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
Conditional ReleaseAli Khan Mahmudabad
Journalist, Literary writer, Online Commentator, ScholarIndiaAsia-PacificAli Khan Mahmudabad, a scholar, literary writer, columnist, and online commentator, was arrested on May 18, 2025, in his Delhi home by Haryana police over social media posts, including criticism of military escalation during India-Pakistan tensions and warnings against discrimination. He was accused of “sedition” amid a broader crackdown on…
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ImprisonedAli Ünal
Journalist, Literary writer, Scholar, TranslatorTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaA columnist at the daily Zaman, Ünal was arrested in August 2016 during a purge of followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen following the coup attempt. Ünal had previously translated many of Gülen’s works into English. He is serving a 19 year sentence on charges of “founding and leading an…
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ReleasedAliaksandr Novikau
Literary writer, Online CommentatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaA historian and blogger, Novikau was arrested on June 27, 2022 for publishing articles on his website that aim at revising history. He was convicted and found guilty of leaking personal data of employees of internal affairs bodies. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a closed door court…
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DetainedAlican Uludağ
Journalist, Online CommentatorTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaAlican Uludağ is a columnist and investigative journalist who also serves as a contributor to outlets including Deutsche Welle and Now TV. Uludağ was detained in February 2026 due to an online post as well as an article from December 2024. He was charged with “misinformation” and “insulting the president.”…
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Continued HarassmentAlina Bárbara López Hernández
Journalist, Literary writer, Online Commentator, ScholarCubaAmericasOn December 12, 2023, scholar Alina Bárbara López Hernández was fined 7,000 Cuban Pesos for “disobedience.” On April 18, 2024, she was arrested at the Bacunayagua checkpoint and forcibly removed from her vehicle, sustaining multiple serious injuries. On June 18, 2024, López was detained for 11 hours while traveling to…
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Conditional ReleaseAlireza Adineh
Activist, PoetIranMiddle East and North AfricaA poet and active member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, Reza Adineh was arrested on November 30, 2022, just one week after being summoned and threatened during an interrogation by the Ministry of Information. His arrest was accompanied by a raid on his home, during which authorities confiscated personal belongings,…
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ReleasedAlireza Nouri
Literary writer, Online Commentator, PoetIranMiddle East and North AfricaNouri, a member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of “blasphemy through writing offensive poetry online” in 2017. While his prison sentence was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, authorities enforced his sentence on February 11, 2021 and imprisoned him…
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Continued HarassmentAlistair Kitchen
Journalist, Online CommentatorUnited StatesAmericasAlistair Kitchen is an Australian journalist and former graduate student at Columbia University who was briefly detained, interrogated, and deported back to Melbourne during a layover at Los Angeles International Airport. During his time at Columbia, Kitchen had extensively reported on the student-run Gaza solidarity encampments and the university administration’s…
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Conditional ReleaseAllan Au Ka-lun
Journalist, Literary writer, Online CommentatorChina/Hong KongAsia-PacificAu is an author, columnist, and journalist known for his regular commentary in the now-shuttered Stand News and Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper. He also comments on politics and society on social media and his website 潮池. Detained on April 11, 2022 on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious materials,…
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.