late Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is due to be unveiled at Prague’s DOX gallery this coming Monday. The ceremony is part of an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen …
Havel Conversations, NewsVáclav Havel Library Foundation head Pavla Niklová: US students are still excited something like Havel’s story is possible January 13, 2019 Source: Radio Praha / www.radio.cz / By Ian Willoughby / The Václav Havel Library in Prague follows the US presidential library model in gathering and archiving materials relating to the late Czech dissident turned head of state. In the US, Havel’s legacy is promoted by sister organisation the Václav Havel …
NewsRussia’s Lyudmila Alekseyeva Remembered As A ‘Force Of Nature’ And ‘Giant’ Of Human Rights December 13, 2018 Source: Radio Free Europe / www.rferl.org / By RFE/RL / Human rights defenders and diplomats are praising Lyudmila Alekseyeva and her lifetime commitment to the struggle for justice in the Soviet Union and Russia as an inspirational example. Alekseyeva, a veteran defender of human rights who challenged the Soviet government …
Havel Conversations, NewsGail Papp on Václav Havel among New York’s hippies – and under house arrest in communist Czechoslovakia November 21, 2018 Source: Radio Praha / www.radio.cz / By Ian Willoughby / Taking advantage of relative liberalisation at home, the young Václav Havel visited New York in the spring of 1968 for the US premiere of his second major play, The Memorandum. It was staged by the Public Theater, which had just …