Writers Under Siege: Defying Silence – PEN International Case List 2026
The PEN International Case List 2026, Writers Under Siege: Defying Silence, is now live. The Case List 2026 documents a troubling global pattern: space for expression, culture, and dissent is shrinking as governments across the world intensify efforts to silence critical voices and target writers for their work.
The report says writers continue to face imprisonment, threats, censorship, judicial harassment, and forced exile across the regions. In 2025 alone, PEN International documented 140 cases of persecution worldwide. The pattern reflects a growing risk faced by those who use the written word to speak truth to power.
The report also noted that book censorship and cultural repression are rising, particularly in the USA and Canada but also in Cuba, Mexico and Türkiye, increasingly targeting works addressing gender, racial equality and LGBTQI issues. In East Jerusalem, Israeli forces confiscated books from a Palestinian bookshop and briefly detained its owners, writer and bookseller Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad Muna.
The report also highlights broader structural concerns, including weakening international safeguards for freedom of expression, the impact of conflicts on cultural life, the rise of transnational repression, and the growing use of disinformation and censorship to distort public debate and silence dissent.
We stand in solidarity with all activists, artists, authors, journalists, and writers at risk and reaffirm our commitment to defending freedom of expression everywhere.
The full list can be accessed here: https://www.pen-international.org/case-list-2026
