The German Office of the press freedom NGO, Reporters without Borders (RSF) has announced in its annual report that at least 387 journalists around the world have been imprisoned as of December 1st this year.
The report identified five countries to be responsible for over half of all convictions with China leading the pack with 117 jailed journalists, followed by Saudi Arabia (34), Egypt (30), Vietnam (28) and Syria (27).
While the majority of imprisoned press workers were still men, the number of women arrested in 2020 increased by a third to 42.
Since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic early in the year, over 130 members of the press, be they journalists or otherwise, have been arrested for reporting on the crisis. Some 14 of those were still in jail at the time of the report’s publication, the report indicates.
“The high number of imprisoned journalists worldwide throws a harsh spotlight on the current threats to press freedom,” said Katja Gloger, the head of the RSF German office.
Gloger condemned the response of “far too many governments” to protests, grievances or the COVID-19 crisis with repression against the “bringers of bad news.”
“Behind every single one of these cases is the fate of a person who faces criminal trials, long imprisonment and often mistreatment because he did not submit to censorship and repression,” she added.
Her colleague, Sylvie Ahrens-Urbanek, highlighted one particular example of reprisals for reporting on the coronavirus pandemic — the case of investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono from Zimbabwe, who was arrested for reporting on the government’s sale of overpriced COVID-19 medication.
He was “brutally arrested,” said Ahrens-Urbanek, and spent a month and a half in prison. Release on bail was repeatedly refused.
Reporters without Borders emphasized on the situation in Belarus, where at least 370 journalists have been arrested in the wake of the contested presidential election on August 9th. Although most of those were released after a short period, the crackdown on journalists represents a reduction in press freedom.
The report also highlighted the detention of the Australian WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, currently in Belmarsh high-security prison in the UK. RSF claimed that conditions had become much worse following a coronavirus outbreak in the prison and Assange had been placed in de facto isolation as a result.
The report expressed concern for the health of those imprisoned journalists who have not received proper medical attention during the pandemic and who have been subjected to the psychological effects of increased isolation.
Some journalists are also facing death sentences with Iranian journalist, Ruhollah Zam executed on December 12th.
RSF also counted 54 media workers who had been kidnapped in Syria, Iraq and Yemen; some of them have not been heard from in years. Another four journalists disappeared under unexplained circumstances in 2020 — one in Iraq, one in Congo, one in Mozambique and one in Peru.
The NGO began issuing its yearly report in 1995. It includes cases of journalists and other professionals working in the field of journalism.
