The number of imprisoned journalists around the world has reached a world high this year, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, released on December 9. At the beginning of December, 293 media employees were imprisoned for their professional activities.
For the third year in a row, China remains in first place in the criminal prosecution of journalists – 50 journalists are serving sentences here for their professional activities. In second place is Myanmar with 26 prisoners, in third and fourth place are Egypt (25 prisoners) and Vietnam (23 prisoners).
Belarus closes the top five of the anti-rating leaders – there are 19 journalists behind bars, convicted for their work. Over the past year, the Belarusian authorities have imprisoned nine journalists. This is the largest increase in prisoners in a year since 1992, when the Committee began collecting statistics, and for the entire period of independence of Belarus.
The arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich after a forced landing in Minsk of an airplane in which he flew from Greece to Lithuania is called an extremely cruel measure in the organization. This, according to the Committee, shows how little the country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko cares about public opinion, and how much he cares about staying in power.
Another detainee in Belarus is Alyaksandr Ivulin, a correspondent for the independent sports news website Tribuna. He is serving a four-year sentence on a public disorder charge. The attention of human rights activists was also attracted by the fact that his fan was imprisoned for 14 days for wearing a club T-shirt with number 25. This number was worn by Ivulin when he played football.
Russia ranks ninth in the ranking and is located between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In Russian colonies there are 14 journalists convicted in connection with their professional activities. The same number is in Saudi Arabia, but not a single person was imprisoned here in a year, and ten, on the contrary, were released. The organization notes that the report does not include those journalists who were imprisoned and released during the year.
In Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan – two each, in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan one journalist is behind bars.
Over the past year, at least 24 journalists have been killed worldwide, the report says. The death of another 18 media representatives in the Committee could not be directly linked to their professional activities. Most of those killed were recorded in Mexico – six people.
Information taken from the site https://www.centralasian.org/a/31602687.html?ltflags=mailer&fbclid=IwAR0fzueHqhGA76m86ROAkNJ4ENG_xe14v0_et0Kf2JynEqMkbZPEwVjupAc
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