Sunday Times 2
Journalists behind bars: China, Israel and Myanmar the worst offenders in 2024
View(s):By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS)— The year 2024 has been one of the most devastating for journalists covering conflicts worldwide—with 361 behind bars, the second highest since the global record of 370 imprisoned back in 2023.
According to a new report released on January 16 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and Russia.
The main drivers of journalist imprisonment in 2024 were ongoing authoritarian repression, war, and political or economic instability. Many countries, including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan, set new records for imprisonment.
Journalists are being arrested and punished for exposing political corruption, environmental degradation, financial wrongdoing. Image courtesy Microsoft Open AI
“These numbers should be a wake-up call for us all,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “A rise in attacks on journalists almost always precedes a rise in attacks on other freedoms—the freedom to give and receive information, the freedom to assemble and move freely, the freedom to protest.”
“These journalists are being arrested and punished for exposing political corruption, environmental degradation, financial wrongdoing—all issues that matter to our day-to-day lives.”
Asia remained the region with the highest number of journalists behind bars in 2024, accounting for more than 30% (111) of the global total.
In addition to the leading jailers China, Myanmar, and Vietnam, journalists were also behind bars in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines.
Last year, UN legal experts determined that Israel violated international law in its detention of three Palestinian journalists. CPJ has previously called on Israel to investigate the cases of these and others held in Israeli custody for lengthy periods without charge, hold accountable those responsible for these rights violations, and provide compensation to journalists who have been arbitrarily detained.
Dr. James Jennings, president of Conscience International, told IPS that dictators and tyrannical governments use disinformation as their stock in trade. They realise that controlling newspapers, television, and the Internet are vital to their survival.
“That makes it dangerous to be a journalist in such countries for simply telling the truth”.
He pointed out honest reporting can get you arrested in Russia, kicked out of Israel, and jailed in China, Egypt, Belarus, and many other countries. Telling the true story sometimes means that journalists are liable to be killed as has happened frequently in Gaza over the past 15 months, he pointed out.
“It’s a great time to be an autocrat. Savvy politicians realise that they can reach the hearts and minds of people directly through their hand-held communication devices. “Flooding the Zone” with lies is easy. Searching for and prying out the truth in a messy situation is much more difficult, but that’s exactly the job of reporters”.
If, as is often said, journalism is the first draft of history, then every country will benefit by honouring and protecting journalists. Instead, today they may get lengthy punishments, said Dr. Jennings.
According to CPJ, pervasive censorship in China, for years one of the world’s top jailers of journalists, makes it notoriously difficult to determine the exact number of journalists jailed there.
However, jailing is not limited to the mainland, traditionally considered highly repressive. Those jailed include British citizen and Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper. He has been held in solitary confinement in Hong Kong since 2020 and is currently on trial on retaliatory charges of collusion with foreign forces.
A total of 108 journalists were imprisoned in the Middle East and North Africa, almost half of those detained by Israel.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud, an author, a syndicated columnist, editor of Palestine Chronicle and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), told IPS that while the CPJ report highlights the alarming state of global press freedom, it doesn’t fully capture the scale of the situation.
Israel’s treatment of Palestinian journalists is particularly egregious. More than 200 journalists have been killed, hundreds more injured, and many have been jailed and tortured. This makes Israel one of the leading violators of press freedom in the world, he pointed out.
“It’s important to recognise that the targeting of journalists is part of a broader pattern of repression against freedom of expression. These actions reflect a systemic denial of basic human and civil rights.”
What is especially disturbing in the case of Israel is the lack of accountability. Unlike other countries where press freedom is violated, Israel faces little scrutiny or consequence for the murders, detentions, and torture of journalists. Many Western political leaders continue to hold Israel up as a model of freedom and democracy, despite these serious violations, he argued.
Such reports must go beyond mere documentation and demand real accountability. Pressure must be placed on all relevant parties to hold those responsible for violating press freedom accountable, ensuring this issue isn’t confined to occasional press releases but leads to tangible action, declared Dr. Baroud.
Outside of Belarus (31) and Russia (30), Azerbaijan’s (13) continued crackdown on independent media made it one of the leading jailers of journalists in Europe and Central Asia in 2024. Turkey (11) is no longer among the top jailers of journalists but pressure on independent media remains high.
This is also the case in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In these regions, although the number of imprisonments is lower than in other regions threats against journalism persist. Mexico, for example, has no journalists in jail but is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist outside a war zone.
In Nigeria, with four journalists behind bars on December 1, dozens of journalists were attacked and detained as they sought to cover protests and civil unrest. Senegal, which held one journalist in prison on the 2024 census date, also arrested and assaulted journalists covering political protests.
Globally, CPJ found that more than 60%–228–of the imprisoned journalists faced broad anti-state charges, including often vague charges of terrorism or extremism in countries including Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, India, and Bahrain.
These accusations were commonly levelled against reporters from marginalised ethnic groups whose work focused on their communities.
Tackling journalist imprisonment is a key focus for CPJ, which provides journalists with financial support to cover the cost of legal fees, as well as resources to help journalists and newsrooms better prepare for or mitigate threats of legal harassment and action.
The organisation also makes concerted efforts to advocate for the release of journalists whose cases could revert or stem the tide of criminalization.