Writers At Risk
PEN’s bedrock work is long-term advocacy on behalf of individual writers who are being persecuted because of their work. This page features our highest priority cases. With the help of our members and supporters, we are carrying out campaigns to win their release and ensure they are safe and can write and publish freely.
PEN America examines threats to free expression in our annual Freedom to Write Index, a year-end count of imprisoned writers worldwide. Explore our Writers at Risk Database for updated tracking of cases of writers, journalists, artists, academics, and public intellectuals around the world facing myriad threats for their writing and expression. Read the most recent PEN International case list here.
Take a moment to share information about these writers and take action on their behalf. This is only a small sampling of writers under threat around the world.
Ruben Espinosa | Status: Murdered | Mexico
Ruben Espinosa—along with four women, one of whom was a human rights activist—was found bound and shot execution-style in a private apartment in the calm, middle-class neighborhood of Navarte… More
Waleed Abu Al-Khair | Status: Imprisoned | Saudi Arabia
Waleed Abu al-Khair is a Saudi Arabian lawyer, human rights activist, and founding member of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA). The author of numerous articles,… More
Ta Phong Tan | Status: Released | Vietnam
Ta Phong Tan is a Vietnamese Blogger, jurist, and former police officer. She was arrested on September 5, 2011 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “conducting propaganda… More
Kunchok Tsephel | Status: Conditional Release | China/Tibet Autonomous Region
Kunchok Tsephel is a prominent internet writer and editor of the Tibetan-language website Chomei (Butter Lamp), which promotes Tibetan culture and literature. He was arrested in February 2009 and… More
Rodney Sieh | Status: Released | Liberia
Rodney Sieh, founder of FrontPageAfrica, is a Liberian journalist with over seventeen years’ experience working in Liberia and abroad. More
Mohammed al-Ajami | Status: Released | Qatar
Born on December 24, 1975, Mohammed al-Ajami, a Qatari citizen, is a poet and a third-year literature student at Cairo University. He is married with two daughters and two… More
Ayşe Berktay | Status: On Trial | Turkey
Ayşe Berktay, a translator, cultural and women's rights activist, is currently on trial in Turkey for "membership in an illegal organization." She faces up to 15 years in prison… More
Tsering Woeser | Status: Under Threat | China
Award-winning Tibetan writer and poet Woeser was born in 1966 in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, where her father was a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army. More
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