China jailed the highest number of writers in the world in 2024 as global clampdown on freedom of speech increased for the sixth year, according to a report compiled by PEN America.
At least 375 writers were in prison across 40 countries in 2024, an increase from 339 writers jailed across 33 countries recorded last year, according to the Freedom to Write Index.
China accounts for nearly one-third of the world’s jailed writers, with 118 authors arrested for writing on democracy, criticising the Chinese Communist Party, and promoting ethnic minority language and culture, the report found.
Almost half of the jailed writers in 2024 were ethnic minorities such as Uyghur, Tibetan, or Mongolian, who were arrested on vague charges that allege “separatism”.
The report found that one-third of the jailed writers in China were primarily online commentators, nine were women, and 33 were detained without charges or are in pre-trial detention.
Rights groups and foreign governments have criticised China for throttling dissent through the arbitrary arrest of Uyghurs, critics and pro-democracy activists and lawyers in Hong Kong under the national security laws. Prominent Uyghur scholar and author Rahile Dawut was sentenced to life in prison in 2023 on charges of “endangering state security”. Beijing routinely denies such allegations, calling them the “lie of the century”.
“Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law … press freedom cannot become an excuse for committing crimes,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson had said in August 2024. China in 2024 ranked 172 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index.
Recently, China jailed Li Yanhe, a Chinese national and editor-in-chief of a Taiwanese publishing house, to three years in prison for “inciting separatism”.
