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.
PEN America examines threats to free expression in our annual Freedom to Write Index, a year-end count of imprisoned writers worldwide. Explore our Writers at Risk Database for updated tracking of cases of writers, journalists, artists, academics, and public intellectuals around the world facing myriad threats for their writing and expression. Read the most recent PEN International case list here.
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
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
Ruslan Sharipov | Status: Displaced/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
Nay Phone Latt | Status: Released | Myanmar
Nay Phone Latt, an influential Burmese blogger and poet, was released on January 13, 2013, during a widespread amnesty. He had spent nearly four years behind bars for his… More
Lê Chi Quang | Status: Released | Vietnam
Lê Chi Quang is a lawyer and computer teacher who has written several essays criticizing the government. These essays were distributed through the Internet. More
Siamak Pourzand | Status: Deceased | Iran
Siamak Pourzand was a journalist and film critic. He was manager of the Majmue-ye Farrhangi-ye Honari-ye Tehran, a cultural center for writers, artists, and intellectuals. More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
