"Any time a country imprisons its creative people, you know that's a country that's got to change," Albee, 81, said in an interview before the New York demonstration. The rally was organized by the PEN American Center, an international human- rights group that defends writers around the world. Anthony Appiah, the center's president and a Princeton University philosophy professor, expressed outrage at Liu's sentence and said the group would lobby for his release.

"We are proud to stand here in solidarity with our fellow writer and with his family," Appiah said as snow swirled around the steps of the library. Liu, 54, had been held in secret for more than a year before a two-hour trial on Dec. 23. An 11-page verdict was delivered on Christmas.

In addition to the prison sentence, Liu was banned from all political activity for two years. The former literature professor has published essays critical of the Chinese government, particularly its human-rights abuses and crackdown on dissent in foreign journals and on the Internet.

Jones has now revealed on her blog that despite attempts to find a new UK distributor for The Jewel of Medina, "everyone, it seems, is too afraid". "Although the extremists lost in court, they have apparently won where it really counts – in the UK's book stores," she wrote. "The 'thugs' have accomplished their task — and freedom of speech, the first freedom to go when fascism gets a foothold, has taken a blow in the western world."

She called on "the people of Great Britain" to "speak out against those who are limiting their right to read, think, speak, listen, debate, discuss, criticise". "I hope the people of the UK can find the power, and the courage, to raise an outcry against censorship," she said. "Now it's time for the rest of us, including moderate Muslims and the press, who cherish our culture and our freedom, to raise a cry louder than that of radicals, so we don't lose that most precious, and crucial, of freedoms."

Geraldine Bedell, a journalist for the Observer newspaper and the author of several previous novels, said organizers had been discussing launching her book "The Gulf Between Us," which is set in the Gulf, at the festival. But she claims festival director Isobel Abulhoul later wrote to her publishers, saying: "I don't want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book." "The Gulf Between Us" is scheduled to be published by Penguin in April.

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Bedell said Abulhoul wrote to Penguin toward the end of last year to say the book was not acceptable because one of her characters, Sheikh Rashid, is gay. The author also said festival organizers complained that "it talks about Islam and queries what is said." Bedell, who lived in Bahrain for five years in the 1980s, said Sheikh Rashid "is only spoken about" and "assumed to be gay." "Of course it does make reference to Islam because it's a Muslim country and part of it is set during Ramadan," she added. "But the narrator - a middle-aged Englishwoman - is incredibly respectful to Islam."

Another criticism from the organizers, according to Bedell, was that "it is set in the Gulf and focuses on the Iraq war." But she said the book's action was set in the months leading up to the Iraq war. "They (festival organizers) were talking to Penguin about the possibility of launching my book there because my book is set in the Gulf and there are few books in English set in the Gulf," she told The Associated Press.

Ibrahim Nasrallah, whose writing has run into frequent difficulties with the Jordanian censors, is shortlisted for the international prize for Arabic fiction for his novel Time of White Horses, which charts the history of three generations of a Palestinian family in a small village, from Ottoman rule to the modern era.

The shortlist of six books for the $60,000 (£40,000) prize cover a topical range of subjects, from Iraqi writer Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter, about an American-Iraqi woman who returns to Iraq as an interpreter for the US army, to Egyptian novelist Mohammad Al-Bisatie's Hunger, an account of day-to-day life close to starvation, and Tunisian author Al-Habib Al-Salmi's The Scents of Marie-Claire, which centres on the relationship between an Arab man and a Western woman.

The line-up is completed with The Unfaithful Translator by the Syrian author Fawwaz Haddad, about a translator accused of betrayal for his dissident views, and Egyptian Yusuf Zaydan's Beelzebub, set in fifth century Egypt and dealing with the Roman Empire's adoption of Christianity.

Chair of the prize's board of trustees Jonathan Taylor said the award was intended to make a wider readership aware of Arabic literature. "There is a considerable body of contemporary Arabic fiction of a very high quality which is being written year on year, some of it by women, and this literary fiction should be available to a wider readership," he said. "The purpose of the prize is to recognise and reward high quality Arabic fiction, and to bring it to a wider audience through securing translations."

Islam Samhan's recent collection, Grace Like A Shadow, includes phrases from the Koran, viewed as sacrosanct by Muslims as the literal word of God. One of Jordan's leading religious figures, the grand mufti, has accused Mr Samhan of blaspheming against "God, the angels and Prophet Muhammad". Jordanian law bans publication of any material seen as harmful to Islam.

The head of the Jordanian writers association, Saoud Qubeilat, told the daily al-Ghad that poetry relied on figures of speech which could sound blasphemous if read superficially. He added that the arrest of Mr Samhan would stifle creativity and freedom of expression. Writers and artists have sent a petition to the government calling the arrest a "retreat in the freedom of expression", and urging an end to "oppression of freedom and intimidation practised against intellectuals".

The Bookseller reported last week that the novel's UK publication was in "suspended animation", and this week reported that author Sherry Jones' trip to Frankfurt as part of an author tour had been cancelled. A statement put out by Gibson Square Publishers said: "We respect Sherry Jones's decision. In her view the best thing to do is to postpone her visit and the publishing of the novel in Britain."

It added: "We appreciate that she will continue to make time available to any interested British groups to dispel misinformation about The Jewel of Medina. We hope that they will get in touch with us to receive further information about her hopes for her novel to foster greater understanding of Islam for Western readers. Despite the controversy of the past two weeks, Sherry Jones' intention remains as it was from the start to engage with a current debate in a positive way."

