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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Paul has been well-known for his stories exposing local government corruption. In the September 1991 military coup that deposed President Aristide, Paul was arrested and brutally tortured in police detention. He was released with charges dropped in April 1992.
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The first online journalist imprisoned in sub-Saharan Africa, Kavumbagu has been arrested six times by six consecutive Burundi governments for dissident reporting. Most recently, he was jailed in July 2010 for treason but released nine months later.
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Author of The Back of the Skin, Tenório received death threats while on tour to promote his book in São Paulo, Brazil in March 2022. The original title O Avesso da Pele got him the 2021 Jabuti Prize. Tenório filed a police report after receiving the threats on Instagram and…
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Mohamed was a columnist and former editor-in-chief who wrote critical opinion pieces on the Syrian government and was supportive of the Revolution. He was arrested on August 10, 2013 and his whereabouts have been unknown since. Rumors on his death have circulated in the past; however, his family is still…
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Apple Daily publisher and opinion writer Lai was arrested in August 2020 for violating Hong Kong’s National Security Law. Released on bail a month later, Lai was soon targeted in a police raid on the paper’s office. In December 2020, he was detained for “fraud,” among other charges, and was…
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After assisting between 2000 and 2010 in the editing and publication of articles critical of Jiang Zemin, the former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Jin was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released upon expiry of his sentence in January 2019.
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Bedoya was abducted twice while reporting: she was kidnapped, raped, and tortured while preparing for an interview with a paramilitary group leader in 2000; and was abducted in 2003 while reporting on FARC-controlled territories. With security, Bedoya continues to report and write columns. In 2021, the Inter-American Court of Human…
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Clifford has faced police harassment, death and rape threats, and attempted physical attacks in for authoring O Segundo Jesus, Rainha do Céu, a play that explores the multiplicity of trans communities.
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.