Islamabad: Monitoring Desk – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued the report on Journalists in Jails that reveals , a total of 779 journalists were jailed at some point in 2023 and 547 will spend New Year’s Eve in prison. China, Myanmar, Belarus and Vietnam are the four biggest jailers of media personnel. Between them, they are holding more than half of the world’s imprisoned journalists.
The sentences passed on women journalists broke records in 2023. The victims included Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi, sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison respectively in Iran. They included Maryna Zolatava, Liudmila Chekina and Valeriya Kastsiuhova, icons of independent journalism in Belarus, whose sentences ranged from 10 to 12 years. And they included Burundi’s Floriane Irangabiye, one of the few women journalists jailed in sub-Saharan Africa, who was given a 10-year sentence.
Thanks to your help, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) continues to deploy appropriate strategies to help obtain their release. Fewer journalists have been imprisoned this year than last. We will continue to fight tirelessly every day, assisted by our correspondents in more than 130 countries, to free these women and men who have been jailed simply for trying to tell us what is happening.
Each journalist in prison is a journalist prevented from working. It’s also a journalist who will be intimidated in the future. And it’s hundreds or even thousands of colleagues feeing the threat of imprisonment hanging over them. So, the right to news and information of millions could be violated. Behind these statistics, there are human tragedies and political consequences.
Arbitrary imprisonment of journalists is widely used in many countries to suppress the right to news and information. Nearly 800 journalists were jailed at some point in 2023 and almost 550 will spend the start of 2024 in prison. Nearly half of them are detained in just four countries – China, Myanmar, Belarus and Vietnam.
Imprisonment is used to persecute journalists in nearly half of the world’s countries. In the last five years, at least one journalist has been detained in connection with their work in 86 countries.
A total of 779 journalists were jailed at some point in 2023 and 547 are currently in prison or under house arrest in a total of 45 countries. The prison sentences passed on journalists this year ranged from one week to 20 years.
China continues to be the world’s biggest jailer of journalists – with 121 currently detained. It is followed by Myanmar (69), which imposed the longest jail term by far on a journalist this year when it sentenced Sai Zaw Thaike, a photo-journalist, to 20 years in prison on a range of charges including “disinformation” and “sedition.”
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Record sentences for women journalists
The sentences passed on women journalists broke records in 2023. No women journalist had been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison since 2019, but six of the eight longest sentences in 2023 were passed on women journalists.
Iran, They are being subjected to appalling persecution in Iran, where Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi were sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison,
Belarus, where Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian government gave independent journalism icons Maryna Zolatava, Liudmila Chekina and Valeriya Kastsiuhova jail terms ranging from 10 to 12 years,
Burundi, where Floriane Irangabiye, one of the few women journalists jailed in sub-Saharan Africa, is serving a 10-year sentence.
Christophe Deloire, RSF secretary-general said;
“Each journalist in prison is by definition a journalist prevented from working. But it’s also a journalist who will be intimidated in the future. And It’s hundreds or even thousands of colleagues feeling a threat hanging over their head. So, the right to news and information of millions of people could be violated. Behind these statistics, there are human tragedies and political consequences. I salute the courage of all these journalists, women and men, who have dared to brave the dangers imposed by authoritarian governments. And I thank RSF’s team, especially our correspondents in more than 130 countries, for doing everything possible to obtain their release.
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