Unprecedented Repression of Journalists During the End of 2021
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the number of journalists imprisoned around the world reached unprecedented levels in 2021, with 293 journalists, a quarter of whom are held in China and Burma.
With the addition of journalists imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Ethiopia and Eritrea; There were a total of 293 journalists in prison worldwide, as of December, compared to 280 the year before.
It is painful to see new countries added to the list every year, however, the especially appalling countries Myanmar/Burma and Ethiopia have brutally cracked down on press freedom.”
Mexico remains “the most repressive country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists, with 3 killed for their reporting, while investigations on the motive for the killing of 6 others continue.”
We documented a record number of journalists imprisoned around the world, and the number reflects governments controlling information and their blatant increased efforts to do so.
We emphasise that the number of imprisoned journalists reflects a growing intolerance of independent organisations reporting around the world, as well as restrictions in the subjects in which journalists work around the world, including laws used to target journalists in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the coup in Myanmar, the war in northern Ethiopia, and the suppression of dissent In Belarus, talk about the repression of opponents in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Republic of Egypt.
We stress the need to put pressure on governments that impose repressive measures against journalists and to impose international sanctions against those who refuse to stop suppressing the freedom of speech and writing, and we call on the institutions that sponsor freedom of speech to defame those countries and file criminal cases against those who are proven to have killed and imprisoned journalists.
