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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Vinahradau is an activist and online commentator who ran a Telegram channel. It was declared extremist and Vinahradau was detained on December 22, 2021. He was charged with incitement to hatred and slander against the President amongst other charges, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. His appeal was denied…
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Poet, lawyer, and activist Navarro received anonymous death threats, one written in blood, after carrying out investigations into allegations of torture against prisoners. He reported the threats to the State of Chiapas, but no protective measures have been put in place.
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Author and poet Rinchen disappeared in 2020 when he was contemplating writing a second book on Tibetan language and culture. His whereabouts were unknown until he was sentenced to 4 years in prison in September 2022.
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Halmurat, a student of Ilham Tohti, was arrested for his involvement with Tohti’s website Uyghurbiz, which promotes mutual ethnic understanding. He was sentenced in a 2014 secret trial and has been held incommunicado since 2018.
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Tursun is a renowned Uyghur writer of poetry, prose, and novels. He was denounced as anti-Islamic in the late 1990s for his work’s themes of suicide, sexuality, and mental illness, for which he has received death threats. He has been in detention since January 2018.
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Farhangian is a literary writer, poet, and labor activist. He was first arrested in June 2020. He was initially sentenced to 38 years in prison on charges related to social media activities, including creating a Telegram group. He was released but rearrested the next year, then released on bail. In…
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Founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, Pham was arrested in November 2019 for articles he wrote criticizing human rights by the government. On January 5, 2021, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and convicted of making propaganda against the state under Article 117. In 2012, Pham…
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A member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, Pham Thanh is the author of several books and essays critical of government leaders. He was arrested on May 21, 2020 under Article 117 for materials against the state and was later temporarily transferred to a psychiatric facility without reason. On…
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
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.
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.