Number of jailed journalists worldwide hits record high for 6th year

NEW YORK • Increased government intolerance of independent reporting pushed the number of imprisoned journalists worldwide to a record high of 293 this year, a monitoring group said in an annual survey released.

The total, up from 280 last year, is the sixth consecutive annual record for the number of jailed journalists worldwide as tallied by the monitoring group, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Since the group set up the database of imprisonments in 1992, it has become a global benchmark for measuring repression of journalists.

Mr Joel Simon, the group's executive director, and Ms Arlene Getz, its editorial director, said in releasing the survey yesterday that the relentless climb in the number of jailed journalists reflected differing circumstances by country, but that a common denominator was a growing unwillingness among authoritarian governments to accept the public release of information they considered a threat.

"The number reflects two inextricable challenges - governments are determined to control and manage information, and they are increasingly brazen in their efforts to do so," Mr Simon said.

"Imprisoning journalists for reporting the news is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime."

The survey, which counted those imprisoned as at Dec 1, offered a counterpoint to China's aggressive efforts aimed at showcasing itself for the Beijing Winter Olympics next February and portraying the ruling Communist Party of China as a defender of democratic liberties.

Fifty journalists are known to be imprisoned by China, the survey found, more than anywhere else, and for the first time including journalists from Hong Kong, which was subjected to a harsh security law last year following pro-democracy protests there.

At No. 2 this year is Myanmar, where a military junta seized power in February, arrested many reporters and jailed at least 26.

Egypt with 25, Vietnam with 23 and Belarus with 19 round out the top five on the survey list. They were followed by Turkey with 18, Eritrea with 16, and Saudi Arabia and Russia with 14 each.

Ms Getz acknowledged that some countries, which historically have been among the top jailers of journalists, defied the trend.

Turkey, which was No. 1 in 2018, receded in the rankings after its release of 20 journalists last year.

But in Turkey's case, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had effectively silenced the domestic media in a crackdown that followed the failed 2016 coup.

Ms Getz said that "it would be naive to see lower prisoner numbers as a sign of a change of heart towards the press".

No journalist has been jailed in North America as at Dec 1, the group said. But it noted that the US Press Freedom Tracker, a collaboration of the group and other press advocacy organisations, reported at least 56 arrests and detentions of journalists across the United States this year, 86 per cent of them during protests. That total nearly equals the totals for 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined.

The group also reported that the number of journalists killed worldwide in retaliation for their work totalled at least 19 this year as at Dec 1, compared with 22 for all of last year.

Three journalists were killed this year while reporting from conflict zones, the group said, and two others were killed covering protests or street clashes.

India was home to the highest number of journalists killed in retribution for their reporting - four - and a fifth was killed covering a protest, the group said.

NYTIMES