In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists

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. 

Foto: BAJ

While that num­ber falls slight­ly below the glob­al record set in 2022, when at least 370 jour­nal­ists were impris­oned in con­nec­tion with their work, 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 (Chi­na, Myan­mar, Viet­nam, Belarus, Rus­sia), war (Israel, Rus­sia), and polit­i­cal or eco­nom­ic insta­bil­i­ty (Egypt, Nicaragua, Bangladesh).

Chi­na, Myan­mar, Belarus, and Rus­sia rou­tine­ly rank among the top jail­ers of jour­nal­ists. Israel, a mul­ti­par­ty par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy that rarely appeared in CPJ’s annu­al prison cen­sus before the 2023 start of the war in Gaza, cat­a­pult­ed to sec­ond-place last year as it tried to silence cov­er­age from the occu­pied Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries.

Yet while cir­cum­stances var­ied from region to region and coun­try to coun­try, all jail­ers fol­lowed a dispir­it­ing­ly sim­i­lar tac­ti­cal play­book.

Across the globe, author­i­ties in mul­ti­ple coun­tries rou­tine­ly vio­lat­ed due process pro­ce­dures, includ­ing arbi­trar­i­ly detain­ing mem­bers of the media even after they’d served their sen­tences or unjust­ly hold­ing them for exten­sive peri­ods with­out tri­al.

Egypt used enforced dis­ap­pear­ances – a crime under inter­na­tion­al law – to intim­i­date and silence jour­nal­ists before for­mal­ly detain­ing them and vio­lat­ed its own crim­i­nal pro­ce­dure law with a two-year exten­sion of the incar­cer­a­tion of Egypt­ian-British blog­ger Alaa Abdelfat­tah, who should have been released in Sep­tem­ber. In Sau­di Ara­bia, car­toon­ist Mohammed al-Gham­di (Al-Haz­za) was sen­tenced to 23 years as he was prepar­ing to leave prison after serv­ing his orig­i­nal six-year sen­tence. In Chi­na, it remains unclear whether five of the sev­en Uyghur stu­dents arrest­ed with schol­ar and blog­ger Ilham Tohti were released when the last of them com­plet­ed their sen­tences more than two years ago.

Tri­al delays were anoth­er puni­tive mea­sure. In Hong Kong, media entre­pre­neur Jim­my Lai has been held since Decem­ber 2020 amid repeat­ed post­pone­ments of his tri­al on nation­al secu­ri­ty charges, which could see him jailed for life. His son Sebastien told CPJ that prison con­di­tions are “break­ing” his father’s body, rais­ing con­cerns about the prospect of the 77-year-old spend­ing anoth­er sum­mer in the harsh con­di­tions and sti­fling heat of a Hong Kong prison.

In Guatemala, José Rubén Zamo­ra spent more than 800 days in arbi­trary deten­tion before he was released to house arrest in Octo­ber. But he still risks being returned to jail after an appeals court over­turned that rul­ing in Novem­ber, as he awaits a long-delayed retri­al on mon­ey-laun­der­ing charges wide­ly con­demned as retal­i­a­tion for his jour­nal­ism. In Ango­la, Car­los Alber­to was still in jail on Decem­ber 1 despite becom­ing eli­gi­ble for parole the pre­vi­ous month after his three-year sen­tence for crim­i­nal defama­tion was reduced to 27 months under a 2022 amnesty law.

The Unit­ed Nations Work­ing Group on Arbi­trary Deten­tion has found that Lai, Zamo­ra, Eritre­an jour­nal­ist Daw­it Isaak, Rwan­dan jour­nal­ist Théon­este Nsen­gi­mana, and Pales­tin­ian jour­nal­ists Moham­mad Badr and Ameer Abu Iram are among those being held in vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al law. (CPJ has repeat­ed­ly advo­cat­ed on behalf of these jour­nal­ists.)

