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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Yang served six years in prison over protests against corruption and censorship in 2013, and was assaulted and denied proper medical care in prison. He was finally released conditionally in August 2019, but he was again detained in January 2021 en route to visit his ailing wife abroad. Yang was…
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In 2017, Guizhou University fired professor Yang over his “politically sensitive” academic writings. In June 2021, Yang was charged with “inciting subversion of state power” and detained after disappearing in May. Yang reported being tortured during his imprisonment. Yang was tried in secret on July 29, 2022 for the same…
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Persecuted for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Yang spent over two decades in prison for counter-revolutionary activity, from 1990-2000 and 2005-2017. He died of brain cancer on November 7, 2017 after being denied treatment in prison.
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In 2013, Yao was sentenced to ten years in prison for smuggling ordinary items, but his friends believe the publisher was set up. As of 2019, he is reported to be severely ill, but his family’s petitions that Yao be granted medical parole have been repeatedly denied. He was released…
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Yarzar Oo was arrested with four other employees of the Unity newspaper after it published an exposé about an alleged secret chemical weapons factory. The ‘Unity Five’ were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014, but were released in 2016 by a presidential amnesty.
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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.