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
ReleasedDurai Guna
Activist, Literary writerIndiaAsia-PacificGuna, a Dalit rights writer-activist, was detained in September 2019 for putting up “defamatory” signs inviting replacements for apathetic government officials. He was arrested again in September 2020 for displaying satirical posters offering training to local officials. He has since run for office in the Pudukottai Assembly.
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Durai Guna Gunasekaran
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ReleasedDzamshid Karimov
JournalistUzbekistanEurope and Central AsiaFreelance journalist Karimov has twice been placed in psychiatric detention by Uzbek authorities–for 5 years in 2006 and again for 5 years in 2012. A nephew of former president Karimov and outspoken critic of the government, his current whereabouts are unknown.
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ImprisonedDzmitryi Yurtaeyeu
Online Commentator, PoetBelarusEurope and Central AsiaYurtaeyeu is a poet and teacher who had participated in anti-government protests in September 2022. He was detained by authorities then and forced to read his poems on camera. He was tried for “insulting Lukashenka” and “inciting social hatred,”. His Facebook posts were included as evidence against him. He was…
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ReleasedEdip Polat
Literary writer, ScholarTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaA Kurdish writer, Polat has been jailed three times for writing in support of Kurdish self-determination, which authorities deemed to be “separatist propaganda,” even though many of his works concern his job as a biologist. Most recently, he was released in 1998.
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ReleasedEdom Kassaye
Online CommentatorEthiopiaSub-Saharan AfricaKassaye is one of the Zone 9 Bloggers, a group formed in 2012 to publish political commentary online in the face of tightening restrictions on expression. Following her initial arrest in 2014, she was released in 2015.
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Edom Kassaye Zone 9 Bloggers
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DetainedEduard Charlotte
Online Commentator, Singer/SongwriterRussiaEurope and Central AsiaPop singer and blogger Charlotte staged several symbolic anti-war actions in 2023. He was arrested upon returning to Russia in November 2023. He faces criminal charges for “rehabilitating Nazism,” “insulting believers,” and for burning his passport. His initial 2-week arrest was extended repeatedly and he remains in detention as of…
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ImprisonedEduard Palchys
Online CommentatorBelarusEurope and Central AsiaWriting under the pen name Jhon Silver, Palchys ran a website called 1863x where he published articles criticizing Belarusian and Russian authorities. He was jailed in 2016 for his dissident writing, and again in 2020 for his so-called “extremist” blogging on Telegram. After 15 months in detention, in December 2021…
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.