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
-
Status
MurderedAnas al-Sharif
Journalist, Online CommentatorIsrael/Occupied Palestinian TerritoryMiddle East and North AfricaAnas al-Sharif was a Palestinian journalist and Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent in northern Gaza who was killed on August 10, 2025 when Israeli forces struck a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. He and several other media workers were killed in the strike, which Israel said targeted a Hamas-linked…
-
Status
Displaced/In ExileAnastasiya Zakharevich
Journalist, Online CommentatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaOn September 5, 2020, Zakharevich was detained while taking photos at a rally and convicted to seven days of administrative arrest. On November 5, 2020 she was detained again on the site of the march of people with disabilities, convicted to 15 days of administrative arrest. Soon after her release,…
-
Status
Recorded HarassmentAnatol Kudlasevich
Creative artist, Literary writer, Poet, Singer/SongwriterBelarusEurope and Central AsiaKudlasevich, known for writing the song “The Anthem of Resistance,” which he performed at rallies protesting President Lukashenka’s election, was illegally detained in August 2020. Despite being protected under “Disability Group II” immunity, he was sentenced to ten days in detention and fined. In 2021, Kudlasevich faced repeated interrogations and…
-
Status
ReleasedAnatol Sanatsenko
Dramatist, Journalist, Literary writer, Poet, TranslatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaAnatol Sanatsenko is a poet, playwright, editor, and translator. Sanatsenko was detained by Belarusian authorities in September 2022 for “distributing extremist materials.” He was released in October of the same year. In March 2025, Sanatsenko was detained and interrogated. He was sentenced to 14 days of administrative arrest, also for…
-
Status
Conditional ReleaseAndrei Filipchyk
Activist, Online CommentatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaFilipchyk is an online activist who runs a Telegram channel where he posts jokes and memes in Belarusian. On January 31, 2023 he was arrested and a criminal case was brought against him for allegedly “promoting the Latin alphabet and hatred for the Russophone…space” and participating in “unauthorized mass events.”…
-
Status
Displaced/In ExileAndrei Novashov
Journalist, Online CommentatorRussiaEurope and Central AsiaNovashov, a journalist, was detained in March 2022 for “false information” in his online commentary. In March 2023, he was sentenced to 8 months of corrective labor and banned from journalistic activities for a year. His appeal was rejected in March 2024. In the same month, his home was searched…
-
Status
Continued HarassmentAndrej Nikolaidis
Journalist, Literary writerMontenegroEurope and Central AsiaNikolaidis is a writer and columnist. Following the publication of a politically charged column in August 2022, he received harassment from the government, with the Prime Minister personally condemning him. In March 2024, an effigy of the writer was to be burned at a local carnival. PEN International has repeatedly…
-
Status
ReleasedAndrey Luhin
Creative artist, Singer/SongwriterBelarusEurope and Central AsiaDuring a street rally on August 20, 2020 both members of the band LAUDANS, Luhin and Alena Palachanskaya had their instruments confiscated. On October 16, 2020 both were detained where they were supposed to play on suspicions of being drunk, but were released after a conversation with the police officers.…
-
Status
Displaced/In ExileAndrey Yanushkevich
Literary writer, Publisher, ScholarBelarusEurope and Central AsiaAuthor and publisher Yanushkevich was detained on May 16, 2022 after police raided his home, looking for “extremist materials.” Two hundred copies of George Orwell’s 1984 were confiscated, and his publishing house’s bookshop later had to shut down. He was detained under administrative arrest for 28 days. In the following…
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.