Mexican Poet Faces Criminal Trial for Insulting the National Flag

In what some consider to be a grave setback to freedom of expression in Mexico, the poet Sergio Witz Rodriguez has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court of Mexico, and will now face criminal charges for violating Article 191 of the Federal Criminal Code, which forbids “insult” to national symbols. He published a poem called La Patria entre Mierda (The Country in Excrement). Read more here (in Spanish). PEN and International PEN have taken up his cause. Read more here.