Ethnic discrimination

Jour­nal­ists from a range of mar­gin­al­ized eth­nic groups were tar­get­ed across the globe. Almost half of those held in Chi­na are mem­bers of the most­ly Mus­lim Uyghur minor­i­ty; two are eth­nic Kaza­khs. All detained by Israel on the day of CPJ’s cen­sus are Pales­tin­ian. Two of the eight jour­nal­ists impris­oned by Tajik­istan are mem­bers of the long-per­se­cut­ed Pamiri minor­i­ty. One, Ulfatkhon­im Mamad­shoe­va, is serv­ing 20 years after author­i­ties accused her of orga­niz­ing Pamiri protests in the country’s east­ern Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region.

At least 10 Kur­dish jour­nal­ists, the Mid­dle East’s fourth-largest eth­nic group, are also in prison: five in Turkey, two in Iran, and three in Iraq. Russ­ian occu­piers have tar­get­ed the Crimean Tatar com­mu­ni­ty in Ukraine’s Crimea. In Afghanistan, the Tal­iban detained reporter Mah­di Ansary, a mem­ber of Afghanistan’s per­se­cut­ed Haz­ara com­mu­ni­ty, in Octo­ber 2024.

Harsh sentences

Many of the jour­nal­ists in CPJ’s 2024 cen­sus have been sen­tenced to spend sig­nif­i­cant parts of their lives in jail. Ten have been sen­tenced to life; one has been sen­tenced to death.

A total of 54 are serv­ing more than 10 years; 55 between five and 10 years, and 62 between one and five years.

Many of the journalists in CPJ’s 2024 census have been sentenced to spend significant parts of their lives in jail.

In Sene­gal, a CPJ inves­ti­ga­tion found that René Capain Bassène was jailed for life for a crime that wit­ness­es said he couldn’t have com­mit­ted. In Myan­mar, Shin Daewe – denied legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion dur­ing her tri­al by a secret mil­i­tary tri­bunal – received a life sen­tence in 2024 on charges of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of an unreg­is­tered drone, a crim­i­nal offense under the country’s Anti-Ter­ror­ism Law. In Chi­na, Tohti, founder of a Uyghur news site, has served more than 10 years of his life sen­tence. In Turkey, Hat­ice Duman – one of four jour­nal­ists in the coun­try sen­tenced to life – has spent more than 20 years in jail in spite of a 2019 Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court find­ing that her right to a free tri­al had been vio­lat­ed. Her retri­al is ongo­ing.

In Chi­na, a Bei­jing court issued Yang Hengjun a sus­pend­ed death sen­tence in Feb­ru­ary 2024, which could be com­mut­ed to life impris­on­ment after a two-year peri­od of good behav­ior. Yang, a for­mer Chi­nese diplo­mat turned blog­ger and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, fre­quent­ly post­ed com­men­tary on social media about U.S.-China rela­tions, espi­onage, and polit­i­cal reform. 

Criminalization of journalism

More than 60% of the jour­nal­ists in CPJ’s 2024 cen­sus – 228 – are impris­oned under a range of broad anti-state laws fre­quent­ly used to sti­fle inde­pen­dent voic­es. 

Often-vague charges or con­vic­tions for ter­ror­ism or “extrem­ism” make up a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of those cas­es in coun­tries includ­ing Myan­mar, Rus­sia, Belarus, Tajik­istan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, India, and Bahrain. These accu­sa­tions are com­mon­ly lev­eled against eth­nic minor­i­ty reporters whose work focus­es on their com­mu­ni­ties, with author­i­ties rou­tine­ly cit­ing jour­nal­ists’ con­tact with mil­i­tant groups – often nec­es­sary for news cov­er­age – as evi­dence of mem­ber­ship in those groups.

Oth­er fre­quent­ly used charges are incite­ment, defama­tion, and false news.

Worst Offenders

#1 China

Chi­na has rou­tine­ly appeared in CPJ’s annu­al prison cen­sus as one of the world’s top jail­ers of jour­nal­ists. The 50 record­ed as being behind bars on Decem­ber 1, 2024, are like­ly an under­count giv­en Beijing’s per­va­sive cen­sor­ship and mass sur­veil­lance that often leaves fam­i­lies too intim­i­dat­ed to talk about a relative’s arrest. Their cir­cum­stances are a stark reflec­tion of China’s intol­er­ance for inde­pen­dent voic­es.

