Writers at Risk Database

Loujain Al-Hathloul

Al-Hathloul, a women's rights advocate, was detained in a sweep of arrests in May 2018 and held for 1,000 days in prison, during which time she was reportedly tortured… More

Liu Yanli

Blogger Liu, who has written about politics and democracy on WeChat since 2009, was detained in 2018 after a six-month period of residential surveillance. She was sentenced to four… More

Liu Feiyue

Liu Feiyue

Liu, an activist who runs a website circulating information on human rights abuses, was sentenced to five years in prison and severe fines in January 2019 after his initial… More

Writers at Risk Database

Benny Tai Yiu-ting

Tai is a legal scholar and public intellectual who wrote foundational political pieces on democracy. He was convicted on politically-motivated public nuisance charges and served 4 months of his… More

Writers at Risk Database

Chan Kin-Man

Chan is a sociologist and leader of the pro-democracy movement Occupy Central. He was convicted on public nuisance charges and sentenced to 16 months in prison in April 2019.… More

Xie Fengxia Xie Wenfei

Xie spent 4.5 years in prison for subverting power after publicly supporting the Umbrella Movement. Released in March 2019, he has since been harassed and was again detained in… More

Writers at Risk Database

Nguyen Xuan Nghia

A poet, novelist, and founder of the banned democracy movement known as Bloc 8406, Nguyen was arrested in 2008 following the publication of Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy in… More

Writers at Risk Database

Xu Zhiyong

Xu, a noted essayist and public intellectual, had for decades advocated for good governance and citizen engagement through his writing. In February 2020, he was detained amid a crackdown… More

Huynh Thuc Vy

Huynh was arrested and sentenced to two years and seven months in prison in November 2018 related to her blogging about human rights issues, including the dire situation of… More

Dang Phuc Tue Thich Quang Do

Tue was a patriarch of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam who became the public face of religious dissent in the country. He spent his last 30 years… More