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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Retired academic Sun was arrested from his home during a phone interview with Voice of America in August 2018. Before the interview was cut off he reportedly said, “I am entitled to freedom of speech.” Though released ten days later, he remains under close supervision.
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On September 5, 2013, Indian-Afghan memoirist Sushmita Banerjee was kidnapped and murdered, purportedly by a splinter Taliban group who claimed responsibility. No groups or individuals, however, have been held accountable.
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A renowned literary writer, essayist and Belarus’s first ever Nobel Prize winner, Alexievich was charged for alleged “appeals to overthrow or change constitutional order of the Republic of Belarus or commit crimes against the government.” Her work was also removed from school curricula.
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Playwright Svetlana Petriychuk was detained on May 4, 2023 for writing the play “Finist, the Brave Falcon.” She was accused along with theater director Zhenya Berkovich of “justifying terrorism” in their play, which was about women who meet jihadists on the internet to go to Syria, and for which they…
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On July 6, 2020, columnist Prokopieva was convicted of “public justification of terrorism” for her coverage of the 2018 suicide bombing in the Federal Security Service building in Arkhangelsk, arguing that the state provoked the incident. She was fined 500,000 RUB ($7,000). In 2022, she had reportedly fled Russia for…
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Writer and activist Svetlana Slapšak faced physical and legal threats for her human rights work in Serbia. In 1989, she was dismissed from her job, and in 1991 fled to Slovenia, where she continued her activist work. She received the PEN Freedom to Write Award in 1993.
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Vadlamudi was charged with hurting religious sentiments after posting a cartoon on Twitter that alludes to far-right Hindu demonstrations calling for the release of suspected perpetrators of the gang-rape and murder of a young girl from a Muslim nomadic community.
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Pakistani columnist Shah was forced into exile in Malaysia for his writing on corruption in Pakistan. He was first kidnapped in 2011 by Pakistani Intelligence Services (the ISI) for his reporting. Upon his release, he was forced to seek asylum in Malaysia. In 2022, he was kidnapped by the ISI…
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A police officer who began blogging to expose abuses of power, Ta was imprisoned in 2011 on anti-state propaganda charges. Her case sparked international activism and, in 2012, her mother set herself on fire to protest her detention. Ta was released in 2015.
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.