China, Egypt are worst jailers of journalists worldwide

“The majority of jailed journalists are concentrated in just a handful of countries, including Turkey and Egypt, which have both nearly doubled the number of journalists in jail in the past year,” said Joel Simon, Executive Director of CPJ. “The situation highlights that those governments who seek to silence criticism and stifle investigation through the use of prison are global outliers whose abusive practices must be condemned.”

Egypt was holding 23 journalists behind bars compared with 12 last year. In Turkey, the number of journalists jailed doubled to 14 over the same period; they include Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool, a fixer and translator for VICE.

Of the 199 journalists imprisoned worldwide, more than half worked online. Freelancers made up less than one third of imprisoned journalists, a percentage that has declined steadily since 2011. The most common charges used to put journalists in jail were anti-state. For example, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been held in Iran for more than 500 days on charges including espionage.

CPJ’s prison census does not include journalists who disappear or are abducted by non-state entities such as criminal gangs or militant groups. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.” For example, CPJ estimates that at least 40 journalists are missing in the Middle East and North Africa, many of whom are believed held by militant groups including Islamic State.

Other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s research include:

• While 28 countries worldwide had journalists in jail, 10 of those were imprisoning a single journalist. The 2015 survey reinforces CPJ’s finding that only a handful of countries engage in systematic imprisonment of journalists.