Never before have so many journalists been imprisoned worldwide

Created: 2022-12-14 06:15

Demonstrators protest in front of the Bank of China in Taipei.

© Chiang Ying-Ying/AP/dpa

The situation for media professionals has worsened in some countries.

Russia's war of aggression makes Ukraine a dangerous place for reporters.

One of the new hot spots is Iran.

Berlin - Never before have so many journalists in the world been imprisoned for their work as this year.

As of December 1, the association Reporters Without Borders (RSF) counted 533 media workers worldwide who were behind bars just because they reported.

“More than a quarter of them were arrested during the year.” This is according to the “Annual Report on Press Freedom 2022” published by the human rights organization.

The three countries with the most prisoners from the media industry are China, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Iran.

But also in Russia, for example, the state is cracking down.

Reporters Without Borders has never registered such a high number.

"Already last year, the number of inmates had increased by 20 percent, then to 470. This year the increase was somewhat lower at 13.4 percent." But the enormously high number shows one thing again: "Authoritarian regimes are increasingly involved about simply locking disruptive journalists away.

In most cases, they don't even bother to take them to court," the RSF said.

Just over a third of the imprisoned media workers were convicted.

The remaining two-thirds are in prison without a trial.

"Some of them have been waiting for their trial for more than 20 years," Reporters Without Borders said.

Journalists have to work underground

“In China, censorship and surveillance have reached extreme levels.

The country is still the largest prison for media workers in the world.” Including Hong Kong, according to the RSF, 110 media workers are being held there.

"In Myanmar, journalism is now effectively a criminal offence, as shown by the large number of media outlets banned after the military coup in February 2021." There are 62 people in prison from the industry there.

“In turn, it took the regime in Iran only a few weeks to place its country third on this list.

Almost two months after the massive, nationwide protests broke out, 47 journalists are currently in prison there.”

In Russia, too, the political leadership has been cracking down since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as the organization reported.

"Almost all independent media outlets in Russia were banned, blocked, declared 'foreign agents' - or all together - during the year."

Most of the media people who stayed in the country are forced to work underground in the face of draconian penalties: If they spread "false information" about the Russian army, they face up to 15 years in prison.

“At least 18 media workers are currently being held, including eight from Ukraine.

They were arrested in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 and is now governed by Russian law," the RSF said.

Ukraine one of the most dangerous countries for reporters

In addition, significantly more journalists died at work in 2022 than in the previous year.

RSF announced that 57 media workers had died worldwide.

In the previous year there were still 48, around a fifth less.

also read

Serbian military convoy is apparently rolling towards Kosovo – there is a risk of escalation in the middle of Europe

READ

Medvedev threatens the West with "the most powerful weapons of destruction" - Zelenskyj sets a condition for the peace plan

READ

Kosovo situation about to escalate: France "very worried" - Putin spokesman assures Serbia of help

READ

"I want to live": More and more Russian soldiers are calling the Ukrainian hotline and want to surrender

READ

"Find an antidote": Putin's army is struggling with Bakhmut

READ

Fancy a journey of discovery?

My space

One of the reasons for the increase was the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

For two years, the death toll had fallen.

The most dangerous countries were Mexico (11 dead), Ukraine (8 dead) and Haiti (6 dead).

"Due to the war in Ukraine (...) the number of media workers killed during a foreign assignment doubled," RSF summed up.

"Of the eight journalists who lost their lives since the beginning of the war, five came from abroad."

According to the RSF 2022, more journalists also lost their lives at work outside of war zones.

“On the one hand, this increase can be explained by the lifting of travel restrictions in connection with the Covid 19 pandemic.” The media would have more people on site again.

“On the other hand, several states failed to curb the violence rampant in their country and to protect media workers.

At least eleven journalists were murdered in Mexico alone.” That is 20 percent of the victims worldwide.

They often wrote about corruption.

For the fourth year in a row, Mexico was the most dangerous country for the industry.

Almost 80 percent of the media workers killed in 2022 were specifically murdered because of their job or their topics.

dpa