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
Conditional ReleasePaing Thit Nwe
Creative artist, PoetMyanmarAsia-PacificPoet Paing Thit Nwe, also known as Thit San Oo, was arrested and detained on March 27, 2021, while participating in a peaceful protest led by poets on Pansodan Road in downtown Yangon. During these demonstrations, poets held public readings and sold poems and art to creatively oppose the February…
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ReleasedPaing Ye Thu
Creative artist, Online Commentator, PoetMyanmarAsia-PacificPaing Ye Thu is a member of the Peacock Generation, a satirical poetry troupe specializing in a type of slam poetry known as Thangyat. Through an accumulation of four separate charges from October 2019 to June 2020, Paing Ye Thu was sentenced to three and a half years in prison…
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On TrialPaola Ugaz
Journalist, Literary writerPeruAmericasUgaz co-authored Mitad monjes, mitad soldados in 2015, an investigative nonfiction work alleging abuse in a Peruvian Catholic organization. In response to her announcing a second book on the topic, she faced online harassment, death threats, and several defamation suits of which she was aquitted in January 2022. Despite her…
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Conditional ReleasePape Alé Niang
Journalist, Online CommentatorSenegalSub-Saharan AfricaIn November 2022, Niang was arrested after a video was released on Dakar Matin in which he reported the contents of an internal gendarmerie report. He was released on bail on December 14, but detained on December 20 after speaking about the case publicly. He went on hunger strike until…
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Conditional ReleasePatiwat Saraiyaem
Activist, Creative artistThailandAsia-PacificPatiwat Saraiyaem was arrested on October 19, 2020 on sedition charges for his prior involvement in Bangkok pro-democracy protests. After being arrested and released shortly thereafter several times in the following months, he was detained in February 2021 for violating lèse-majesté laws, sedition, and other lesser charges. In April 2021,…
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ReleasedPaul Rusesabagina
Activist, Literary writerRwandaSub-Saharan AfricaRusesabagina is the author of An Ordinary Man, an autobiography of his life as a hotel manager during the Rwandan genocide. He was detained in August 2020 when boarding a private flight en route to Dubai. In September 2021, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison on retaliatory terrorism-related…
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MurderedPavel Horbach
Journalist, PoetBelarusEurope and Central AsiaPavel Horbach was detained after performing his poetry at a neighbors’ gathering in Minsk on November 6, 2020, and was sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. Fearing further persecution and potential criminal charges, Horbach later fled the country. He eventually made his way to Ukraine as a volunteer following…
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MurderedPavel Sheremet
Journalist, Online CommentatorUkraineEurope and Central AsiaAn internationally lauded journalist and opinion writer, Sheremet was killed in a car bomb explosion in Kyiv in April 2016. He was a longtime critic of Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenka, and investigations into his murder are ongoing. His death sparked international outrage, and despite multiple suspects and court hearings, the…
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ImprisonedPavel Vinahradau
Activist, Creative artist, Online CommentatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaVinahradau is a Belarusian activist and online commentator who ran a popular Telegram channel. The channel was declared “extremist” by the authorities, and as a result, Vinahradau was detained on December 22, 2021. He was charged with incitement to hatred, slander against the President, and other offenses. In 2022, he…
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.