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
Displaced/In ExileNguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Activist, Online CommentatorVietnamAsia-Pacific‘Mother Mushroom’ has faced aggressive state harassment for her blogging on political and environmental issues. In 2017, she was sentenced to ten years in prison under Article 88 but was released after two years in state custody into exile with her family in the U.S. Now living in Houston, Texas,…
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ReleasedNguyen Thi Minh Thuy
Journalist, Online CommentatorVietnamAsia-PacificNguyen Thi Minh Thuy was sentenced to three years in prison for her role as an editorial assistant to Nguyen Huu Vinh, who published articles on his blogs that openly criticized the Vietnamese government. She was released in 2017. Both she and Vinh were charged under Article 258 of the…
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ImprisonedNguyen Tuong Thuy
Journalist, Online CommentatorVietnamAsia-PacificNguyen is a blogger, writing about civil rights and free speech online, and a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam and reporter for RFA. He was detained on May 23, 2020 under Article 117 for spreading materials opposing the state, and on January 5, 2021, he was sentenced…
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ImprisonedNguyen Van Lam
Online CommentatorVietnamAsia-PacificNguyen Van Lam was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of “making, storing and spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Nguyen had been using his Facebook account with 5k followers to…
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ReleasedNguyen Van Ly
Journalist, Literary writer, ScholarVietnamAsia-PacificA Catholic priest and essayist, Ly has spent over 15 years in prison for the causes of human rights and religious freedom. Most recently, he was released in 2016, ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, after serving an eight-year sentence for his role in the Bloc 8406…
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ImprisonedNguyen Vu Binh
Activist, JournalistVietnamAsia-PacificFormer state media journalist and RFA contributor Nguyen Vu Binh left his post in 2001 to form his own pro-democracy political party. He was imprisoned from 2002 to 2007 at a labor camp for his “critical writings” against the government. Since his release, Binh has been subject to police beatings…
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Recorded HarassmentNguyen Xuan Nghia
Activist, Journalist, Literary writer, PoetVietnamAsia-PacificA poet, novelist, and founder of the banned democracy movement known as Bloc 8406, Nguyen was arrested in 2008 following the publication of Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy in Vietnam. He was sentenced to six years in prison at a forced labor camp and released in 2014. May 2018, he…
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Continued HarassmentNidal Badarneh
Creative artist, PlaywrightIsrael/Occupied Palestinian TerritoryMiddle East and North AfricaPalestinian comedian, playwright, and director Nidal Badarneh had a stand-up comedy show called “Iron Kibbeh” scheduled at the Sard Theatre in Haifa. On February 15, 2025, Israeli authorities cancelled his show citing concerns over public safety due to the delicate nature of its contents. On February 24, 2025, following an…
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ImprisonedNikolay Dayneko
PoetRussiaEurope and Central AsiaIn September 2022, poet Dayneko was arrested along with Egor Shtovba at the Mayakovsky Readings in Moscow. The next day, Artem Kamardin was arrested in relation to the case. Since then, the three poets of the Mayakovsky group have been detained and charged with “public calls for activities directed against…
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.