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.
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ConvictedArmin Shadivand
Activist, Creative artist, Literary writer, Online CommentatorIranMiddle East and North AfricaArmin Shadivand is a composer, singer, and environmental activist. He is the author of eight books which were all banned from publication in Iran. He was summoned to court and arrested in November 2024 for “publishing materials in cyberspace.” He was released on bail after a day. In February 2025,…
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ImprisonedÉtienne Fakaba Sissoko
Literary writer, Online Commentator, ScholarMaliSub-Saharan AfricaMalian economist and professor Étienne Fakaba Sissoko was arrested on March 25, 2024, after publishing a book criticizing the military junta’s use of propaganda. On May 20, 2024, Sissoko was sentenced to two years in jail, with one year suspended, and a fine of XOF 3 million on charges of…
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Conditional ReleaseLiu Hanbin
Online CommentatorChina/Inner Mongolia Autonomous RegionAsia-PacificActivist Liu Hanbin is well known for using his platform to record and expose the injustices in China’s society and his reports on regional news in Inner Mongolia which he shared on his WeChat account. He was arrested on December 10, 2024 for supporting farmers who had lost their land,…
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ReleasedRania Al-Assal
Journalist, Online CommentatorSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and North AfricaRania Al-Assal is an Egyptian journalist who traveled to Saudi Arabia to complete Umrah. While there, she posted several tweets questioning Saudi authorities for naming the gates of Masjid al-Haram Mosque that surround the Kaaba after Saudi monarchs, as well as denouncing Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. Al-Assal was detained…
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Continued HarassmentWasim Akram Tyagi
Journalist, Online CommentatorIndiaAsia-PacificIn July 2024, alongside his brother journalist Zakir Ali Tyagi, Wasim Akram Tyagi reported on the death of a Muslim resident of Shamli district and implied that authorities might have been attempting to shield the alleged perpetrators by not categorizing the death expliictly as a murder. As a result, he…
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ImprisonedAbdubesir Shukuri
Literary writer, ScholarChina/Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionAsia-PacificAbdubesir Shukuri, a writer and Xinjiang Normal University professor on Uyghur literature, philosophy, and belief systems in Turkic Central Asia, was forcibly disappeared in 2017. That same year, he was reportedly sentenced to life imprisonment.
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ConvictedBarış Terkğlu
Journalist, Literary writerTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaOn March 4, 2020, Barış Terkğlu was arrested for a report published on OdaTV with photos of the funeral of a Turkish officer killed in Syria. In April, he was indicted for “disclosing classified information crucial to the security and interests of the state” and “exposing the contents of documents…
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Displaced/In ExileGoli Shadkam
Literary writer, Online Commentator, Poet, ScholarIranMiddle East and North AfricaAfter a long history of summonings and threats from Iranian authorities, Kurdish social science researcher and writer Goli Shadkam moved to Canada where she would continue to author several books on various Kurdish issues, including Kurdish poetry. On July 20, 2024, Shadkam reported that she is receiving threats from Iranian…
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Displaced/In ExileMikhail Zyghar
Creative artist, Journalist, Literary writer, Online CommentatorRussiaEurope and Central AsiaMikhail Zyghar is a Russian journalist, filmmaker, and author who fled Russia for Germany in 2022 after being officially designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities. On July 23, 2024, while reportedly in New York, Zyghar was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for “disseminating false…
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.