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| Demonstrators hold banners outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in January 2013. Photo: James Pomfret/ Reuters |
New
York, December 17, 2014 - In the wake of a broad crackdown on free expression
since President Xi Jinping took office, China is the world's worst jailer of journalists,
with 44 behind bars, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its annual report on imprisoned journalists released today.
In
Iran, where President Hassan Rouhani has also failed to meet expectations for
liberal reform, 30 journalists are in prison. The list of the top 10 worst
jailers of journalists is rounded out by Eritrea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Syria,
Egypt, Burma, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
All
told, CPJ identified 220 journalists in jail around the world in 2014, the
second-highest number since CPJ began taking an annual census in 1990. In 2013, 211 were jailed, while 2012 saw the record high of 232.
"We
may live in the information age, but those who bring us the news are being
jailed in record numbers," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.
"From China to Iran and from Egypt to Burma, hopes for reform have been
dashed as authoritarian governments suppress critical speech at a terrible cost
to journalists."
Turkey,
which was the world's worst jailer in 2012 and 2013, released dozens of
journalists this year, bringing to seven the number of journalists behind bars
on the date of CPJ's census. However, on December 14, Turkey detained several
more journalists and accused them of conspiring against the Turkish state.
The
detentions were born of a political struggle between President Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄŸan's ruling party and the movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah
Gülen, and included the editor-in-chief of one of Turkey's largest dailies, Zaman,
which is aligned with Gülen.
The
number of journalists in Chinese jails is the largest CPJ has ever documented in
that country. Almost half of those jailed are Tibetan or Uighur, including
academic and blogger Ilham Tohti and seven students who worked on his website.
A
state crackdown on independent publications and bloggers in
Ethiopia this year more than doubled the number of journalists imprisoned to
17. The number jailed also more than doubled in Egypt to 12, including three
journalists from the international network Al-Jazeera. Burma had 10 journalists
in jail, the first on CPJ's census since 2011.
Worldwide,
132 journalists, or 60 percent, were jailed on anti-state charges such as
subversion or terrorism. Online journalists accounted for more than half, or
119, of the total imprisoned, while roughly one-third were freelancers.
CPJ's
list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at 12:01 a.m. on December 1, 2014. It
does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the
year.
The prison census accounts only for journalists in government custody and
does not include those in the captivity of nonstate groups. For example, CPJ
estimates that approximately 20 journalists are missing in Syria, many of whom
are believed held by the militant group Islamic State.
CPJ is an
independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom
worldwide.
Media contact:
Advocacy Officer
Samantha Libby
Communications
Associate
Tel. +1 212-300-9032
E-mail: slibby@cpj.org
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