Unprecedented imprisonment of journalists; Keyvan Samimi, one of the oldest imprisoned journalists in the world
The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders announced on Thursday, December 15, that 488 media professionals are currently imprisoned around the world, the highest number since the organization began counting these cases in more than 25 years.
By contrast, the number of journalists killed this year was 46, the lowest since annual statistics began. Reporters Without Borders attributes this to the relative stabilization of conflicts in the Middle East.
The NGO, which campaigns for press freedom, wrote in a statement: “The number of journalists detained in connection with their work has never been higher since Reporters Without Borders began publishing its annual tally in 1995. The figure has increased by around 20 percent in the past year due to media repression in Myanmar, Belarus and Hong Kong.”
Reporters Without Borders also said it had never seen so many female journalists arrested in a single year. According to the organization, 60 female journalists have been imprisoned in the past year, a third more than in 2020.
Reporters Without Borders said China once again has the highest number of imprisoned journalists, with 127.
According to the report, after China, Myanmar is next with 53 imprisoned journalists, Vietnam with 43, Belarus with 32, and Saudi Arabia with 31 imprisoned journalists.
Unlike in the past, Iran is not among these countries, but one of the oldest imprisoned journalists in the world is incarcerated in Iran. Keyvan Samimi, 73, and Jimmy Lai, 74, from Hong Kong, are two elderly journalists imprisoned for their work.
Reporters Without Borders writes that the decline in the number of journalists killed since its peak in 2016 is due to the subsiding conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have attracted fewer journalists to the region.
Last year, 46 journalists were killed, most of them following assassination attempts, and the most dangerous countries in this regard were once again Mexico, Afghanistan, Yemen, and India, respectively.
Reporters Without Borders also counted 65 journalists or their colleagues taken hostage last year, all in the Middle East: 44 in Syria, 11 in Iraq and nine in Yemen.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York also published its annual report on December 9 of this year, writing that China remains the world's largest prison for journalists, and India and Mexico are also considered the deadliest countries for journalists.
In the committee's report, Russia, with 14 imprisoned journalists, and Iran, with 11 journalists behind bars, are also at the top of the list.
In late October, Reporters Without Borders warned about the risk of "arbitrary" arrests of female journalists in the Islamic Republic's judicial system, and condemned the Iranian government's "systematic imprisonment of media activists."
Previously, the human rights organization Article 19, in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), had written in a report that the increasing trend of harassment of Iranian female journalists living abroad by the authorities of the Islamic Republic was "deeply concerning."
Source: Radio Farda
