The number of journalists imprisoned around the world has reached a new record in 2022, according to the new annual report by Reporters Without Borders published on Wednesday. They are now 533, or around forty more than last year. The number of journalists killed is also on the rise.
The number of journalists imprisoned around the world has reached a new record in 2022. They are 533, some 40 more than last year (488), when there was already a historic level, according to the annual report of Reporter sans Frontières published on Wednesday. The number of journalists killed is also on the rise (57 dead) in particular because of the war in Ukraine, while it was “historically low” in 2021 (48 dead) and 2020 (50 dead).
Iran now on the podium
More than half of the journalists imprisoned in the world on December 1 are in 5 countries: China (110), Burma (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31). Iran is the only country that was not part of this “dark list” last year, underlines the NGO, which has kept this annual report since 1995. The Islamic Republic has in fact imprisoned a number of media professionals ” unprecedented” in 20 years since the start of the protest movement which erupted in September. Thirty-four new journalists have joined the thirteen who were already locked up before the protests began.
“Dictatorial and authoritarian regimes are filling up their prisons more quickly by imprisoning journalists,” denounced Christophe Deloire, secretary general of the NGO for the defense of press freedom. Within this overall global assessment, RSF notes an unprecedented number of women journalists imprisoned: they are 78 (compared to 60 last year). “Female journalists now represent almost 15% of detainees, compared to less than 7% five years ago,” according to RSF.