The latest report from Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, published on Wednesday, shows that 2022 was the worst year for journalists worldwide, with a record number detained, killed, held hostage or gone missing.
“Last year’s record has been broken again. As of 1 December 2022, a total of 533 journalists were being held for doing their job, more than a quarter of whom were arrested in the course of the year. RSF has never previously registered such a high number of imprisoned journalists,” the RSF wrote in its annual report “Round-up of the Journalists Detained, Killed, Held Hostage and Missing in 2022”.
According to the report, 57 journalists were killed, 65 journalists were held hostage and 49 journalists remain missing.
This latest increase in the number of detained journalists (up 13.4% in 2022, after a 20% rise in 2021) confirms a trend of a steady rise in violence and intimidation against journalists, as authoritarian regimes become increasingly comfortable with jailing troublesome journalists, in many cases without even a trial. Just over a third of the journalists who are detained have been convicted, RSF said.
“Dictatorial and authoritarian regimes are filling their prisons faster than ever by jailing journalists. This new record in the number of detained journalists confirms the pressing and urgent need to resist these unscrupulous governments and to extend our active solidarity to all those who embody the ideal of journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism,” Christophe Deloire, RSF’s Secretary General, said.
China has become the world’s worst jailer of journalists with 100 journalists behind bars. followed by Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).
2022 was a dark year for female journalists in particular, as RSF reported an historic rise of nearly 30% in the number of women journalists put in prison.
Turkey has not been registered as one of the most top jailers of journalists this year, but the Turkish government’s pressure continues to be high, especially against female journalists.
“In Turkey, 3 women journalists and a female media worker have been in provisional detention since June 2022, when pro-Kurdish media outlets and production companies faced a new wave of arrests for their alleged support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government,” the RSF wrote.
The report added that among them was Jin News agency director Safiye Alagas, who, in 2019, had already been arrested and accused of “propaganda for a terrorist organisation” before being acquitted.
Since 1995, RSF has been compiling an annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists based on precise data collected from 1 January to 1 December of the year in question.
The 2022 round-up figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers.
December 14, 202211:30
