Journalists behind bars: 2015 report highlights China, Egypt

China, holding 49 imprisoned journalists, has the most in the world for the second year running. Iran now detains more journalists than any country other than China and Egypt. Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates appeared on the CPJ list this year after having no journalists in prison in 2014. Seventeen journalists are now behind bars there.

The non-profit group said while the overall decline in numbers is positive, the trend of imprisoning journalists remains worrying: China, Egypt and Turkey use “systematic imprisonment to silence criticism”, the CPJ report said.

Like Egypt, press freedom in Turkey has “taken a turn for the worse”, with the number of jailed journalists doubling to 14 this year. Some of the imprisoned journalists have written about the country’s wobbly financial markets and about dissidents. National elections this year and the war in Syria have increased pressure on journalists to not report stories about the government’s role in Syria, CPJ noted, adding that an investigation into arms smuggling across the Syrian border landed two journalists in jail. In November, Hossam Bahgat, another Egyptian journalist, was detained but later released by authorities. One of them, Mohammed Rasool, is still in custody.

The report only covers journalists held by governments, and the CPJ estimates there are at least 40 journalists missing in the Middle East and Africa, many thought to be in the hands of Islamic State.

More than half the charges against journalists are for anti-state violations, but the CPJ said the proportion held under “trumped up” accusations such as drugs or weapons possession, embezzlement, or assault had reached a five year high of 25%.

“Perhaps nowhere has the climate for the press deteriorated more rapidly than in Egypt”, CPJ editorial director Elana Beiser said in the statement.

A week ago, a journalist at the Sout Al-Umma newspaper was sentenced to two years in prison, while editor-in-chief Abdel Halim Qandil was fined EGP 20,000 after being found guilty of defaming Minister of Justice Ahmed Al-Zind.

Iran, under the reign of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni and President Hassan Rouhani, is third on CPJ’s list, with 19 jailed journalists. Earlier this month, Egyptian reporter Ismail Alexandrani was arrested and accused of publishing false news and belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood party after returning to Egypt from Berlin. Others had been arrested on other charges relating to the ongoing political situation, according to the syndicate.