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
ReleasedEşber Yağmurdereli
Dramatist, Literary writer, PoetTürkiyeEurope and Central AsiaBlind human rights activist Yağmurdereli has spent nearly 20 years in prison on various charges related to comments about Türkiye’s human rights abuses. Most recently, he was arrested in 1997 for a speech he gave 6 years earlier on Kurdish rights. He was released in 2001.
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ReleasedEskinder Nega
Journalist, Online CommentatorEthiopiaSub-Saharan AfricaNega served over 6 years of an 18-year sentence for his critical writing; he was ultimately released in April 2018. In July 2020, after returning to Ethiopia from exile and becoming politically active, he was detained amid major protests in Addis Ababa and held for nearly 18 months before being…
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ImprisonedEssam Al-Zamil
Journalist, Online Commentator, ScholarSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and North AfricaA well-known economist, Al-Zamil was detained in September 2017 for his writing criticizing Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, and its inflated valuation on the stock market. He reportedly has faced abuse in detention. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on October 7, 2020 on terrorism charges.
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Status
ImprisonedFadhel Al-Manasef
Activist, Online CommentatorSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and North AfricaA prominent young human rights defender, Al-Manasef was arrested in October 2011 and in 2014 was sentenced to 15 years in prison on various trumped-up charges, including organizing protests and posting articles online. He was fined 100,000 Riyals and banned from traveling for 15 years after his release. The sentence…
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ImprisonedFahad Al-Fahad
Activist, Online CommentatorSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and North AfricaAl-Fahad was arrested in April 2016 for violating Saudi cybercrime laws with tweets criticizing the Saudi criminal justice system and government corruption. He is currently serving a five year prison sentence, and was also sentenced to a ten year travel ban and a ban on writing and media work.
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Conditional ReleaseFahad Shah
Editor, Journalist, Online CommentatorIndiaAsia-PacificShah, a Kashmiri editor and columnist, was arrested in February 2022 for publishing “anti-national content.” After being held for 22 days without heat or electricity and then briefly released on bail, he was re-arrested. In April 2022, Shah was booked for a third time under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.…
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Continued HarassmentFahmi Reza
Activist, Creative artist, Online CommentatorMalaysiaAsia-PacificReza is a political activist and cartoonist who draws political cartoons and graphic art, which he posts on social media. He has been charged multiple times in the past 20 years.
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MurderedFaisal Arefin Deepan
PublisherBangladeshAsia-PacificDeepan, a publisher of secular books, was stabbed to death by extremists in 2015. In late 2019, eight militants were indicted in a murder case filed on Deepan’s behalf, and in February of 2021 the eight members of the extremist group Ansar al-Islam responsible for his murder were sentenced to…
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ReleasedFaraj Ahmad Birqdar
Journalist, PoetSyriaMiddle East and North AfricaSyrian poet and activist Birqdar was arrested in March 1987 on suspicion of being a member of Syria’s Party for Communist Action. He was held without trial for 6 years, and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in 1993. He was released in 2000, and left the country.
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.