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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Derakhshan is a Baha’i adherent and poet who has long publicly criticized the Iranian government’s treatment of the Baha’i people. In 2010, he was arrested for a letter to the Supreme Leader and spent 36 days in solitary confinement. He was also detained in 2012 for “propaganda.” He was most…
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Nattapol, a historian, is facing a civil defamation suit for his writings on the Thai monarchy. The plaintiff, a royal descendant, is seeking 50 million baht in damages based on an resolved error in Nattapol’s doctoral thesis and books that she alleges was intentional. On January 20 2022, 30 police…
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Mihandoost is a filmmaker and screenwriter. In December 2019, he was summoned to the authorities for a 2009 documentary on an Iranian dissident. He was detained until February. In December 2020, he received a prison sentence of 3 years and 6 months for “conspiracy” and “propaganda.” The sentence was reduced…
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Columnist and social media commentator Al-Amer authored Days of Ashes (2013), where he recounts his experience as a detainee for 13 months in an Israeli prison in 2011. In October 2023, Israeli soldiers raided his West Bank home, confiscated his phone, and arrested him without notifying him of any charges…
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Authorities charged editor-in-chief of Voice of Myanmar Nay Myo Lin with a life sentence under an anti-terrorism law and shut down the news site after he published an interview with the rebel Arakan Army in March 2020. The court later reversed the charge and released him.
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Nay Phone Latt, whose blog had been praised by the BBC for publishing trustworthy news, was arrested in February 2008 and sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison in a closed-door trial without a lawyer for ‘disrupting morality.’ He was released under an amnesty in 2012 and later…
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Sahgal, a prominent novelist, was disinvited from delivering a speech at the 92nd annual meeting of a Marathi literary conference after organizers became concerned about a possible political backlash if she were to speak critically of the Modi government.
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In 2018, columnist Ilıcak was given a life sentence for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” and terrorism. Her verdict was later overturned and she was released. In December 2023, she was reimprisoned for “slandering officials” in a 2016 piece. She was conditionally released in January 2024 but sentenced to…
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Reporter Niang was arrested in May 2023 in connection with her commentary that was critical of Senegalese authorities. She was charged with “acts likely to undermine public security, direct provocation of an unarmed gathering, and usurping the function of a journalist.” She embarked on two hunger strikes in July and…
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.