CPJ’s 2024 data indi­cates that Bei­jing is ramp­ing up the use of anti-state charges to tar­get jour­nal­ists. Chi­nese jour­nal­ists Dong Yuyu, detained in Feb­ru­ary 2022 while hav­ing lunch with a Japan­ese diplo­mat, and Sophia Huang Xue­qin, in cus­tody since Sep­tem­ber 2021, were sen­tenced in Novem­ber 2024 to sev­en and five years respec­tive­ly on charges of espi­onage and “incit­ing sub­ver­sion of state pow­er.” Chi­nese inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ist Li Weizhong, arrest­ed in Octo­ber 2024, is also being held on alle­ga­tions of incit­ing sub­ver­sion of state pow­er.

The 50 recorded as being behind bars are likely an undercount given Beijing’s pervasive censorship and mass surveillance.

In Hong Kong, the media faced grow­ing pres­sure. Jour­nal­ists detained in 2020 and 2021, as author­i­ties’ cracked down on the city’s pro-democ­ra­cy move­ment, remain in jail amid repeat­ed legal delays. In addi­tion to Lai, six jour­nal­ists and media exec­u­tives from Lai’s Next Dig­i­tal Lim­it­ed and now-defunct Apple Dai­ly news­pa­per – Lam Man-chung, Fung Wai-kong, Yeung Ching-kee, Che­ung Kim-hung, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, and Chan Pui-man – have spent more than three years behind bars as they await sen­tenc­ing on charges of con­spir­ing to col­lude with for­eign pow­ers.

In China’s north-west­ern region of Xin­jiang, where Bei­jing has been accused of crimes against human­i­ty for its mass deten­tions and harsh repres­sion of Mus­lim groups, two Uyghur jour­nal­ists, Qur­ban Mamut and Mirap Muham­mad, appear for the first time in the 2024 cen­sus after CPJ research deter­mined that their incar­cer­a­tion was linked to their work.

Mamut, the for­mer edi­tor-in-chief of the Uyghur-lan­guage mag­a­zine Xin­jiang Civ­i­liza­tion, is serv­ing a 15-year sen­tence on charges of com­mit­ting “polit­i­cal crimes” after he went miss­ing in 2017. His son, Bahram Sin­tash, told CPJ that it took until 2022 to con­firm that his father was alive and where he was impris­oned. Muham­mad, a Uyghur blog­ger whose arti­cles includ­ed sen­si­tive top­ics such as Uyghur and human rights issues, has been held incom­mu­ni­ca­do since his arrest in 2018 on accu­sa­tions of “ille­gal­ly pro­vid­ing intel­li­gence to a for­eign body.”

#2 Israel

CPJ doc­u­ment­ed 43 Pales­tin­ian jour­nal­ists in Israeli cus­tody on Decem­ber 1, 2024 – more than dou­ble the num­ber held in the 2023 cen­sus, when Israel ranked for the first time as one of the world’s worst jail­ers of jour­nal­ists. 

At least 10 jour­nal­ists were held in the occu­pied West Bank under a pol­i­cy of admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion, which allows a mil­i­tary com­man­der to detain a per­son with­out charge on the grounds of pre­vent­ing them from com­mit­ting a future offense. Deten­tion can be extend­ed an unlim­it­ed num­ber of times.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention facilities are subjected to “inhuman conditions” that include “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; [and] deliberate starvation.”

In Gaza, jour­nal­ists are also held under the Incar­cer­a­tion of Unlaw­ful Com­bat­ants Law, which, like admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion, allows Israel to hold detainees for long peri­ods of time with­out charge and with lim­it­ed access to legal coun­sel. Accord­ing to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Pales­tin­ian pris­on­ers in Israeli pris­ons and deten­tion facil­i­ties are sub­ject­ed to “inhu­man con­di­tions” that include “fre­quent acts of severe, arbi­trary vio­lence; sex­u­al assault; humil­i­a­tion and degra­da­tion; [and] delib­er­ate star­va­tion.”

