Writers at Risk Database

Rana Ayyub

Washington Post columnist Ayyub has been targeted by multiple online harassment campaigns, resulting in doxxing, rape threats, and death threats. In 2018 and 2022, social media accounts made false… More

Writers at Risk Database

Gautam Navlakha

Writer and human rights activist Navlakha was one of many writers and activists arrested for “inciting caste violence” in the village of Bhima Koregaon in August 2018. He was… More

Fessehaye Yohannes Johannes

Co-founder of the newspaper Setit, Yohannes was arrested in a sweeping crackdown on print media following the September 11 attacks and has been detained incommunicado since, drawing grave concern… More

Idris Said Abu’Are

Freelance journalist and author of short fiction Idris Said was arrested in October 2001, after questioning the arrests en masse of his colleagues following the September 11 attacks. Since… More

Writers at Risk Database

Martha Kumsa

Kumsa was arrested in 1980 after writing an article calling for ethnic-Oromo women to defy power structures and reclaim their cultural heritage. She was released in 1989 and escaped… More

Writers at Risk Database

Deyda Hydara

On December 16, 2004, Deyda Hydara was murdered. While an army officer testified to his involvement and former President Yahya Jammeh's role as mastermind before Gambia's Truth, Reconciliation, and… More

Writers at Risk Database

Irakli Kordzaia

Kordzaia has spoken out against extrajudicial murders and corruption for nearly a decade. In 2017, Kordzaia fled Tbilisi due to unrelenting and escalating persecution by domestic authorities; he had… More

Writers at Risk Database

Jean Mario Paul

Paul has been well-known for his stories exposing local government corruption. In the September 1991 military coup that deposed President Aristide, Paul was arrested and brutally tortured in police… More

Hesham Gaafar

Hesham Gaafar

Gaafar was detained without warrant in October 2015 for suspected involvement with the banned Muslim Brotherhood. He was held for 41 months in pretrial detention, often under prolonged solitary… More

Abdel-Rahman Mekled

Mekled 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… More