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.
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.
Zouhair Yahyaoui | Status: Deceased | Tunisia
The Freedom to Write Committee mourns the passing of Zouhair Yahyaoui. According to his family, he died of a heart attack on Sunday, March 13, 2005. He was arrested… More
Aung Than & Zeya Aung | Status: Released | Myanmar
Aung Than is a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Zeya Aung is a student at Pegu University. Together they wrote a book of poems called… More
Mamadali Mahmudov | Status: Released | Uzbekistan
Mamadali Mahmudov is a renowned Uzbek writer and opposition activist who was released in 2013 after serving a 14-year sentence on charges related to a series of explosions in… More
Aung Myint | Status: Released | Myanmar
Aung Myint (also known as Phya Pon Ni Loan Oo) is a journalist, poet, and head of the information department of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Aung started… More
Zaw Thet Htwe | Status: Released | Myanmar
Zaw Thet Htwe, respected journalist and political advocate, worked as an editor and journalist at First Eleven Sports News, a popular sports journal Burma. After Cyclone Nargis struck on… More
Muhammad Bekjanov | Status: Released | Uzbekistan
A prominent Uzbek journalist in the period immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Muhammad Bekjanov came to be recognized as a leading voice in the struggle for… More
Dzamshid Karimov | Status: Disappeared | Uzbekistan
Dzamshid Karimov is a journalist who was held in psychiatric detention for over a year. He is known for being an outspoken critic of the government, and for his… More
Ruslan Sharipov | Status: In Exile | Uzbekistan
Ruslan Sharipov was one of several dozen students chosen to participate in a government-sponsored exchange program with U.S. universities in the fall of 1999. When Uzbek authorities canceled that… More
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PEN America On 
Oakland, Calif., voted to pass an ordinance that would ban municipal use of face recognition technology: https://t.co/LT1PgbmBLQ. Read more on mounting bipartisan concern over facial recognition: https://t.co/fNmeQXtG0z via @thomasomelia for @aminterest.
These Journalists Are Facing Huge Threats And Injustice For Pursuing The Truth: https://t.co/OWrh3QSF6X via @BuzzFeedNews. PEN America continues to advocate on behalf of individual writers who are being persecuted because of their work: https://t.co/LUzJMNFFmZ. #pressfreedom