Lawyers who have vis­it­ed some of the detainees told CPJ that Israeli inves­ti­ga­tors informed the jour­nal­ists that they were arrest­ed because they had con­tact­ed or inter­viewed peo­ple Israel want­ed infor­ma­tion about.

The jour­nal­ists’ deten­tions are symp­to­matic of Israel’s broad­er effort to pre­vent cov­er­age of its actions in Gaza. This includes bar­ring for­eign cor­re­spon­dents from enter­ing the ter­ri­to­ry and ban­ning Qatari-based broad­cast­er Al Jazeera from oper­at­ing in Israel and the occu­pied West Bank under a wartime law that allows the Israeli gov­ern­ment to shut down a for­eign out­let it deems a threat to nation­al secu­ri­ty.

#3 Myanmar

Myan­mar held 35 jour­nal­ists at the time of CPJ’s 2024 cen­sus. All were tak­en into cus­tody on anti-state alle­ga­tions after a 2021 mil­i­tary coup oust­ed a demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment. The jun­ta has cracked down on Myanmar’s media, incar­cer­at­ing and sen­tenc­ing dozens of jour­nal­ists among the more than 28,000 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers detained since it seized pow­er.

While few­er jour­nal­ists were held in 2024 than the peak of 42 in the year after the coup, the decline doesn’t reflect any soft­en­ing in the military’s crim­i­nal­iza­tion of inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism or its intol­er­ance of dis­sent. Jailed mem­bers of the media are typ­i­cal­ly tried by mil­i­tary tri­bunals, denied legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and giv­en mul­ti-year sen­tences under broad anti-state laws such as ter­ror­ism, false news, or incite­ment. 

Of the eight sen­tenced in 2024, two – Myo Myint Oo and Shin Daewe – were jailed for life, and a mil­i­tary court sen­tenced reporter Aung San Oo to 20 years on ter­ror­ism charges. (Shin Daewe’s sen­tence was reduced to 15 years as part of a broad­er pris­on­er amnesty in Jan­u­ary 2025.) Also still serv­ing 20 years on charges includ­ing sedi­tion is pho­to­jour­nal­ist Sai Zaw Thaike, who was arrest­ed in May 2023 while cov­er­ing the after­math of a cyclone that killed more than 140 peo­ple, includ­ing many mem­bers of the per­se­cut­ed and dis­placed Rohingya minor­i­ty.

#4 Belarus

With 31 jour­nal­ists in jail on Decem­ber 1, 2024, Belarus is the worst jail­er in Europe and Cen­tral Asia for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year. Despite sev­er­al waves of pres­i­den­tial par­dons by Alek­san­dr Lukashenko, which includ­ed three mem­bers of the press, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists are con­tin­u­al­ly harassed, detained, and sen­tenced to years in prison, most often over their work for media out­lets that author­i­ties have labeled as “extrem­ist.” 

With 31 journalists in jail on December 1, 2024, Belarus is the worst jailer in Europe and Central Asia for the second consecutive year.

The Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment con­tin­ued to retal­i­ate against jour­nal­ists who cov­ered protests call­ing for Lukashenko’s res­ig­na­tion after his dis­put­ed 2020 elec­tion. Five jour­nal­ists detained in con­nec­tion with those demon­stra­tions are serv­ing sen­tences of 10 years or longer. Those held in 2024 include for­mer video reporter Yauhen Nikalayevich, who left Belarus and stopped prac­tic­ing jour­nal­ism in 2020. Nikalayevich was arrest­ed when he returned to the coun­try in 2024 and is serv­ing an 18-month sen­tence for “orga­niz­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in gross vio­la­tions of pub­lic order.”

Belarus also con­tin­ued to harass jour­nal­ists beyond its bor­ders, ini­ti­at­ing crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings against sev­er­al exiled jour­nal­ists, and search­ing the Belaru­sian homes of oth­ers who have left the coun­try. Belaru­sian film­mak­er and jour­nal­ist Andrey Gny­ot spent a year in deten­tion in Ser­bia while Belaru­sian author­i­ties tried to extra­dite him on tax charges.

