
The annual census of the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that over 360 media workers were behind bars in the final month of 2024, with China and Israel as having jailed the most number.
The 361 people counted as being in prison as of December 1, 2024 is the highest total since 2022, when 370 were counted by the New York-based organization.
China, Israel, and Myanmar – with 50, 43, and 35 journalists detained, respectively, “emerged as the world’s three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work,” CPJ said.
The organization said China’s “pervasive censorship” made it difficult to determine the exact number of journalists jailed there and highlighted rising cases in Hong Kong, notably the continued imprisonment of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who has been in prison since December 2020.
The 77-year-old Lai is one of the most prominent figures to be prosecuted under Hong Kong’s national security law, which was imposed following huge pro-democracy protests in the city. He is currently on trial over charges of colluding with foreign forces, a charge which comes with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“These numbers should be a wake up call for us all,” CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.
“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.”
Asia remains the region with the highest number of jailed journalists, with Vietnam (16), Afghanistan (2), Bangladesh (4), India (3), and the Philippines (1), adding to China and Myanmar’s world-leading figures.
Instead of protecting the media and journalists, some nations have been treating the fourth estate as a threat and using the law as a weapon to silence them by putting them behind bars, which imparts a chilling effect on the remaining members of the media. Unfortunately for the media in the Philippines, our country remains in the list of those with journalists still in jail. Aside from being included in that list for 2024. In addition, the act of the previous administration and its lackeys of stripping one of the country’s oldest and biggest media networks of its franchise, not only crippling it, but also causing the loss of thousands of jobs, has yet to be corrected.
How can the government claim that the situation and climate for the media is improving in the Philippines?*