CPJ census finds '15-year high' in jailed journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that there are currently 179 "writers, editors and photojournalists" in prison across the world today. According to the press freedom group, this is the highest number for 15 years.

The CPJ's yearly census, correct as of 1 December, found that 86 of those were journalists working largely online. The overall figure of 179 shows there were 34 more jailed journalists this year than at the same time last year.

Based on the CPJ's ranking of countries Iran was placed top with 42 journalists behind bars, while Eritrea was second with 28. China, Burma and Vietnam followed in the list with 27, 12 and nine respectively.

"Independent journalists, who often lack the institutional support necessary to resist legal pressures or defend themselves in court, are bearing the brunt of this unprecedented rise in the incarceration of journalists", the CPJ's executive director Joel Simon said in a release.

"The media gives voice to the grievances of citizens and helps to hold the powerful to account. Their freedom to report represents our freedom to know."

The press freedom organisation described Iran as having "a revolving prison door with furloughs and new arrests".

"A relentless crackdown on the press has led 65 journalists to flee Iran since 2009," the release adds.

According to the CPJ's report the census also "found an alarming rise" in the amount of journalists being "held without charge or due process".

"Sixty-five journalists, accounting for more than a third of those in prison worldwide, were being held without any publicly disclosed charge, many of them in secret prisons without access to lawyers or family members," the report adds.

"In some instances, governments such as those in Eritrea, Syria, and Gambia have denied the very existence of these jailed journalists."

However the CPJ added that its survey also found improvements in some regions, with the Americas cited as not having any journalists imprisoned on 1 December.

"Imprisonments also continued to decline gradually in Europe and Central Asia, where only eight journalists were jailed, the lowest tally in six years."

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