Joint PEN-NUJ Schools Project on Freedom of Expression

The main aims of this joint project between Scottish PEN and the NUJ are: to raise awareness of human rights issues relating to freedom of expression and the right to dissent; to contribute to education for citizenship; to raise awareness about the role of the writer in society; and to provide opportunities for self-expression and for improving writing and research skills.

After planning for nearly a year, PENpower has now got underway with workshops being successfully run at Balfron High School (led by Robin Lloyd-Jones) and at St. Roch’s in Glasgow (led by Jean Rafferty) in November and December. A further three or four workshops will take place in the New Year.

Materials for workshops have been gathered and written by Robin on the topics of The Power of the Written Word, Censorship, and Writers in Exile. More workshop topics are planned for later. The workshops also make use of two case studies – Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria) and one of Scottish PEN’s current cases, Ragip Zarakolu (Turkey).The main problem has been lack of funding to do this on anything but a very limited scale. Despite many encouraging comments, we have had little success. Any suggestions about potential sources of funding for this project would be welcome. Recently, Robin has developed a board game which illustrates the problems writers have under an oppressive regime (Zoravia) and the help which organizations like PEN can give them.

Our main problem has been lack of funding to do this on anything but a very limited scale. Tessa, in particular, has made great efforts to raise funds and has succeeded in obtaining ₤500 from the Russell Trust and also an allocation from the Scottish Book Trust for ten sessions in schools up to the end of November 2006 (part of the Live Literature scheme), with the possibility of a further allocation after this (covering speaker fees and expenses). Jean Rafferty is also working hard on a multi-page Young People’s Fund Scotland application (a branch of the Big Lottery funding). To assist this application, Drew Campbell and Robin (assisted by Eddie Smith as editor) are making a short DVD about the Penpower project, based on the excellent work done by the teachers and pupils at Balfron High School.

This year, for the first time ever, Scottish PEN  contributed to the Schools’ Programme in the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Jean and Robin ran two separate Penpower workshops.

The Writers in Prison Conference in Istanbul in March, was the first time that Education was on the conference agenda. It was clear that, thanks to the experience of the Penpower project, Scottish PEN is amongst the leaders in this field.’

Robin Lloyd-Jones