CPJ Reports Number of Jailed Journalists Hits 14-Year High Worldwide

From Africa to the Americas, more journalists are imprisoned today than at any time since 1996. (AFP)

On December 8, 2010, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a special report on jailed journalists worldwide.

According to the report, relying heavily on vague antistate charges, authorities jailed 145 journalists worldwide. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan are also among the worst jailers of the press.

Iran and China, with 34 imprisoned journalists apiece, are the world’s worst jailers of the press, together constituting nearly half of the worldwide total. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan round out the five worst jailers from among the 28 nations that imprison journalists.

“The increase in the number of journalists jailed around the world is a shocking development,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “It is fueled largely by a small handful of countries that systematically jail journalists—countries that are at war with information itself.”

Uzbekistan placed fifth on CPJ’s dishonor roll, with six journalists jailed on December 1. The detainees include Jamshid Karimov, the president’s nephew, who is being held involuntarily in a psychiatric facility in reprisal for his critical coverage of the government’s social and economic policies.

“The legal justification for jailing journalists varies from country to country,” said Simon. “But the motivation is nearly always the same: to crush those who challenge the authority of the state.”

More about this report at: http://cpj.org/reports/2010/12/cpj-journalist-prison-census-iran-china-highest-14-years.php