Mizzima.com-Apr 15
Myanmar writers this year feature prominently in 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. The Freedom to Write Index 2021 report, which offers a ranking, has just been released. 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. According to the report, the Myanmar junta detained at least 26 writers in 2021, and now ranks third in the world behind Saudi Arabia, with 29 writers in detention, and China with 85. The Freedom to Write Index 2021 report details the widespread threats to free expression around the world by analyzing key cases among at least 277 writers and public intellectuals detained during 2021, and examining trends in the 10 countries in which the freedom to write is particularly under threat. 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; including the arrests of influential writers and cultural luminaries opposing Myanmar’s military coup, and new threats emerging from the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. Read more at: https://www.mizzima.com/article/myanmar-third-largest-jailer-writers-world-pen-report-says
