The P.E.N. Charter

The P.E.N. Charter is based on resolutions passed at its international congresses and may be summarised as follows:

P.E.N. affirms that:

1. Literature, national though it be in origin, knows no frontiers, andshould 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 infavour 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 thoughtwithin 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 organised 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 falsehoods and distortion of facts for political and personal ends.