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
Status
Perea is a novelist, columnist, and multidisciplinary artist who was forced into exile by the government. They have faced police interrogations and a formal warning issued preventing them from leaving their home in December 2018. Perea is also a founding member of the Movimiento San Isidro. Since leaving Cuba, Perea…
Status
While promoting his new book on political corruption in Uganda, The Liars and Accomplices, Tumuhimbise was arrested on March 10, 2022 for “offensive communication.” He was released on bail after 11 days, and now faces charges of “cyber-stalking” President Yoweri Museveni. In 2015, Tumuhimbise was tortured and detained for his…
Status
Hernández was arrested in a 2003 roundup of dissidents known as the Black Spring and sentenced to 25 years in prison, where he was held in appalling conditions. He was released in 2010 after multilateral talks in which Cuba agreed to release those jailed in the Black Spring.
Status
Columnist and women’s rights activist Abdulaziz was arrested and detained in June 2018. While in detention, she was reportedly tortured and sexually harassed. In February 2021, after prolonged delays in her trial, Nouf was conditionally released with strict restrictions.
Status
Columnist and lawyer Kaya’s work focuses on women’s rights, education, and peaceful protests. In September 2021, she was convicted on propaganda charges based on social media posts from 2014, and sentenced to a year and three months in prison with a suspended sentence on the condition that she remain on…
Status
Nurlan Libre is an anti-war blogger and journalist who shared anti-war views on his Facebook page. In September 2023, he was sentenced to 30-day administrative arrest for “spreading prohibited information.” While in detention, he was insulted and beaten. Nurlan was released in October 2023 and left Azerbaijian a month later.
Status
Status
Award-winning Uyghur author and poet Yasin was imprisoned in February 2005 on charges of ‘inciting separatism’ for his poem “Wild Pigeon,” an allegory about the son of a pigeon king who is trapped and caged by humans while on a mission to find a new home for his flock.
Status
Ny Nak is an online commentator who owns a Facebook page with over 425k followers. In December 2020, he made a series of satirical comments on his page mocking government policies, following which he was put under house arrest. He was later charged and sentenced to 18 months in prison.…
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.