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.
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A columnist for Mada Masr, Fouad was detained in June 2019 and charged with participating in a Muslim Brotherhood plot to overthrow the Sisi regime. After beginning a hunger strike in July 2021, he was moved to solitary confinement and denied medical treatment for his suffering health. He was handed…
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Kassem, former publisher of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper and a free speech advocate, was detained in August 2023 for four days for allegedly insulting a public employee. In September he was sentenced to 6 months in prison for slandering and defaming former minister and current member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee,…
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An online activist who has published detailed accounts of her own repression, Khuong has served multiple prison sentences on charges related to anti-state propaganda and “abusing democratic freedoms” Most recently, she was released in 2016 after serving a 5 year sentence.
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Blogger Ho Van Hai became well-known for criticizing Vietnam’s one-party Communist rule. He spent over three years in prison for posting “anti-state propaganda” in support of protests following the 2016 Formosa disaster. He was released into two years of house arrest in April 2020, and left Vietnam for exile in…
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Badaghi is an Iranian poet and online writer. In 2019, a case was opened against him for “propaganda” based on Instagram posts. In October 2023, he was summoned to serve a new prison sentence for “propaganda” for his online commentary. He is currently in prison as of February 2024.
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Outspoken critic of Iran’s theocracy Eshkevari was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2000 upon return from a conference at which Iranian social and political reform was debated. He was released in 2005 and continues to advocate for secular government.
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Chin’ono was detained in July 2020 for almost six weeks after he published his investigations into state corruption. He has since been repeatedly detained on additional spurious charges, including inciting public violence, communicating “falsehoods,” defamation, and contempt. As Chin’ono’s case went through the courts in 2021, several of these charges…
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
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.
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.