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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Columnist and online commentator, Biaofeng was detained in 2020 for his online commentary about “ink Girl”, an artist who defaced an image of Xi Jinping. He was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” for his political opinion pieces.
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A renowned Telugu poet and leftist intellectual, Rao has been imprisoned by multiple governments for his viewpoints. In August 2018, he was arrested with other activists accused of inciting inter-caste violence at a protest. Due to ailments, the octogenarian poet has been released on an extended medical furlough since March…
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After briefly evading authorities, Spanish rapper Rivadulla was arrested in February 2021 for insulting members of the royal family and “promoting terrorism” in his music and tweets. In March 2021, his sentence was extended by 16 months for refusing to pay the fines from his conviction; he also faces up…
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Paing Pyo Min, a member of the Peacock Generation satirical poetry troupe that specializes in the traditional art form of Thangyat, a type of slam poetry, was sentenced to four years in prison for mocking the military in a performance that was also streamed online. In a wave of pardons…
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Paing Thet Kyaw was arrested with four other employees of the Unity newspaper after it published an exposé about an alleged secret chemical weapons factory. The ‘Unity Five’ were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014, but were released in 2016 by a presidential amnesty.
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Poet Paing Thit Nwe, also known as Thit San Oo, was arrested and detained on March 27, 2021 while taking part in a protest led by poets on Pansodan Road in downtown Yangon. During these protests, poets took part in readings and sold poems and art to oppose the February…
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.