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
Status
Qatanani is a columnist for the Palestinian news website ETAR as well as an online commentator posting primarily on Twitter. He previously spent 20 months in administrative detention in 2017-2018 and was most recently arrested in his home on the outskirts of Nablus in the West Bank in October 2023.…
Status
Famed poet and Marxist intellectual Alonso has suffered political persecution for his openly anti-Castro views. Since he was first expelled from university in 1980, he has endured extreme censorship and surveillance, constant death threats, and police interrogations.
Status
Anti-corruption writer Marques has faced threats for over twenty years. Changes in Angola’s political leadership have led to more support for Marques’ writing; however, incumbent politicians continue harbor resentment and leverage charges against Marques.
Status
Vilches Proenza is a novelist and poet whose work critical of the Cuban government. In 2021, he was briefly detained, interrogated, and threatened several times. In November, he was given a letter explaining that he was arrested for his activism, signing a letter in support of protests, and writing his…
Status
Rafiq Taği died in 2011 days after a stabbing attack, possibly connected to his article critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that was published a week prior. In 2015, the prosecutor halted the probe into his death; though his murderer has not been held accountable.
Status
Zarakolu is a veteran free expression activist and publisher against book bans, resulting in a catalog of indictments against him dating back to the early 1970s. He has lived in exile in Sweden since 2012 but continues to face legal harassment from the Turkish government. In May 2022, Türkiye requested…
Status
Dawut, whose academic research focuses on Uyghur folklore and Islamic sacred sites across Xinjiang, was reportedly last heard from in December 2017. She was tried in 2018 on “splittism” charges and convicted. She later appealed the court’s decision but the appeal was rejected. In September 2023, it was confirmed that…
Status
Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam” and “founding a liberal website,” Free Saudi Liberals. While detained, he was reported to be in poor health, exacerbated by flogging. On March 11, 2022, he was released conditionally (though authorities delayed…
Status
In February 2004, Esenov was charged with “inciting social, national, and religious hatred using the mass media” for statements made by characters in his novel, Ventsenosny Skitalets (The Crowned Wanderer). Released in March 2004, charges against him were dropped in 2008. On April 25, 2022, Esenov passed away at the…
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.