Freedom to Write Index & Writers at Risk Database Methodology

Freedom to Write Index & Writers at Risk Database Methodology PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index provides a count of the writers, academics, and public intellectuals who were held in prison or detention during the previous calendar year in relation to their writing or for otherwise exercising their freedom of expression. [...] While PEN America will not update previous publications of the Index report or retroactively count cases, the inclusion of these cases will be taken into consideration when calculating future statistics and figures in the Freedom to Write Index, such as in the calculation of year-to-year trends. [...] Criteria for Inclusion in the Freedom to Write Index To be counted in the Freedom to Write Index, an individual must have spent at least 48 hours behind bars in a single instance of detention between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year in question. [...] In part to distinguish the Index from existing counts of journalists in prison and maximize its usefulness as a resource, the Index does not include journalists except in cases where they also fall into one of the former categories or primarily write commentary. [...] For the purposes of the Index and the status designations used to classify cases, imprisonment is considered to be when an individual is serving a sentence following a conviction, while detention accounts for individuals held in custody pending charges or those who have been charged and are being held prior to conviction.