New record for most journalists imprisoned worldwide

• Reporters Without Borders’ yearly tally of imprisoned journalists reaches a new high.
• The RSF’s Annual Press Freedom Review showed 533 media professionals were imprisoned in 2022.
• The number was up from 488 in 2021.

Reporters Without Borders’ yearly tally of imprisoned journalists reaches a new high (Reporters Sans Frontieres, or RSF).

The RSF’s Annual Press Freedom Review showed 533 media professionals were imprisoned in 2022, up from 488 in 2021.

The Paris-based monitor has published the annual figure since 1995. “More than a fifth of them were imprisoned,” it claimed.

More than half are jailed in five countries: China (110), Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).

Iran’s assault on protesters has helped increase the number of detained journalists globally, the group found.

34 of the 47 journalists now in prison in Iran have been imprisoned since September protests for the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Iran, China, and Myanmar are the three countries having the most media prisoners.

RSF says China jails the most journalists. 110 journalists, including Hong Kong, are detained.

Since the military takeover in 2021, journalism is “essentially a criminal offence” in Myanmar, the RSF warned.

Eighteen media professionals, including eight from Ukraine, are imprisoned in Russia, where independent media is forbidden.

Christophe Deloire, RSF secretary-general, said dictatorial countries are jailing journalists quicker than ever.

Only about one-third of imprisoned media professionals are convicted. Two-thirds are jailed without trial.

Some have waited 20 years for trial, RSF stated.

57 journalists were slain in Ukraine, up from 48 and 50 in the previous two years.

Five non-combatant journalists have been killed covering the war.

Nearly 80% of media journalists killed worldwide in 2022 were “deliberately targeted for their employment or the issues they were covering,” such as organized crime and corruption.

As more women enter the field, the number of female journalists in prison has risen from 60 to 78 since 2021.

Monday, the NGO handed its Prize for Courage to Iranian journalist Narges Mohammadi.

RSF says three-quarters of detained journalists are in Asia and the Middle East.

Deloire said the record “confirms the essential necessity to confront these unscrupulous administrations and to extend our active solidarity to all those who exemplify journalistic freedom, independence, and pluralism.”

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