Philip Pullman has revealed he was delighted to discover his novel Northern Lights was one of the most "challenged" titles of the year in America, with numerous calls made to have it removed from libraries.

Pullman's children's novel, which is sold as The Golden Compass in the US, was the fourth most challenged book in 2007, according to the American Library Association, which received 420 formally submitted complaints to libraries or schools over "inappropriate content and subject matter" last year.

Writing for guardian.co.uk this morning, Pullman said his immediate response on hearing the latest figures from the ALA was "glee". "Firstly, I had obviously annoyed a lot of censorious people, and secondly, any ban would provoke interested readers to move from the library, where they couldn't get hold of my novel, to the bookshops, where they could," Pullman said, pointing to previous objections to the film of The Golden Compass, which he said resulted in soaring book sales.

"I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have cancelled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals," Rushdie said. "This is censorship by fear and it sets a very bad precedent indeed." The withdrawal of Jones's book has renewed the debate over self-censorship in the treatment of Islam.

Jones told the Guardian: "It's ridiculous. I must be a heck of a writer to produce a pornographic book without sex scenes. My book is as realistic a portrayal as I could muster of the prophet Muhammad's harem and his domestic life. Of course it has sexuality, but there is no sex." The withdrawal of the novel, reported this week by the Wall Street Journal, triggered intense debate on the web among feminists, young Muslims and academics.

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Random House said yesterday that it had been advised by a number of Islamic scholars and security experts that the novel was offensive to Muslims and that "it could incite acts of violence by a small radical segment". Jones was released from her contract to try to sell the book elsewhere.

Marketing director Vicky Capstick said: "The book started picking up attention and a lot of reviews in America, so we reminded our sales force to ring round customers to make sure they had it in stock. Charles Jenkins, who covers the Middle East, rang our customers in Egypt and discovered the censor had banned it."

The book was published in the UK last month and the hardback sells for £14.99. She said that Inside Egypt, described as "highly informed, temperate and understanding" by the New York Times, contained contentious material. "It goes into lots of detail about corruption in Egypt, repeats accusations of torture, and says the government regime is very unstable."

Bradley's previous title, Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis, was sold in the US but was not published in the UK on legal advice. "We were advised that the laws here left us open to being sued by the Saudis. However, we had a strong legal read on this book and felt confident to publish it," said Capstick.

In order to win the privilege of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics, the People's Republic of China pledged to improve its human rights record. This pledge included specific commitments to expand press freedom and protect such fundamental rights as the right to freedom of expression as it is guaranteed under international law and China's own constitution.

On December 10, 2007, PEN American Center, PEN Canada and the Independent Chinese PEN Center launched "We Are Ready for Freedom of Expression," a campaign aimed at holding China's leadership to these commitments. PEN’s campaign specifically called on the Chinese government to:

* release all writers and journalists currently imprisoned and stop detaining, harassing, and censoring writers and journalists in China;

* end Internet censorship and reform laws used to imprison writers and journalists and suppress freedom of expression; and

* abide by its pledge that "there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games."

Seven months later, we are unable to report significant improvements in any of these areas.

What we have witnessed instead has been a grinding and relentless campaign to jail or silence prominent dissident voices, including many of our colleagues from the Independent Chinese PEN Center, and new and brazen efforts to restrict or control domestic and international press. This report, issued one month before the Olympics open in Beijing, summarizes this discouraging lack of progress. It also offers glimpses of the vast, intricate nature of the suppression of human rights in China -- visits to families of targeted dissidents, interference with personal cell phones and computers, waylaying individuals on their way to meetings and banquets; niggling, widespread surveillance and dogged harassment often followed by detention, arrest, and in some cases, very long prison sentences.

"These groups within the state have always existed," said a spokesperson for Istanbul's Free Expression Initiative, Sanar Yurdatapan, "but they've never been charged before. They were protected."

The charges brought against the suspects are not yet known. The investigation is being carried out under the terms of a law restricting media coverage.

"This could be a big development," continued Yurdatapan, suggesting that because figures very high in the military establishment have been connected with such groups it remains to be seen whether the cases will be brought to trial. "We are afraid to have hope."

Rushdie responded Monday to an Associated Press query that asked if he had been urged by British authorities not to say anything because of security concerns or whether he had considered not accepting the honour. "The British authorities have not asked me to do or not do anything," Rushdie wrote in an e-mail. "I have simply chosen to remain out of this storm for the moment. And nobody is turning anything down."

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Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam. The threat forced Rushdie to live in hiding for a decade. Muslims have demonstrated against the knighthood in London, Pakistan and Iran. On Monday, top Indian Muslim clerics also criticized Rushdie and British officials. The Ulema Council of India said the decision to honour the Indian-born Rushdie reflects the anti-Islamic attitude of the British government.

"Salman Rushdie is a detested figure among Muslims. The British government has hurt Muslim feelings by honouring a person who is facing a fatwa for blasphemous writings," Maulana Abul Hasan of the Ulema council said.

Omani writers and scholars will seek their rights and more freedom, according to the chief of the newly formed Omani Scholars and Writers Association yesterday.

"We would seek support for the freedom of thinking, encourage dialogue and support the rights of young writers and scholars," Sayyid Nameer Bin Salim Al Said, Head of Omani Scholars and Writers Association (Oswa), said at the formal launch of the association under the auspices Sayyid Haitham Bin Tareq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture.

The minister said that scholars and writers will now be encouraged to contribute more to the cultural renaissance of the country. Sayyid Nameer said the idea to found the association was first mooted in the 1980s and efforts continued for years until 2000 when a law organising the activity of private associations in Oman was issued.