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.
Filters
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Status
ReleasedXie Junbiao
Activist, Online CommentatorChinaAsia-PacificXie is an activist and blogger from Chengdu. In 2018, he was beaten and detained by police for 10 days on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He was later released with a warning. He was rearrested again in 2019 and 2020. In May 2022, following an article he…
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DetainedXie Yang
Online CommentatorChinaAsia-PacificLawyer Xie Yang, known for representing many pro-democracy and human rights protestors, is outspoken on social media including Weibo, WeChat, and Twitter where he routinely criticises China’s political and judicial system. In 2022, he was arrested and indicted on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” due to social media…
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DetainedXu Guang
Activist, Online CommentatorChinaAsia-PacificXu is a long -time democracy activist who has been arrested multiple times in past years; his latest arrest was on May 26, 2022. After he had been warned by police not to comment ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Xu went to the police station with…
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DetainedXu Lin
Literary writer, Poet, Singer/SongwriterChinaAsia-PacificXu Lin, an active democracy activist, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 for, according to the court, causing serious public disorder by repeatedly posting “false information” online that insulted national leaders. While he was released on September 25, 2020, upon completion of his sentence, Xu Lin was…
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Conditional ReleaseXu Zhangrun
ScholarChinaAsia-PacificWhile under house arrest for penning an essay in February 2020 regarding China’s repressive response to COVID-19, Xu was detained on July 6 on spurious charges but released six days later. In 2019, Tsinghua University barred Xu from teaching after he criticized Xi’s mandate. In 2020, Xu was also fired…
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ReleasedXu Zhiqiang
Literary writerChinaAsia-PacificXu was arrested on national security charges after holding a seminar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. After his conviction, he was imprisoned for four years and released in 2018 upon expiry of his sentence.
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ImprisonedXu Zhiyong
Activist, Literary writerChinaAsia-PacificXu, a noted essayist and public intellectual, had for decades advocated for good governance and citizen engagement through his writing. In February 2020, he was detained amid a crackdown on activists critical of Chinese government policies who had gathered in late December 2019. He was tried in secret in June…
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ReleasedXue Deyun
Editor, PoetChinaAsia-PacificA prominent leader of the Guizhou cultural revival movement, which advocated for increased literary freedom in China, Xue was imprisoned from 1987 to 1990 and again from 1998 to 2001 on charges of attempting to overthrow the socialist system through so-called “rumormongering and slander.” He was released in July 2001…
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MurderedXulhaz Mannan
Activist, JournalistBangladeshAsia-PacificMannan, a prominent LGBTQ+ rights activist and the founder of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first and only LGBT magazine, was hacked to death on April 25, 2016, by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists. As a high-profile face of the LGBTQ+ movement in the country, he was targeted along with his colleague, Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy. Despite…
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.