Free Expression on the Frontlines: Writers at Risk around the World

Karin Deutsch Karlekar

Topic: Free Expression on the Frontlines: Writers at Risk around the World
Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Place: Irondequoit Country Club: 4045 East Ave. [14618]
Time: 6:00 Cocktails; 7:00 Dinner; 8:00 Speaker Presentation followed by Q and A
Cost: $55 per person ($58 if paying online), buffet style. Cash Bar
Dinner: Buffet style – 2 protein options, 1 vegetarian option

***Registration Policy: For reservations, please email MemberServices@WACROC.org. Mail your
check for the dinner[s] to: WACR, PO Box 25462, Rochester, NY 14625 no later than November 26.

In a shifting and uncertain geopolitical climate, authoritarian tendencies are continuing to spread to countries that were once considered safely anchored in openness. Concurrently, we are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression. PEN America’s annual Freedom to Write Index recorded a new high of 375 writers in jail in 40 countries in 2024, indicating that a growing number of countries—ranging from extremely closed authoritarian regimes to nascent democracies to nominally free so-cieties with long traditions of open discourse—are seeking to clamp down on dissenting words and ideas. Dr. Karlekar’s talk will explore these trends, illustrated by examples of individual cases in a number of pivotal countries around the world.

Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PhD, is the director of PEN America’s Writers at Risk Programs, and leads global advocacy and assistance for individuals at risk as a result of their expression, as well as PEN’s work on Iran, Myanmar, and South Asia. She has more than two decades of experience in global free expression, press freedom, and digital rights issues, as well as individual support to writers, bloggers, and journalists. Prior to joining PEN America, she served from 2001–15 as director of Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press project, coordinating the production of a flagship annual report that tracked trends in global media freedom and rated every country in the world. As well as acting as an expert spokesperson on press freedom issues at confer-ences, meetings, and in media appearances, Karlekar has developed index methodologies and conducted training sessions on press freedom, internet freedom, freedom of expression, and monitoring dangerous speech; authored a number of special reports and academic papers; and conducted research, assessment, and advocacy missions to Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She has also worked as an editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit and as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, and served on the governing Council (board) of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network from 2006–09 and 2015-19. She holds a PhD in Indian History from Cambridge University and a BA from Vassar College. A graduate of the Harley School in Roches-ter, she was awarded the school’s Life of Great Purpose Award in 2022, and now serves on Harley’s Board of Trustees.