Czech Centre of the International PEN

 is part of the worldwide association of PEN clubs. Their number varies; at present there are some 145 centres in 104 countries linking altogether around 20 thousand people capable of wielding the pen, namely playwrights, poets, essayists, novelists, i.e. the professions which originally gave rise to the English acronym P.E.N. As stated by its Charter, the aim of the International PEN ever since its origins in Great Britain - where it was founded in 1921 by its initiator, Mrs C. A. Dawson-Scott and John Galsworthy who became its first President - has been to impartially defend freedom of expression and thought, and foster man's free life. Expressed in this way, the aim may seem quite idealistic, yet the essential notions on which it is based, i.e. cultural cooperation, national toleration, refusal and resistance on the part of the intellectuals against violence and brute force, remain as actual as ever. Annual congresses held in differing cities around the globe provide a forum for the International PEN to assess its activities over the previous year. Every three years it elects its President and Presidium. At the 2003 Congress held in Norway it brought to its front the eminent Czech writer Jiří Gruša who - in order to take up the distinguished post - prematurely terminated his mission as Czech ambassador to Vienna. The 2006 Congress at Berlin elected Gruša President for a second time.

The Czech PEN was founded in 1925 by the well-known journalist, novelist and playwright Karel Čapek who was elected its first President. Čapek who retained the post for 12 years, died in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II which started a half-century of suppression, for during the Nazi occupation of the country the PEN activities were limited to those by the exile London-based Czechoslovak PEN. Subsequently the long years of Communist rule - with the exception of the latter half of the 1960's - forced the PEN into dormancy which ended only in August 1989 with protests against the imprisonment of writers and journalists in Czechoslovakia and other Soviet-bloc countries. Following the so-called Velvet Revolution, initiated by student protest on 17 November 1989, the Czech PEN centre became fully effective again.

It currently has 188 members. Its Presidium is composed of 12 major Czech authors with Jiří Dědeček as President. There are several committees, the most notable being the Writers in Prison Committee. Headed by Czech PEN Vice-President Markéta Hejkalová, it is active in drawing attention of the media and general public to suppressed writers, and wages campaigns for their release.

It was under the auspices of the President of the Republic (and Honorary Czech PEN President) Václav Havel that in 1994 the Czech PEN hosted the 61^st World PEN Congress convened in Prague which had been also the venue of the 16^th World Congress that became a voice of support of a democratic Czechoslovakia endangered by Nazi Germany.

To pay homage to its founder and eloquent opponent of totalitarianism, the Czech PEN awards biannual Karel Čapek Prizes. They are given for outstanding literary achievements and take into account the nominees' well-marked and articulate contribution to foster and to defend democracy and humanity in society.

According to a special provision in the statutes, the first recipients were Günter Grass and Philip Roth who received the Prize at the occasion of the 61^st World PEN Congress in Prague. They were then followed by Arnošt Lustig (1996), Jiří Kratochvíl (1998), Josef Topol (2000), Ludvík Vaculík (2002), Ladislav Smoček (2004), Jiří Stránský (2006) and most recently, Václav Havel (2008). The Karel Čapek Prize is awarded by an independent jury of seven experts nominated by the Presidium.

The Presidium itself gives PEN Club Lifetime Achievement Prize. So far, its laureates have been Adolf Branald (1996), Jan Vladislav (1998), and Jiří Krupička (2000).

Associated with the Czech PEN is the PEN Club Friends' Society, a civic association which organises authors' readings (held every odd Thursday at the PEN premises), exhibitions, regular spring and autumn literary festivals, as well as discussions with writers in schools, clubs and civic facilities.

Recently, the Society has established close cooperation with the Slovak PEN Centre to further the mutual relations and friendship of Czechs and Slovaks after the abolishment of their common state.

Quite noteworthy are also presentations of visiting foreign writers and their works excerpts from which are read in original and Czech translations.

The Society has 97 members, with many taking an active part in its programming.

(Translation by Šimon Pellar, 2008)

Rubrika - Czech PEN

INTERNATIONAL P.E.N. CHARTER

The P.E.N. Charter is based on resolutions passed at its International Congresses and may be summarized as follows:

P.E.N. affirms that:
1. Literature, national though it be in origin, knows no frontiers, and should remain common currency between nations in spite of political or international upheavals.
2. In all circumstances, and particularly in time of war, works of art, the patrimony of humanity at large, should be left untouched by national or political passion.
3. Members of P.E.N. should at all times use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class and national hatreds, and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world.
4. P.E.N. stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world wherever this is possible. P.E.N. declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of peace. It believes that the necessary advance of the world towards a more highly organized political and economic order renders a free criticism of governments, administrations and institutions imperative. And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts for political and personal ends.

Membership of P.E.N. is open to all qualified writers, editors and translators who subscribe to these aims, without regard to nationality, language, race, colour or religion.

Rubrika - Czech PEN