Global Advocacy
PEN America works to defend free expression around the world, with particular emphasis in countries where writers are most at risk of imprisonment, tracking with the top countries in our annual Freedom to Write Index, and where we have developed expertise and relationships with people and organizations in those countries and in the diaspora. Read below to learn about PEN America’s research, advocacy, and projects supporting the freedom to write globally and how you can take action.
Belarus
Following an illegitimate 2020 presidential election, which sparked international condemnation and widespread protests in Belarus, threats against writers, artists, and other dissenting voices have increased. Writers are commonly accused of “extremism” for their free expression. Jailed writers and political prisoners have been subject to ill-treatment, including incommunicado detention and torture. The Belarusian government has targeted writers in exile and their families, subjecting relatives to arbitrary searches, detentions, and other forms of harassment. Many writers released from prison have been forcibly deported from Belarus, pushing them into the limbo of an uncertain and indefinite exile.
China
The Chinese government is the world’s leading jailer of writers and public intellectuals. Writers, journalists, bloggers, and creative artists face censorship, harassment, imprisonment, and enforced disappearance because of their writing or creative expression. The extensive suppression of freedom of expression includes the crushing of civil and political rights in Hong Kong and attempts to erase the culture and language of Mongolians, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic minorities living in China and its autonomous regions, elevating to potential crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
Egypt
Egyptian authorities deploy a combination of surveillance, judicial harassment, smear campaigns, threats, and travel bans to silence writers, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders. Since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi seized power in 2014, authorities have tightened control over the media and cultural sectors, with independent voices silenced through vague anti-terrorism, cybercrime, and other national security laws. Egypt’s signature tactic—“rotation”—is central to this system, as detainees are charged in new cases to override release orders or acquittals, keeping critics jailed indefinitely.
Georgia
In 2021, following the appointment of a senior member of the Georgian Dream party, the Ministry of Culture began to undermine the independence of the country’s main national cultural institutions. Georgia’s cultural community has spoken out against the government’s efforts to silence voices of dissent and creative freedom, organizing protests and issuing manifestos. Those concerns have intensified amid the sustained anti-government protests that began in 2024, with writers, artists, and other cultural figures joining broader demonstrations against government measures that further narrowed democratic space and freedom of expression.
India
Threats against free speech, academic freedom, and digital rights have accelerated in India in recent years. Although the number of writers behind bars dropped to 2 in PEN America’s 2025 Freedom to Write Index, the overall environment for free expression remained challenging. The government continued to impose internet shutdowns, censorship, website blockages, and persistent legal and administrative harassment and arrests of writers, journalists, scholars, and activists. Those who express dissenting views also face threats from non-state actors.
Iran
Despite its rich cultural and literary traditions, Iran is among the world’s most dangerous countries for writers to express themselves freely. While human rights conditions have been dire for decades, the state of free expression and respect for human rights has deteriorated even further in recent years. Iranian authorities carried out brutal crackdowns on dissent following nationwide protests in December 2025 against human rights abuses and economic issues in the country, accompanied by internet shutdowns that limit the people’s voices from reaching the rest of the world. Many writers in Iran are targeted and jailed for sharing their independent and critical perspectives, and dozens more have fled into exile for their own safety.
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Israeli government’s suppression of dissent and free expression has ranked it among the world’s top 10 jailers of writers since 2023, according to the Freedom to Write Index. Israel’s ongoing use of administrative detention — a policy under which individuals can be detained without charge or trial for renewable six-month periods — remained central to its suppression of Palestinian human rights, including free expression. More than 80 journalists were killed, mostly in Gaza, by the Israeli military in 2025, a record high for any conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Palestinian writers in the West Bank also face censorship and harassment by the Palestinian Authority to silence critics.
Myanmar
Following the February 2021 coup and the military’s re-assertion of control over the national government, conditions for free expression in Myanmar further deteriorated and have remained extremely limited. Writers and other creative artists have played a key role in supporting the countrywide civil disobedience movement against military rule. Restrictive laws, many dating from the colonial period, are regularly used to jail writers and cultural figures, alongside journalists and publishers. The oppression by the military junta, coupled with fighting between the military and its many opposition forces, have continued to result in ongoing violence and a further erosion of human rights.
Russia
Russia’s crackdown on free expression has intensified as part of broader efforts to stifle opposition to its war in Ukraine and solidify restrictions on critics and civil society. Authorities wield charges of terrorism and “discrediting” and “disseminating false information,” alongside foreign agent and extremism designations, to control artistic expression and discourage independent expression by writers and other cultural figures, including on LGBTQ+ themes. As well as suppressing dissent within Russia, Russian authorities continue to kill Ukrainian journalists, writers, and cultural workers; imprison Ukrainian journalists in occupied regions; and target theaters, museums, and other cultural spaces in its war against Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia employs harsh measures to silence critics, making it one of the world’s top jailers of writers in the Freedom to Write Index. Writers and human rights defenders are charged under broad national security provisions, as authorities invoke anti-terrorism and cybercrime laws to justify extended detention — sometimes for years without trial — in ways that violate both domestic legal standards and international human rights obligations. Its courts are widely known for imposing lengthy sentences following prolonged and often unfair proceedings. Even when writers are released from jail, Saudi authorities often impose restrictive conditions, including travel bans, that undermine their human rights.
Türkiye
Since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was re-elected in May 2023, the Turkish government has continued its longtime practice of clamping down on writers, journalists, and creative artists. Prolonged, indefinite trials and spurious charges, keeping them tied up in appeals and re-trials for years are part of their playbook. Turkish authorities commonly deploy charges of “insult” against the President, dissemination of disinformation, and anti-terror legislation against writers, journalists, and critical voices.
Ukraine
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — which is part of the larger campaign that began in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and support to pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region — represents an assault on free expression and human rights, an effort to destroy Ukrainian culture, and poses an imminent threat to the country’s writers, artists, and journalists.
Vietnam
The Vietnamese government stifles dissent through its effective control of all traditional media, including the press, television, radio, and other publications; censorship and surveillance of online spaces; and its punishment of dissenting voices. People who criticize the government about human rights abuses, corruption, territorial disputes, and environmental rights, amongst other topics, are often harassed, arrested, or imprisoned. Vietnam continues to violate due process and other human rights, often denying legal representation, imposing arbitrary arrests, and subjecting individuals to unfair trials.
