Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

CPJ census: China, Israel, Myanmar, world’s leading jailers of journalists

A police officer (left) stands at the entrance of a prison in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in April 2021. Blindfolded Palestinian prisoners captured in Gaza are seen at a military detention facility in southern Israel in winter 2023 (center), and a view outside of Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, as relatives wait for the release of prisoners on January 4, 2024. (Photos, from left: AP/Mark Schiefelbein; Breaking the Silence via AP; AFP) — From left: A police officer at the entrance of a prison in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in April 2021. Blindfolded Palestinian prisoners detained in Gaza are seen at an Israeli military detention facility in 2023, and a view of Myanmar’s Insein prison as relatives wait for the release of prisoners on January 4, 2024. (Photos, from left: AP/Mark Schiefelbein; Breaking the Silence via AP; AFP)

China, Israel, and Myanmar emerged as the world’s three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 prison census has found. Belarus and Russia rounded out the top five, with CPJ documenting its second-highest number of journalists behind bars – a global total of at least 361 journalists incarcerated on December 1, 2024.

CPJ recorded unprecedented totals in several countries including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan. The primary drivers of journalist imprisonment in 2024 – a year that saw more than 100 new jailings – were ongoing authoritarian repression, war, and political or economic instability.

“These numbers should be a wake-up call for us all,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “A rise in attacks on journalists almost always precedes a rise in attacks on other freedoms – the freedom to give and receive information, the freedom to assemble and move freely, the freedom to protest.”

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Tajik journalist Ahmad Ibrohim sentenced to 10 years in prison

A court in Tajikistan’s southern city of Kulob on January 10 sentenced Ahmad Ibrohim, chief editor of the independent weekly newspaper Payk, to 10 years in prison on charges of bribery, extortion, and extremism.

The closed-door trial was held in the city’s pretrial detention center, with authorities reportedly classifying the case as secret.

“With Tajik authorities having all but obliterated the independent press over the past decade, the hefty sentence meted out to Ahmad Ibrohim shows the lengths they will go to stamp out critical reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Tajik authorities should immediately release Ibrohim, along with seven other journalists serving lengthy sentences on retaliatory charges, and reform the country’s repressive media environment.”

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan