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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Status
Conditional ReleaseSomyot Prueksakasemsuk
Activist, Editor, JournalistThailandAsia-PacificMagazine editor and activist Somyot was arrested on October 16, 2020 for sedition for his involvement in the September 2020 pro-democracy demonstrations. He was again detained in February 2021 for violating lèse-majesté laws, sedition, and other lesser charges. On April 23, 2021, Somyot was released on bail under the condition…
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ImprisonedSophia Huang Xueqin
Activist, Journalist, Online CommentatorChinaAsia-PacificHuang was detained in October 2019 after publicly supporting sexual assault survivors and creating a platform to promote survivor solidarity. She was released in early 2020, but police kept her passport and continued to surveil her. On September 19, 2021, Huang went missing before a flight; eight days later, RFA…
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ReleasedSoulaimane Raissouni
Journalist, Online CommentatorMoroccoMiddle East and North AfricaColumnist, documentary filmmaker, and former editor-in-chief of Akhbar al-Youm, Raissouni has been detained since 2020. He is serving a 5-year prison sentence for sexual assault—charges which human rights advocates suspect are retaliatory, as part of a pattern of state authorities filing similar charges against prominent journalists. He was released in…
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Recorded HarassmentSrijato Bandyopadhyay
Creative artist, Poet, Singer/SongwriterIndiaAsia-PacificIn January 2019, a group reportedly led by a member of the All Assam Bengali Hindu Association stormed an event where Bandyopadhyay, a poet previously under police investigation, was a guest. The group claimed that his poem ‘Abhishap’ (‘Curse’) was insulting to Hindu gods. This also resulted in obscene messages…
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ReleasedStanis Bujakera
Journalist, Online CommentatorCongoSub-Saharan AfricaColumnist and journalist Stanis Bujakera was arrested on September 8, 2023 at N’djili Airport in Kinshasa for an August 2023 article he wrote implicating Congolese military intelligence in the assassination of former minister Chérubin Okende. On March 18, 2024, Bujakera was sentenced to six months in prison and fined one…
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ReleasedStanislav Aseyev
Journalist, Online CommentatorUkraineEurope and Central AsiaStanislav Aseyev was kidnapped by pro-Russian militants in June 2017 and forced to confess to “spying.” For 3 years, he had published reports on life under Russian occupation in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk. On October 28, 2019, Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine sentenced Aseyev to 15 years in a penal…
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Displaced/In ExileStanislav Dmitrievsky
Activist, Journalist, Literary writerRussiaEurope and Central AsiaIn December 2012, a petition was filed against writer Dmitrievsky alleging his study on Chechnya was “extremist” in nature. In 2013, after expert evaluation of the study, the petition was rejected, but many fear the case represents an ongoing attempt to stifle Dmitrievsky. In 2022, Dmitrievsky was detained for two…
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On TrialStella Nyanzi
Activist, Poet, ScholarUgandaSub-Saharan AfricaDr. Nyanzi, an academic and poet, was imprisoned on cybercrime charges in 2018 for writing a poem she posted online using President Museveni’s birth as a metaphor to criticize his repressive rule. She was released in early 2020 but remained a target of legal and extra-legal harassment. She has continued…
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ReleasedSu Yadanar Myint
Creative artist, Online Commentator, PoetMyanmarAsia-PacificSu Yadanar Myint is a member of the Peacock Generation, a satirical poetry troupe specializing in a type of slam poetry known as Thangyat. On February 17, 2020, she was convicted of “online defamation” and sentenced to six months in prison. On November 18, 2019, she was sentenced to an…
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.