Jailing over 17 media practitioners in 2023, this marks the first time Israel has been among those dominating the spotlight (sixth place), which is contained in the CPJ annual prison census.
Meanwhile, this came amidst the protracted Israel-Gaza war. Hence, most of the victims, according to the report are Palestinians.
Most of the detained journalists were Palestinians, and this marks the highest number of Palestinian journalists in detention since CPJ began documenting arrests in 1992 and the first time that Israel has ranked in sixth place on the census.
The media-focused NGO relays that Israel’s unprecedented ranking is said to have been driven by “its practice of administrative detention in the occupied West Bank, a type of incarceration that allows a military commander to detain someone without charge—and extend their detention an unlimited number of times—on grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense”.
Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive officer, was quoted saying: “Our research shows how entrenched authoritarianism is globally, with governments emboldened to stamp out critical reporting and prevent public accountability. Meanwhile, Israel’s standing in CPJ’s 2023 prison census is evidence that a fundamental democratic norm—press freedom—is fraying as Israel exploits draconian methods to silence Palestinian journalists. This practice must stop.”
According to CPJ, 320 journalists were imprisoned globally in connection with their work on the 1st of December 2023, which marks the second highest since it began recording this data.
Accordingly, the previous record was set in 2022, when more than 360 appeared in CPJ’s database. In 2023, the top three jailers of journalists—China (44 behind bars), Myanmar (43), and Belarus (28)—held more than a third (35.8%) of those incarcerated on the day of the census. Russia (22) and Vietnam (19) rounded out the top five jailers of journalists,” CPJ notes.
However, it is important to note that CPJ’s prison census is a snapshot of those incarcerated on December 1, 2023, and does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year.
