For the first time ever, the Freedom to Write Index documented more than 400 writers in prison in 2025, including in the United States.
As Governments Silence War Critics, Writers Pay the Price
Crackdowns on writers during wartime emerged as a key trend in PEN America's 2025 data gathered for the latest annual Freedom to Write Index.
The Freedom to Write
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.
Writers at Risk Archive
PEN America champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. The bedrock work of the global PEN network is advocacy and assistance on behalf of individuals persecuted for their use of the written word or other forms of expression. PEN America’s Writers at Risk Database is a searchable catalog of the writers, journalists, academics, public intellectuals and others under threat around the world. The database includes historical cases PEN America has worked on from 1987 onwards; non-active cases are color-coded black. PEN America is grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for support that enabled the establishment of the Writers at Risk Database and to PEN International for their collaboration in assembling this database.
Private Prisons in the United States – The Sentencing Project
Twenty-seven states and the federal government incarcerated 90,873 people in private prisons in 2022, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population.
Issue 100 – Freedom of all kinds is worth fighting for
As masked agents execute people and terrorize communities, crypto executives who spent years posting about freedom fall conspicuously silent — except when writing checks for the politicians enabling it
The Deportation Project: Inside the Trump administration's secret deals to expel people worldwide - Forbidden Stories
72 journalists, 26 news organizations, 15 countries: a global investigation into the Trump administration’s secret third-country deportation system
More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record
The number of articles being retracted rose sharply this year. Integrity experts say that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record
The number of articles being retracted rose sharply this year. Integrity experts say that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?
In a random sample of 10,000 webpages collected in July 2026, one-in-ten show signs of being written or substantially edited by AI.
Global: Risk Profiling Systems Used to Identify Potential Offenders Breach International Law and Must Be Banned – New Report
Widespread risk profiling by law enforcement, social security and migration is incompatible with international human rights law and must be banned.
The artificial intelligence disclosure penalty: Humans persistently devalue AI-generated creative writing.
Scientific production in the era of Large Language Models
Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly reshaping scientific research. We analyze these changes in multiple, large-scale datasets with 2.1M preprints, 28K peer review reports, and 246M online accesses to scientific documents. We find: 1) scientists adopting LLMs to draft manuscripts demonstrate a large increase in paper production, ranging from 23.7-89.3% depending on scientific field and author background, 2) LLM use has reversed the relationship between writing complexity and paper quality, leading to an influx of manuscripts that are linguistically complex but substantively underwhelming, and 3) LLM adopters access and cite more diverse prior work, including books and younger, less-cited documents. These findings highlight a stunning shift in scientific production that will likely require a change in how journals, funding agencies, and tenure committees evaluate scientific works.
These 183,000 Books Are Fueling the Biggest Fight in Publishing and Tech
Use our new search tool to see which authors have been used to train the machines.
Journalism
This program has been suspended as of March 2026. Click here to view our full list of programs.NOTE: If you are currently enrolled in this program for the 2025-2026 academic year, you can&nb
USA: Torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at "Alligator Alcatraz" and Krome in Florida - Amnesty International
This report presents Amnesty International’s findings from a research trip to southern Florida in September 2025, to document the human rights impacts of federal and state migration and asylum policies on mass detention and deportation, access to due process, and detention conditions since President Trump took office on 20 January 2025. In particular, it focuses […]
USA: Torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at "Alligator Alcatraz" and Krome in Florida - Amnesty International
This report presents Amnesty International’s findings from a research trip to southern Florida in September 2025, to document the human rights impacts of federal and state migration and asylum policies on mass detention and deportation, access to due process, and detention conditions since President Trump took office on 20 January 2025. In particular, it focuses […]