Myanmar imprisoned more writers than any other country in 2021

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

According to a freedom of expression advocacy group, Myanmar arrested more writers and public intellectuals in crackdowns last year than any other country.

 

PEN Myanmar's military jailed at least 26 writers in 2021, according to the annual Freedom to Write Index, as it moved to repress opposition after seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government.

 

According to the PEN survey, Myanmar holds the third-highest number of writers and public intellectuals in the world (26), after only Saudi Arabia (29) and China (21). (85). Many of those detained in Saudi Arabia and China are serving long terms and had previously been arrested.

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According to PEN, at least 277 writers were imprisoned last year in 36 countries for their writing or exercising their right to free expression.

 

The figures, according to Karin Deutsch Karlekar, head of PEN America's "free expression at danger" programmes, are "intolerably high."
"Writers and public intellectuals are being imprisoned in Myanmar and around the world for the 'crime' of exercising their freedom of expression and, in many cases, for using the power of the written word to combat totalitarianism," she said.

Following the military takeover in Myanmar in February 2021, several poets and authors utilised their work to express outrage and anguish over the crimes committed by the military and to incite dissent.

 

According to PEN, the majority of the 26 people seized in Myanmar in 2021 are being held in jails without being accused.

Many people have continued to write while in hiding or temporary exile, Karlekar added, sharing their work on Facebook or other applications where they feel safe.
Due to security concerns, others have been driven to self-censor.
There have been several reports of mistreatment and torture in Myanmar's detention facilities.