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
ImprisonedZhang Zhan
Online CommentatorChinaAsia-PacificZhang Zhan is a citizen journalist who is currently serving a second prison sentence on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” for which she was detained in September 2024 and sentenced in September 2025. She previously served four years from May 2020 to May 2024 on the same charges…
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ReleasedZhao Baahuu
Online Commentator, PoetChinaAsia-PacificZhao was released from detention but remains confined to house arrest as of October 2019 after publishing poems entitled “Dark Night Journey” and “Mongolian Grassland” that criticized China’s treatment of its ethnic minorities. He has since remained incommunicado, with reports suggesting ongoing surveillance and restrictions tied to his ethnic Mongolian…
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ImprisonedZhenya Berkovich
Creative artist, PoetRussiaEurope and Central AsiaTheater director and poet Zhenya Berkovich was detained for allegedly “justifying terrorism” in her play Finist, the Bright Falcon. She was arrested along with Svetlana Petriychuk on May 4, 2023 and held in extended pre-trial detention. The play was about women who meet jihadists on the internet to go to…
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DetainedZhou Guoqiang
Activist, Online Commentator, PoetChinaAsia-PacificZhou (pen name Aqu Qiangba) is a poet and editor of Today. He was previously detained for seven months in 1989 for organizing a strike, and sentenced to three years in a labor camp in 1994 for engaging in labor movement propaganda. After a failed escape attempt, he was given…
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ReleasedZhou Yuanzhi
Journalist, Literary writerChinaAsia-PacificZhou Yuanzhi has published political commentaries and short stories in Hong Kong and in overseas Chinese-language publications. Initially detained in 2017, he was sentenced in June 2019 to four and a half years in prison. While imprisoned, his health gravely deteriorated, including the development of heart tumors and other serious…
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Displaced/In ExileZhu Yufu
PoetChinaAsia-PacificDissident poet Zhu Yufu served seven years in prison due to his poetry and was released in early 2018. In September 2018, he was briefly detained for “subversion of state power.” In March 2021, his political rights were restored after four years of deprivation from his previous imprisonment. In 2024,…
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ReleasedZiyad Al-Sofiani
Online CommentatorSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and North AfricaAl-Sofiani was a high-ranking Wikipedia volunteer administrator with privileged access to edit protected pages. He was detained in 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Reports indicate that Al-Sofiani, along with his colleague Osama Khaled, had edited Wikipedia pages for Loujain al-Hathloul and other prominent dissidents and activists in…
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Displaced/In ExileZoran Mutić
Journalist, Literary writer, TranslatorBosnia and HerzegovinaEurope and Central AsiaProminent translator Zoran Mutić, known for protesting the rise of Serbian nationalism during the Balkan Wars, fled Sarajevo in 1992, just before the siege of the Bosnian capital by the Serbian army. He has lived in exile ever since.
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DeceasedZouhair Yahyaoui
JournalistTunisiaMiddle East and North AfricaFounder of TUNeZINE.com Yahyaoui was arrested in a cybercafe on charges of ‘false news’ and unauthorized use of the internet in June 2000. Having served half his sentence, he was released conditionally in 2003. His site became a major forum for dissent in Tunisia, publishing opposition materials and critiques of…
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.