Today, on Al-Jazeera’s Global Day of Action, the Qatari-based broadcaster is urging Egyptian authorities to release its journalists who have been held behind bars for months. CPJ calls on the Egyptian government to release all of the journalists jailed in the country. At least nine journalists are currently imprisoned in Egypt, four of whom work for Al-Jazeera, according to CPJ research.
The climate of press freedom in Egypt has deteriorated significantly in recent months. At least 60 journalists have been detained since President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July. Egypt was the third deadliest country for journalists in 2013, according to CPJ research, and appeared for the first time on CPJ’s Risk List, which identifies the 10 places where press freedom declined most significantly in the past year.
“The Global Day of Action is about freedom of the press,” the broadcaster said. “It is about objective reporting and to ensure journalists cannot be gagged or silenced.”
For more data and analysis on Egypt, click here.