PEN Points: “Horrifying” conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

PEN Points: A Weekly Focus on Free Expression

Candles are lit at dawn at a memorial site in the town square for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

“Horrifying” conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

By now it’s as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: A mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about the carnage soon follow. It happened after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after the Orlando nightclub shooting and after the deadly rampage earlier this month at a Buffalo grocery store. Within hours of Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, another rash began as internet users spread baseless claims about the man named as the gunman and his possible motives. Unfounded claims that the gunman was an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally, or transgender, quickly emerged on Twitter, Reddit and other social media platforms. They were accompanied by familiar conspiracy theories suggesting the entire shooting was somehow staged.

U.S. Free Expression Stories

Students nationwide walk out of classes to protest inaction on guns by government
Outraged by the inaction of lawmakers on gun violence, students across the country held walkouts on Thursday in the wake of a brutal massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were gunned down at an elementary school.
THE HILL

Some teachers feel silenced on racist mass shooting in Buffalo
Educators who live in states where laws limit how they can discuss race, “divisive concepts” or current events took to social media this week to say they did not mention the racist attack in class for fear they would be penalized. It’s part of the latest wave of controversy over what parents, lawmakers and teachers say students should be exposed to when it comes to current events and the societal context surrounding them.
THE 19TH

Burn-proof edition of The Handmaid’s Tale up for auction
On Monday night, timed for PEN America’s annual gala, Atwood and Penguin Random House announced that a one-off, unburnable edition of The Handmaid’s Tale would be auctioned through Sotheby’s New York. They launched the initiative with a brief video that shows Atwood attempting in vain to incinerate her classic novel about a totalitarian patriarchy, the Republic of Gilead. Proceeds will be donated to PEN, which advocates for free expression around the world.
AP

The Latest from PEN America

PEN America and PEN International: Grave Concern Over the Lack of Due Process Protections in Arbitrary Trials of Cuban Artist Set for May 30-31

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel “El Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, artists and members of the San Isidro Movement, will stand trial on May 30 and 31 in the Municipal Court of Marianao, Havana. PEN International and PEN America condemn the unsubstantiated charges brought against the artists, the forthcoming arbitrary trial, and demand their immediate acquittal and release. See the full statement.

Firing of Princeton University Professor Raises Questions Over Free Expression and Due Process

PEN America responded to the decision by Princeton University to fire classics Professor Joshua Katz with a statement from CEO Suzanne Nossel: “Princeton University’s decision to fire classics professor Joshua Katz, in the aftermath of Katz’s controversial but protected speech in an op-ed, raises serious questions about free expression and due process on Princeton’s campus.” See the full statement.

Virginia Case Seeking Restraining Order on Two Books is a "Worrying Escalation" in Spreading Censorship

Tim Anderson, an attorney and a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, announced plans on Facebook to seek a restraining order to stop Barnes & Noble from selling two books to minors, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas. “This lawsuit is a worrying escalation in the effort to censor and restrict access to literature that PEN America has been tracking for the last year,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America. See the full statement.

Global Free Expression Stories

"They were shooting directly at the journalists": New evidence suggests Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces
An investigation by CNN offers new evidence—including two videos of the scene of the shooting—that there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Shireen Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death. Videos obtained by CNN, corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analyst and an explosive weapons expert, suggest that Abu Akleh was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces. See our statement.
CNN

Taliban ordered female newscasters to cover up. Men joined in protest.
The Taliban has ordered all female newscasters to cover their faces while on air, as part of broader rules requiring all women in Afghanistan to cover head to toe. It’s dangerous for women to refuse to comply. So some male colleagues have donned face coverings in protest.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Hong Kong considers blocking Telegram, local paper says
Hong Kong authorities are deliberating whether to curtail public access to the messaging service Telegram, the Sing Tao Daily reported, potentially reviving fears the former British colony is moving closer toward Beijing-style internet controls.
BLOOMBERG

Spotlight: Vladyslav Yesypenko

2022 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree Vladyslav Yesypenko is a Ukrainian journalist whose work covers social issues affecting residents of Crimea and the profound impacts of Russian occupation on the lives of Crimean Tatars. He was detained in Russian-occupied Crimea in March 2021 and has been targeted by a methodical campaign to silence and crush a free press and open expression. After being tortured and forced to confess to baseless, politically motivated charges of espionage and weapons manufacturing, Yesypenko was sentenced to six years in a Russian labor colony.

On November 15, 2021, PEN America highlighted the injustice of his detention at an Empty Chair Day action, also known as the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. In honoring Vladyslav Yesypenko with the 2022 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, PEN America recognizes his courage in continuing to tell the stories of Ukrainians who have faced years of Russian occupation, and we seek to illuminate the dangers the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses to journalists, writers, and freedom of expression itself.

Vladyslav’s wife, Kateryna Yesypenko, accepted the award on his behalf at our 2022 Literary Gala. Below is an excerpt from her speech.

[My husband] believes in the profound importance of telling the stories of those whose lives do not ordinarily make headlines or front pages. That’s why he chose to bring to the world what it’s like to live in a village without electricity, to be a child whose playground is a decrepit field in a country at war. To him, that is the only way for the world to understand what has been happening in Crimea under Russian occupation.

My husband believes this so deeply that he is prepared to risk his life. I share his commitment, and my life’s work, as long as he is imprisoned, is to advocate for his freedom, his right to come home to us, and to carry on with his journalism.

Read the full speech.

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