WASHINGTON (AFP) — In a reflection of the digital age, more online
journalists are jailed around the world than journalists from any other
medium, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported on Thursday.
The New York-based media watchdog group, in its annual census of
imprisoned journalists, said that as of December 1, a total of 125
journalists were behind bars, two fewer than at the same point in 2007.
It said 56 of the imprisoned journalists were considered online
journalists -- bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors --
surpassing the number of print journalists for the first time.
Print reporters, editors, and photographers are the next largest
category of jailed journalists, with 53 cases, the CPJ said, adding that
television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute
the rest.
For the 10th consecutive year, China was the leading jailer of
journalists, the CPJ said, followed by Cuba, Myanmar, Eritrea and
Uzbekistan.
It said 24 of the 28 jailed journalists in China worked online including
Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and blogger serving a
three-and-a-half year prison term.
Cuba holds 21 writers and editors in prison, the CPJ said, while Myanmar
is detaining 14 journalists including five arrested while trying to
spread news about Cyclone Nargis.
There are 13 journalists in prisons in Eritrea, the CPJ said, and the
Eritrean authorities "have refused to disclose the whereabouts, legal
status, or health of any of the journalists they have imprisoned."
Six journalists are being detained in Uzbekistan, the CPJ said,
including Dzhamshid Karimov, a nephew of the country's president who was
a reporter for independent news websites.
"Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we
communicate with each other," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon.
"But the power and influence of this new generation of online
journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around
the world, and they have accelerated their counterattack.
"The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the
enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits
of public discourse," he said.
The CPJ noted that 45 of the imprisoned journalists are freelancers,
most of them working online, who "often do not have the legal resources
or political connections that might help them gain their freedom."
The CPJ, in the report available at cpj.org, said anti-state allegations
such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national
interests were the most common charges used to imprison journalists.
Other countries on the list besides the top five are: Afghanistan (1),
Armenia (1), Azerbaijan (5), Bangladesh (1), Burundi (1), Cameroon (2),
Democratic Republic of Congo (2), Ecuador (1), Egypt (1), Ethiopia (2),
Gambia (1), Iran (5), Iraq (1, in US custody), Iraq (1, in Iraqi
Kurdistan custody), Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (4),
Ivory Coast (1), Maldives (1), Peru (2), the Philippines (1), Russia
(2), Senegal (1), Singapore (1), Sri Lanka (3) and Vietnam (2).
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