Myanmar

PEN America Freedom to Write Index Documents Brutal Crackdowns on Writers and Intellectuals in Myanmar and Iran; Highlights Writers Worldwide Languishing Behind Bars for Decades   (New York, NY) — Myanmar—where an elected civilian government was unseated in a military coup on February 1, 2021—joined China and Saudi Arabia as the top jailers of writers and public intellectuals in the world during 2021 in PEN America’s annual census of detained writers, the Freedom to Write Index. The literary and free expression group found that in 2021, at least 277 writers, academics, and public intellectuals in 36 countries—in all geographic regions of the world—were unjustly imprisoned or held in detention in connection with their writing or other exercise of free expression. This was a slight increase from 2020, when 273 individuals were counted behind bars, but the past two years, covering the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, both represent a significant increase from 2019, when the Freedom to Write Index documented just 238 cases. Publishing its third edition of the annual census, PEN America found that over half of these 277 writers were also jailed during both 2019 and 2020, and nearly one-fifth—at least 62 writers and public intellectuals—were serving sentences of 10 or more years in prison.   During 2021, Myanmar accounted for the single-largest increase of writers and public intellectuals newly jailed for exercising free expression, due to the military junta’s crackdown on influential voices such as writer Maung Thar Cho. Myanmar jailed at least 26 writers—a steep increase from 8 in 2020—joining China and Saudi Arabia at the top of the list. Together, those three countries account for more than half of the total number of writers held behind bars in 2021.   Numbers also increased in Iran, which remains in its fourth-place position with 21 writers detained or imprisoned in 2021. The world became painfully aware of the devastating result of the …