Writers at Risk Database
PEN America champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. The bedrock work of the global PEN network is advocacy and assistance on behalf of individuals persecuted for their use of the written word or other forms of expression. PEN America’s Writers at Risk Database is a searchable catalog of the writers, journalists, academics, public intellectuals and others under threat around the world. The database includes historical cases PEN America has worked on from 1987 onwards; non-active cases are color-coded black. PEN America is grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for support that enabled the establishment of the Writers at Risk Database and to PEN International for their collaboration in assembling this database.
Filters
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Status
Continued HarassmentAakar Patel
Activist, Journalist, Literary writerIndiaAsia-PacificA columnist and writer, Patel is also the former head of Amnesty International India before it was shut down by the government in 2020. He was surveilled for years and was stopped from leaving the country by the Central Bureau of Investigation in April 2022.
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Recorded HarassmentAatish Taseer
Journalist, Literary writerIndiaAsia-PacificTaseer, a U.S.-based writer of Indian origin, faced harassment by the Indian government following his May 2019 TIME cover story profiling Prime Minister Modi. In late 2019, authorities cancelled his Overseas Citizenship of India card, preventing his travel to India. He became in US citizen in 2020.
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Status
Recorded HarassmentAbbad Yahya
Literary writer, ScholarPalestinian TerritoriesMiddle East and North AfricaYahya’s novel ‘Crime in Ramallah,’ which contains themes of politics, homosexuality, and religion, was ordered confiscated and banned in 2017. After an investigation was launched Yahya received death threats and was unable to enter Palestinian territory throughout 2017.
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DetainedAbbas Ali Zulfiqari
Online Commentator, PoetIranMiddle East and North AfricaZulfiqari, better known by his pen name Zoro, is a satirical poet who posts videos of himself reciting his poetry on social media. He was first imprisoned in 1993, then again in 1998, and most recently in July 2023 when he was summoned to court for his writing. He remains…
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DisappearedAbd Al-Akram Al-Sakka
Publisher, ScholarSyriaMiddle East and North AfricaOn July 15, 2011, Abd Al-Akram Al-Sakka was arrested from his home without a warrant. His whereabouts and the conditions of his detention are unknown. Al-Sakka was last seen by a fellow detainee at a military court in 2012.
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Status
ReleasedAbdel Nasser Salama
Journalist, Online CommentatorEgyptMiddle East and North AfricaAbdel Naser Salama, a columnist and political commentator, was arrested in July 2021 for a Facebook post in which he called for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to resign. While held in solitary confinement, he began a hunger strike in September 2021 to protest his treatment; authorities repeatedly denied Salama access to…
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ReleasedAbdel-Halim Qandil
Activist, Journalist, Literary writerEgyptMiddle East and North AfricaA prolific journalist whose work has been censored many times in the past decade, Qandil was jailed in December 2017 for comments he made in a TV interview criticizing Egypt’s courts and military tribunals. He was officially pardoned in May 2019.
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Status
Recorded HarassmentAbdel-Rahman Mekled
Journalist, PoetEgyptMiddle East and North AfricaMekled was arrested in August 2017 as part of a group of journalists and writers who had criticized the Egyptian government’s decision to renounce its claim on several Red Sea Islands. Although he was released, he was also arbitrarily dismissed from his job.
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Displaced/In ExileAbdelhamid Amine
Creative artistAlgeriaMiddle East and North AfricaCartoonist Amine, best known as Nime, was arrested in December 2019 after posting caricatures critical of the military in the weeks preceding a controversial presidential election. He was released after a month in prison with a one-year suspended sentence and fine, and now resides in France.
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
Funder
PEN America is deeply grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for its generous support of the Freedom to Write Index and Writers at Risk Database.
Partner
PEN America thanks the PEN International Secretariat and the Writers in Prison Committee for their extensive contributions to and collaboration on compiling the cases included in this database.