#5 Russia

Rus­sia held 30 jour­nal­ists behind bars at the time of CPJ’s cen­sus. Almost half are Ukrain­ian, vic­tims of Russia’s 2014 annex­a­tion of Ukraine’s Crimea and Moscow’s full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ist Vik­to­ria Roshchi­na died in Russ­ian cus­tody in Sep­tem­ber – a grim reminder of the plight of jour­nal­ists detained incom­mu­ni­ca­do in Russ­ian-held ter­ri­to­ries on undis­closed charges.

Russ­ian occu­py­ing author­i­ties con­tin­ued to jail Crimean Tatars, the peninsula’s pre­dom­i­nant­ly Mus­lim indige­nous eth­nic group, for their civic jour­nal­ism. Some have been impris­oned for years in pris­ons thou­sands of miles from their homes and fam­i­lies, restrict­ed in their com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and some­times giv­en food with pork in con­tra­ven­tion of their reli­gious beliefs.

Rus­sia also took its transna­tion­al repres­sion to new lev­els in 2024. Author­i­ties ramped up their harass­ment of exiled jour­nal­ists and for­eign cor­re­spon­dents with a slew of in absen­tia sen­tences or arrest war­rants – an intim­ida­to­ry tac­tic that’s not reflect­ed in CPJ’s cen­sus data because the jour­nal­ists aren’t in jail, but serves as a chill­ing illus­tra­tion of Moscow’s deter­mi­na­tion to con­trol the nar­ra­tive of its war in Ukraine.

Regional repression

CPJ’s annu­al prison cen­sus records a snap­shot of those jailed on a giv­en day – a minute past mid­night on Decem­ber 1. Those fig­ures are an impor­tant barom­e­ter of the state of press free­dom in a coun­try, but low­er num­bers do not nec­es­sar­i­ly trans­late into an improved media land­scape under regimes that have cracked down on inde­pen­dent voic­es.

Asia

Asia remained the region with the high­est num­ber of jour­nal­ists behind bars in 2024, account­ing for more than 30% (111) of the glob­al total. 

Out­side of Chi­na (50) and Myan­mar (35), Viet­nam held 16 jour­nal­ists, tying with Iran and Eritrea as the sev­enth-worst jail­er of the year. Of Vietnam’s three new pris­on­ers in 2024, two – Nguyen Vu Binh and Nguyen Chi Tuyen – were sen­tenced to sev­en- and five-year terms respec­tive­ly for pro­pa­gan­diz­ing against the state. The third, Truong Huy San, is in pre-tri­al deten­tion after writ­ing crit­i­cal com­men­tary about two of the country’s top lead­ers – the then-rul­ing, now-deceased Com­mu­nist Party’s long-serv­ing chief Nguyen Phu Trong and Pres­i­dent To Lam.

Asia remained the region with the highest number of journalists behind bars in 2024, accounting for more than 30% (111) of the global total. 

Bangladesh held four jour­nal­ists seen as sup­port­ers of for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Sheikh Hasi­na, oust­ed in August fol­low­ing mass protests that end­ed her 15-year rule. Dozens of jour­nal­ists whose report­ing was con­sid­ered favor­able toward Hasina’s gov­ern­ment were sub­se­quent­ly tar­get­ed in crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions.

India had three jour­nal­ists in cus­tody, two of them Kash­miris arrest­ed in 2023 against a back­drop of increased incar­cer­a­tion of jour­nal­ists in the Mus­lim-major­i­ty region after the 2019 repeal of its spe­cial auton­o­my sta­tus. The Tal­iban held two jour­nal­ists in Afghanistan, and the Philip­pines con­tin­ued to detain Frenchie Mae Cum­pio on charges that could see her jailed for life.

Middle East and North Africa 

 
A total of 108 jour­nal­ists were impris­oned in the Mid­dle East and North Africa, almost half as a result of the Israel-Gaza war. Egypt, fre­quent­ly one of the top 10 jail­ers glob­al­ly, placed as the world’s sixth-worst with 17 impris­oned jour­nal­ists. Sev­en were detained in 2024 as the country’s eco­nom­ic cri­sis sparked a new wave of jour­nal­ist arrests. At least two – car­toon­ist Ashraf Omar and eco­nom­ic com­men­ta­tor Abdel Khaleq Farouk – had crit­i­cized the government’s eco­nom­ic poli­cies.

