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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Lhamjab writes about Mongolian culture, specializing in survivor testimonies of the political violence of the Cultural Revolution. In 2019, he was convicted on separatism charges. In September 2020, he was put under house arrest following protests for Mongolian language rights. He was arrested in May 2023, and is currently under…
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Lhundrub Drakpa was detained in May 2019 shortly after the release of his song “Black Hat.” He had been arbitrarily detained for over a year, during which he was beaten. He was sentenced to six years in prison for ‘separatist activities’ in June 2020.
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In 2012, Li was convicted of contract fraud, though it is likely that he was targeted in retaliation for his peaceful activism and links with exiled writers. On April 7, 2020, after over 8 years in prison, he was released into “enforced quarantine” at an unknown location.
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After criticizing the government for its handling of COVID-19, playwright and blogger Li was detained in April 2020 and was later sentenced to one year in prison for “picking quarrels” in December. He was released on December 21, 2021 and has since set up a new blog in which he…
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Li Liqun was an esteemed blogger and writer well-known by his pen name Li Huizi who blogged about fairness and justice and wrote poetry. Li took his own life on July 23, 2021, an act that came after years of being surveilled and harassed by the Chinese Communist Party. Li…
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Li was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2012 for ‘subversion of state power’ after writing critical online essays and pro-democracy leaning works. He did not have a fair trial, and was unable to appeal his sentence or choose his lawyer. He was released in September 2020.
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Liu was arrested in April 2018 and sentenced to eight months in prison after he published two short stories about a fictional character that bore a resemblance to the chairperson of China’s largest dairy producer. He was released in December 2018.
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.