Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2026
Take Action for Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

Name: Pham Doan Trang
Occupation: Author, journalist and pro-democracy activist
Situation: Imprisoned

#PhamDoanTrang
#DayoftheImprisonedWriter

Author, journalist and pro-democracy activist Pham Doan Trang has been imprisoned since October 2020 and is serving a nine-year sentence for allegedly ‘spreading propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’. She was detained after publishing an investigative report on a deadly police raid in Dong Tam in January 2020. PEN International calls for her immediate and unconditional release and urges the Vietnamese authorities to guarantee her well-being while she remains imprisoned.

How you can help:

1. Write a message of hope to Pham Doan Trang

Send her a message of solidarity to let her know that she has not been forgotten.

Click to send a message

2. Write to your foreign minister or head of state

  • Urging the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Pham Doan Trang.

  • Calling on the Vietnamese authorities to guarantee her well-being, including access to prompt and adequate medical care.

  • Raising concerns about her case and the wider repression of freedom of expression in Vietnam in diplomatic engagements with the Vietnamese government.

Please inform PEN International of any action you take and any feedback you receive.

3. Share the campaign on social media

Spread the word about Pham Doan Trang’s case on social media. Use the sample messages below with the hashtags #PhamDoanTrang and #DayoftheImprisonedWriter. tagging @peninternational.bsky.social (Bluesky), @peninternational (Instagram), and facebook.com/peninternational (Facebook). 

Captions:

  • #DayoftheImprisonedWriter: Take action for Vietnamese author, journalist and pro-democracy activist #PhamDoanTrang, who has been imprisoned since 2020 and is serving a nine-year sentence for her writings on democracy and human rights. In 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found her detention to be arbitrary and called for her immediate release.

    Urge the Vietnamese authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally and guarantee her well-being while she remains imprisoned. Share her story now. [link]

  • #DayoftheImprisonedWriter: Vietnamese writer, journalist and pro-democracy activist #PhamDoanTrang has been imprisoned since 2020 and is serving a nine-year sentence for her writings on democracy and human rights. Join our campaign. Call for her immediate and unconditional release. [link]

Visuals:

Facebook/bluesky
INSTAGRAM

  • Pham Doan Trang is an author, journalist and pro-democracy activist who has devoted her career to defending freedom of expression, access to information, democracy and human rights in Vietnam. Through her writing, she circumvents state censorship to make information about human rights accessible to Vietnamese readers. Her published works include Chính trị bình dân (Popular Politics, 2018), Cẩm nang nuôi tù (Handbook on Supporting Prisoners, 2019) and Phản kháng phi bạo lực (Non-Violent Opposition, 2019). She has also written extensively on her blog and social media.

    Trang was detained on 6 October 2020 during a police raid on her apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, following the publication of an investigative report on a deadly police raid in Dong Tam. She was held incommunicado for more than a year and denied access to legal counsel and adequate medical care. She was only permitted to meet with her lawyer on 19 October 2021. Her treatment is particularly concerning given her pre-existing health conditions, including low blood pressure and chronic pain from severe leg injuries sustained during a police assault in 2015.

    On 25 October 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Trang’s detention to be arbitrary and called for her immediate release. Despite this, she was sentenced on 14 December 2021 to nine years’ imprisonment under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code. Her appeal was rejected by the Hanoi People’s High Court on 25 August 2022. In October 2022, she was transferred to a prison approximately 100 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City, further limiting family visits and access to legal support.

    Trang’s work has received international recognition. She was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2019. In 2022, the US State Department recognised her work by naming her an International Woman of Courage. In 2024, she received PEN America’s PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, followed by PEN Sweden’s Tucholsky Prize in 2025, and the Vaclav Havel ‘Disturbing the Peace’ Award in 2026.

Share:

Thank you for supporting Pham Doan Trang. Please share her story on social media to raise awareness of her imprisonment and call for her immediate and unconditional release.

Note to Editors:

  • For further details, please contact Michael Rosen-Lupu, Head of the Asia-Pacific region at PEN International: [email protected]

  • For media queries, please contact Sabrina Tucci, Head of Communications and Campaigns at PEN International: [email protected]