Iran, also rou­tine­ly one of the world’s worst jail­ers of jour­nal­ists, held 16 behind bars. Sev­en were tak­en into cus­tody in 2024, a year that also saw news­room raids and the sen­tenc­ing of Shirin Saee­di to five years in prison for “assem­bly and col­lu­sion against nation­al secu­ri­ty” after par­tic­i­pat­ing in jour­nal­ism work­shops in South Africa and Lebanon.

A total of 108 journalists were imprisoned in the Middle East and North Africa, almost half as a result of the Israel-Gaza war.

Sau­di Ara­bia, noto­ri­ous for the 2018 mur­der and dis­mem­ber­ment of The Wash­ing­ton Post colum­nist Jamal Khashog­gi in its Turk­ish con­sulate in Istan­bul, had 10 jour­nal­ists in its jails. Author­i­ties con­tin­ued to show lit­tle tol­er­ance for dis­sent, arrest­ing Pales­tin­ian pod­cast­er Hatem al-Naj­jar fol­low­ing a social media cam­paign over decade-old tweets per­ceived as crit­i­cal of Sau­di Ara­bia.

Tunisia, once vaunt­ed for its tran­si­tion to democ­ra­cy after its 2011 upris­ing launched the Arab Spring, impris­oned its high­est-ever num­ber of jour­nal­ists. Four of the five in cus­tody were detained in 2024; all face charges under Decree 54 on cyber­crime, intro­duced in 2022 after Pres­i­dent Kais Saied sus­pend­ed par­lia­ment and intro­duced a con­sti­tu­tion that gave him almost unchecked pow­er.

CPJ record­ed five jour­nal­ists as jailed in Syr­ia on its 2024 cen­sus date. Blog­ger Tal al-Mal­lo­hi, was freed after the Decem­ber 8 oust­ing of Syr­i­an leader Bashar al-Assad, but the oth­er four remain miss­ing.

Iraq held three jour­nal­ists in 2024. These includ­ed Sher­wan Amin Sher­wani, who was due to be released in Sep­tem­ber 2023, but remained incar­cer­at­ed after Kur­dish author­i­ties sen­tenced him in July 2023 to anoth­er four years – reduced to two years on appeal – for alleged­ly fal­si­fy­ing doc­u­ments. Qara­man Shukri also remained in prison in spite of being eli­gi­ble for release under a spe­cial par­don issued by Kur­dis­tan Region Pres­i­dent Nechir­van Barzani in July 2024.

Bahrain also held three jour­nal­ists, with one – blog­ger Abdul­jalil Alsin­gace – sen­tenced to life after pro-reform protests erupt­ed in 2011. 

In Jor­dan, two jour­nal­ists are each serv­ing one-year sen­tences after being con­vict­ed under its 2023 Cyber­crime Law crim­i­nal­iz­ing online posts deemed to be fake.

Europe and Central Asia

Out­side of Belarus (31) and Rus­sia (30), Azerbaijan’s con­tin­ued crack­down on inde­pen­dent media made it one of the lead­ing jail­ers of jour­nal­ists in Europe and Cen­tral Asia. Most of the 13 arrest­ed since late 2023 come from some of the country’s last remain­ing inde­pen­dent media, includ­ing inves­tiga­tive out­let Abzas Media – known for its cor­rup­tion inves­ti­ga­tions into senior state offi­cials. Most of the jour­nal­ists and media work­ers were arrest­ed on cur­ren­cy smug­gling charges relat­ed to alleged West­ern donor fund­ing, as rela­tions between Azer­bai­jan and the West declined fol­low­ing Azerbaijan’s mil­i­tary recap­ture of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azer­bai­jan author­i­ties also arrest­ed and detained anoth­er six jour­nal­ists and media work­ers with Mey­dan TV, Azerbaijan’s largest exiled media out­let, on cur­ren­cy smug­gling charges after CPJ’s Decem­ber 1 cen­sus date. 

