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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A blogger who gained widespread fame for her critical portrayal of daily life in Cuba, Sánchez was arrested in 2012 for her reporting on the death of dissident leader Oswaldo Payá. She was released without trial and now runs Cuba’s only independent digital news outlet.
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A human rights lawyer and online activist, Yongpei is serving a 5 year sentence on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Yongpei was first detained in October 2019 after a series of social media posts deemed “pro-democracy” and “politically sensitive.” He was found guilty and sentenced in March 2023.
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Lands rights activist Yorm Bopha was re-convicted in 2016 to three years in prison for an alleged attack on two taxi drivers in 2012, despite a lack of evidence linking her to the crime. The remainder of her sentence was suspended.
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On March 5, 2021, El Dosh was summoned to appear before a court after a reading of his original poem about the violent dispersal of protestors in 2019—known as the June 3 Massacre—was broadcast on television. He was released from jail on March 10, after being questioned by investigators about…
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Pro-democracy activist and online commentator Yu has been the subject of harassment by Chinese authorities including surveillance for years. After tweeting about speaking out on the Tiananmen Square massacre on October 12, 2022, he was taken into custody and has since been detained.
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Yu is an activist known for his critical writings on political issues. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 4 years after writing an open letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party proposing constitutional amendments. In April 2023, he was arrested again and detained for “picking quarrels…
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Riswati, an Indonesian citizen, covers Hong Kong pro-democracy protests with a focus on migrant workers and the unique struggles they face. She was deported to Indonesia in December 2019 after a 29-day detention in a Hong Kong immigration center.
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Cartoonist Tsvetkova was charged with pornography for disseminating artwork promoting body positivity and LGBTQ inclusivity. She was placed under house arrest from November 2019 to March 2020, and she faced up to 6 years in prison. In June 2022, authorities put her on the “foreign agent” list. She now lives…
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.