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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Displaced/In ExileAslı Erdoğan
Journalist, Literary writerTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaNovelist and occasional columnist for pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem, Aslı Erdoğan was detained after the 2016 coup attempt. Conditionally released four months later, she escaped to Germany. In February 2020, she was formally acquitted, but this was appealed in June. In February 2022, a court decided to uphold her acquittal. In…
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ReleasedBehrouz Yasemi
Online Commentator, PoetIranMiddle East and North AfricaOn October 17, 2022, Behrouz Yasemi, a Kurdish poet from Ivangharb, was arrested at his workplace in Tehran for unknown reasons shortly after posting a video in which he recited a poem about Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose custodial death sparked a series of 2022 protests both in Iran…
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MurderedChan Thar Swe
Activist, PoetMyanmarAsia-PacificAfter spending over a year in prison for taking part in a 2015 rally for education reform, the activist and former Buddhist monk, known by his pen name K Zar Win, published his most well-known poetry collection, My Reply to Ramon. On March 3, 2021, he was killed at an…
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MurderedDawa Khan Menapal
JournalistAfghanistanAsia-PacificA former journalist and presidential spokesperson, Menapal worked as the head of the Afghan government’s Media and Information Center and sought to form ties with the journalist community. Menapal promoted media pluralism to challenge the Taliban’s propaganda. He was murdered by the militant group on August 6, 2021, one day…
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Continued HarassmentErgün Poyraz
Literary writer, Online CommentatorTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaPoyraz is a literary writer known for his controversial critiques of the ruling AKP and the Gülen movement. His bestseller The Children of Moses accused President Erdoğan and his wife of conspiring with Israeli intelligence to undermine Turkish secularism. On April 12, 2022, he was violently attacked outside his home.…
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ReleasedFaraj Ahmad Birqdar
Journalist, PoetSyriaMiddle East and North AfricaSyrian poet and activist Birqdar was arrested in March 1987 on suspicion of being a member of Syria’s Party for Communist Action. He was held without trial for 6 years, and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in 1993. He was released in 2000, and left the country.
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ImprisonedGheyratjan Osman
Literary writer, ScholarChina/Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionAsia-PacificAfter being disappeared for more than a year, in May 2020 Gheyratjan Osman was confirmed to be imprisoned and serving a ten-year sentence for vague separatism charges. A scholar and professor of Uyghur culture and literature at Xinjiang University, Osman was detained during a crackdown on Uyghur cultural leaders and…
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ImprisonedGulnisa Imin
Online Commentator, Poet, ScholarChina/Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionAsia-PacificGulnisa Imin, a Uyghur literature teacher and poet, was known for her writings on Uyghur culture. In March 2018, on the 345th night of her poetry project “One Thousand and One Nights,” she disappeared. In December 2021, reports emerged revealing that she had been detained and sentenced to 17.5 years…
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ReleasedHu Shigen
Activist, Literary writerChinaAsia-PacificA freelance writer, Hu was detained arbitrarily in July 2015; police did not answer his family’s enquiries as to his whereabouts. He was formally arrested in January 2016 on suspicion of subverting state power and imprisoned after a short closed-door trial. Despite his development of multiple health problems in jail,…
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.