Turkey, with 11 impris­oned jour­nal­ists – includ­ing four serv­ing life sen­tences on anti-state charges – is no longer one of the world’s top media jail­ers. But three house arrests of reporters work­ing for pro-Kur­dish out­lets in 2024 per­pet­u­at­ed a long­stand­ing pat­tern of tar­get­ing those who report on the out­lawed Kur­dis­tan Work­ers’ Par­ty (PKK), which Turkey clas­si­fies as a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion. Two of those held – Mezopotamya News Agency reporter Tol­ga Güney and JİNNEWS reporter Melike Aydın — were indict­ed on charges of PKK mem­ber­ship. The third, Delal Akyüz, had not been charged at the time of pub­li­ca­tion. 

Kyrgyzstan, once an exemplar of press freedom in post-Soviet Central Asia, continued its descent into authoritarianism as populist President Sadyr Japarov sought to bring its once-vibrant independent media under ever tighter state control.

In Tajik­istan, eight jour­nal­ists were impris­oned as Pres­i­dent Emo­ma­li Rah­mon con­tin­ued his efforts to cen­tral­ize con­trol by silenc­ing polit­i­cal oppo­nents and inde­pen­dent voic­es. Sev­en jour­nal­ists are serv­ing sen­tences of sev­en to 20 years, many con­vict­ed on extrem­ism charges after closed-door tri­als. Local jour­nal­ists told CPJ that press free­dom in Tajik­istan was at its low­est point since the country’s civ­il war three decades ear­li­er.

Kyr­gyzs­tan, once an exem­plar of press free­dom in post-Sovi­et Cen­tral Asia, con­tin­ued its descent into author­i­tar­i­an­ism as pop­ulist Pres­i­dent Sadyr Japarov sought to bring its once-vibrant inde­pen­dent media under ever tighter state con­trol. Two jour­nal­ists from the promi­nent anti-cor­rup­tion inves­tiga­tive out­let Temirov Live, Makha­bat Tajibek kyzy and Aza­mat Ishen­bekov, are serv­ing six and five-year sen­tences respec­tive­ly after being con­vict­ed of call­ing for mass unrest. Kyr­gyz author­i­ties also shut­tered Kloop, anoth­er lead­ing out­let known for inves­ti­ga­tions into senior state offi­cials, and enact­ed a Russ­ian-style “for­eign agents” law.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Eritrea remained the lead­ing jail­er in sub-Saha­ran Africa, with 16 jour­nal­ists who were incar­cer­at­ed between 2000 and 2005 still appear­ing on CPJ’s 2024 cen­sus. Glob­al­ly, the coun­try tied with Iran and Viet­nam as the sev­enth-worst offend­ers. Those held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cas­es of jour­nal­ists impris­oned around the world; no charges against them have ever been dis­closed. Over the years, Eritre­an offi­cials have offered vague and incon­sis­tent expla­na­tions for the jour­nal­ists’ arrests — accus­ing them of involve­ment in anti-state con­spir­a­cies in con­nec­tion with for­eign intel­li­gence, skirt­ing mil­i­tary ser­vice, and vio­lat­ing press reg­u­la­tions. Offi­cials, at times, even denied that the jour­nal­ists exist­ed.

Those held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world; no charges against them have ever been disclosed.

In Ethiopia, five of the six jour­nal­ists held by author­i­ties are fac­ing ter­ror­ism charges after cov­er­ing the ongo­ing con­flict in Amhara; the max­i­mum penal­ty, if con­vict­ed, is death. The sixth, Yeshi­hasab Abera, was arrest­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2024 amid esca­lat­ing ten­sions in the region and reports of mass arrests of civil­ians, civ­il ser­vants, aca­d­e­mics, and jour­nal­ists as part of a gov­ern­ment “law enforce­ment oper­a­tion” tar­get­ing armed groups and their alleged sup­port­ers. Offi­cials have not pro­vid­ed any rea­son for Yeshihasab’s deten­tion or dis­closed any charges against him.

