Number of jailed journalists worldwide reaches highest level since 1996

[News_Editor]

Number of jailed journalists worldwide reaches highest level since 1996

2011-12-10 05:45:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide has reached its highest level since the mid-1990s, an increase driven largely by widespread jailings across the Middle East and North Africa, a report released on Thursday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.

The New York-based rights group said 179 writers, editors, and photojournalists were in jail as of December 1st, an increase of 34 over its 2010 tally. For the first time since CPJ began compiling annual prison surveys in 1990, not a single journalist in the Americas was in jail for work-related reasons as of December 1.

According to the report, governments across the Middle East and North Africa were holding 77 journalists behind bars, a figure that accounted for nearly 45 percent of the worldwide total. Meanwhile, in Europe and Central Asia, only eight journalists were jailed, the lowest regional tally in six years.

"CPJ believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. The organization has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist," the organization said.

Iran is the "world's worst jailer" with 42 journalists in prison. More than half of the Iranian detainees are being held on anti-state charges following the country's 2009 post-election crackdown, the report said.

"The volume of arrests, interrogations, and people out on bail is enormous," said Omid Memarian, an exiled Iranian journalist. "The effect is that many journalists know they should not touch critical subjects. It really affects the way they cover the news because they are under constant fear and intimidation."

Anti-state charges such as treason, subversion, or acting against national interests are the most common allegations brought against journalists worldwide, the report found. However, the new census also found that more than a third of those in prison worldwide were being held without charge.

Imprisoning journalists without charge is practiced most commonly by the government of Eritrea, the world's second worst jailer of the press with 28 behind bars. Although many have been jailed for a decade, not a single Eritrean journalist has ever been publicly charged with a crime, CPJ said.

China and Burma were also in the list of countries with 27 and 12 jailed journalists, respectively. Vietnam is the "world's fifth worst jailer" with nine journalists behind bars as an ongoing crackdown against online reporting has intensified in the country.

Nearly half of those jailed were online reporters. For the first time since 1996, no Cuban journalists appeared on CPJ's census. In 1996, CPJ recorded 185 journalists behind bars. This was driven by Turkey's suppression of ethnic Kurdish journalists.

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