Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/PARIS: Iranian government’s crackdown against the ongoing protests in the country has helped push the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to a high record of 533 in 2022, according to a report by ‘Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF), published on Wednesday.
The France-based NGO said the data is up from 488 in 2021, already a record. More than half are detained in just 5 countries; China remains the global biggest jailer of journalists with 110, Myanmar with 62, Iran with 47, Vietnam with 39, and Belarus with 31.
RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said that dictatorial regimes are filling their prisons faster than ever by jailing journalists.
This new data record in the number of detained journalists confirms the pressing and urgent need to resist these immoral governments and extend our active unity to all those who embody the ideal of journalistic freedom, independence, and pluralism.
RSF said that Iran was the only country not part of the list last year, which has been publishing the annual tally since 1995.
It said that Iran had locked up an unprecedented 34 media professionals since protests broke out in Iran in September over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini; she was arrested for breaching the country’s strict dress code police.
Women journalists also part of Global List
The number of women journalists in prison in Iran is also at an all-time high global, increasing from 60 to 78 since 2021, largely due to greater numbers entering the profession.
The cases highlighted Iranians Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, among 15 female journalists arrested during the protests. RSF said that it indicates the Iranian authorities’ desire to reduce women to silence systematically.
RSF said nearly 80 percent of journalists killed worldwide in 2022 were targeted in connection with their work or the stories they covered, such as organized crime and corruption cases.