Cameroon and Rwan­da each held five jour­nal­ists, most­ly on anti-state or false news charges.

In Jan­u­ary 2024, Rwan­dan YouTu­ber Dieudon­né Niyon­sen­ga, who also goes by Cyu­ma Has­san, told a court that he was detained under “inhu­mane” con­di­tions in a “hole” and was fre­quent­ly beat­en. Niyonsenga’s appli­ca­tion to have his tri­al reviewed was reject­ed and he con­tin­ues to serve a sev­en-year sen­tence. 

Nige­ria is using a cyber­crimes law to pros­e­cute its four impris­oned jour­nal­ists for their report­ing on alleged cor­rup­tion. Despite reforms to the country’s Cyber­crimes Act in Feb­ru­ary 2024, it con­tin­ues to be used to sum­mon, intim­i­date, and detain jour­nal­ists for their work.

Burun­di held one jour­nal­ist, San­dra Muhoza, on CPJ’s cen­sus day. Her con­vic­tion on charges that includ­ed under­min­ing the integri­ty of the nation­al ter­ri­to­ry reflect­ed a trend of anti-state charges against jour­nal­ists in the East African nation. Flo­ri­ane Irangabiye, sen­tenced to 10 years for the same charge in 2023, was freed in August 2024 fol­low­ing a pres­i­den­tial par­don. Sim­i­lar­ly, in 2020 four jour­nal­ists with the out­let Iwacu were sen­tenced to 2 ½ years for attempt­ing to under­mine state secu­ri­ty, after report­ing on clash­es with rebels, and freed on a pres­i­den­tial par­don in Decem­ber of that year. 

Sene­gal also held one jour­nal­ist: Bassène, jailed since 2018 and whose life sen­tence was upheld by an appeals court in 2024. Bassène did not appear in CPJ’s pre­vi­ous prison cen­sus­es because research at that time could not con­firm that his deten­tion was con­nect­ed to his work.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Six jour­nal­ists were held in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean on Decem­ber 1: three in Venezuela, and one each in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Guatemala. All except Guatemala’s Zamo­ra, who was jailed in 2022, were detained in 2024.

This com­par­a­tive­ly low num­ber, how­ev­er, should not be seen as a pos­i­tive indi­ca­tor of media free­dom in a region where polit­i­cal insta­bil­i­ty and author­i­tar­i­an rule fuel crack­downs on the press. Hait­ian author­i­ties, for exam­ple, don’t hold any jour­nal­ists in jail, but at least nine have been killed there since 2022 – most­ly by crim­i­nal gangs – and CPJ’s 2024 Glob­al Impuni­ty Index found Haiti to be the top coun­try where mur­der­ers of jour­nal­ists were most like­ly to go unpun­ished.

Venezuela’s gov­ern­ment respond­ed to nation­wide protests after Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro’s dis­put­ed elec­tion vic­to­ry in July 2024 by inten­si­fy­ing its repres­sion of jour­nal­ists and fos­ter­ing a cli­mate of fear and self-cen­sor­ship by fram­ing crit­i­cal cov­er­age as ter­ror­ism or a threat to nation­al secu­ri­ty.

In Nicaragua, Els­beth D’Anda was tak­en into cus­tody after report­ing on ris­ing food prices on his tele­vi­sion show on pro-gov­ern­ment Chan­nel 23 – high­light­ing the government’s intol­er­ance of even mild scruti­ny.

In Guatemala, the judi­cial per­se­cu­tion of Zamo­ra reflects how legal sys­tems are used to silence jour­nal­ists and the ongo­ing ero­sion of press free­dom in the coun­try. 

Freedom, achieved

While 2024 was a heart­break­ing, and, in sev­er­al coun­tries, a record-break­ing year for jour­nal­ists impris­oned around the world, some hope shone through. Around 90 jour­nal­ists were freed ahead of CPJ’s Decem­ber 1 annu­al prison cen­sus and, although some still faced exile or post-prison harass­ment, they man­aged to be reunit­ed with friends and fam­i­ly. Here are images of some of those jour­nal­ists who final­ly were released from jail.