Reporters Without Borders has cited Iran's crackdown on protests for pushing the number of journalists in prison to a record high of 533.
In it's annual report published this Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders indicated that the figure of detained journalists is up from 488 in 2021 – which was already a record.
According to the French-based NGO, more than half are detained in just five countries: China, which remains "the world's biggest jailer of journalists" with 110, followed by Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).
In a statement RSF Secretary-General, Christophe Deloire 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," he added.
Iran is the only country that was not on the list last year.
RSF, which has been publishing the annual tally since 1995, says that Iran has locked up an "unprecedented" 34 media professionals since protests broke out in September over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for breaching the country's strict dress code.
🔴 2022 #RSFRoundUp: Last year’s record has been broken again.
— RSF (@RSF_inter) December 14, 2022
533 journalists are in prison. RSF has also never previously seen so many women journalists in detention. (30% more than a year ago)
More than one journalist was killed every week in 2022https://t.co/ArMIN70cuM pic.twitter.com/r0THgQp9Cd
Arrests of women
The number of female journalists in prison is also at an all-time high worldwide, rising from 60 to 78 since 2021, largely due to greater numbers of women entering the profession.
It highlighted the cases of Iranians Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi – among 15 female journalists arrested during the protests – who drew attention to the death of Amini and now face a potential death penalty.
RSF says the incarcerations are "indicative of the Iranian authorities' desire to systematically reduce women to silence."
On Monday, the NGO awarded its Prize for Courage to one of their number, Narges Mohammadi, who has been repeatedly imprisoned over the past decade.
'Deliberately targeted'
Three quarters of jailed journalists are concentrated in Asia and the Middle East, while a sharp increase in media repression in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine has been reported.
The number of journalists killed has also risen – to 57 – due particularly to the war in Ukraine, up from "historic lows" of 48 and 50 in the last two years, respectively.
Eight journalists have been killed reporting on the Ukraine war, five of them from non-combatant countries.
RSF said nearly 80 percent of media professionals killed around the world in 2022 were "deliberately targeted in connection with their work or the stories they were covering", such as organised crime and corruption cases.
