“More than a quarter of them were arrested during the year.” This is evident from the “Annual Balance Sheet of Press Freedom 2022”, which the human rights organization published on Wednesday. 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 taking firm action.
Reporters Without Borders has never recorded such a high number. “Last year the number of detainees had already increased by 20 percent, then to 470. This year the increase was slightly lower at 13.4 percent.” But the huge number again shows one thing: “Authoritarian regimes are increasingly turning to simply imprisoning disruptive journalists. In most cases, they don’t even bother to take them to court,” the RSF said.
Just over a third of the jailed media workers were convicted. The other two-thirds are in prison without trial. “Some have been waiting for their trial for more than 20 years,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“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, 110 media workers are being held there, according to the RSF. “Journalism is now a de facto criminal offense in Myanmar, as evidenced by the large number of media outlets banned following the February 2021 military coup.” There are 62 industry prisoners there.
“It only took the regime in Iran a few weeks to get its country to third place on this list. Nearly two months after the outbreak of massive nationwide protests, 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, the organization reports. “Almost all independent media outlets in Russia were banned, blocked, declared ‘foreign agents’ – or all of them together” during the year.
Most of the media people who have remained in the country are forced to work underground because of the draconian penalties: if they spread “false information” about the Russian army, they risk 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 was annexed by Russia in 2014 and is now subject to Russian law,” the RSF said.
(SDA)