Brutal crackdowns on writers and intellectuals

Dear Friend,

Today we are proud to announce the release of the third edition of PEN America’s annual Freedom to Write Index, providing a count of the writers and public intellectuals who were held in prison or detention during 2021 in relation to their writing or for otherwise exercising their free expression. See coverage of our report in The Guardian.

READ THIS YEAR'S REPORT NOW

The world heard echoes of history throughout the year as a global resurgence of authoritarianism brought sweeping crackdowns on writers and cultural spaces, with illegitimate regimes seeking to reclaim power by invoking fear and shutting down dissent. Writers were at the forefront of resistance to these efforts, making them targets of censorship, detentions, and violence.

Our report analyzes key cases among at least 277 writers and public intellectuals detained during 2021 and examines trends in the 10 countries in which the freedom to write is particularly under threat. Among our findings are these key facts:

Writers around the world faced increased threats from both authoritarian takeovers and ongoing systemic repression, with dozens of new arbitrary arrests compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread within jails and prisons.
Similar to last year’s findings, China and Saudi Arabia still remain the first and second-worst jailers of writers worldwide, respectively.
Notably, Myanmar jumped up to third in the rankings, as the single largest source of new cases following the country’s military coup in February 2021, while Iran also increased its share of detained writers.
Globally, more than 20 percent of the writers counted are serving extreme sentences for their peaceful expression of more than 10 years behind bars; 11 of these have been jailed for life, an incredibly steep price to pay for their words.

We hope you will share our report with your networks, and that you'll also join us on Wednesday, April 27 at 11am Eastern Time for Freedom to Write Index 2021: Tracking Jailed Writers and Public Intellectuals Around the World, a virtual event discussing the Index findings, featuring writers included in the Index and advocates of writers still in prison.

In the face of rising authoritarianism, the voices of writers are indispensable in helping us to speak truth to power and imagine alternate visions. Thank you for helping PEN America push back against these incursions on the ability to think and write freely.

Sincerely,

Karin Deutsch Karlekar
Director, Free Expression at Risk Programs
PEN America

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. We also extend our thanks to PEN International—both the Secretariat staff and the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC)—for its extensive casework and collaboration on this project.

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