RECORD NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS JAILED THIS YEAR: CPJ

A record number of journalists were jailed for their work in 2020, according to a report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with China responsible for jailing more journalists than any other nation, Darryl Coote reported for United Press International (UPI).

The annual census of data collected by the CPJ shows that at least 274 journalists were in prisons worldwide as of Dec. 1 for charges connected to their coverage -- the most since CPJ began collecting such data in the early 1990s. The number is two more than the previous record set in 2016. It is also the fifth consecutive year that at least 250 journalists were imprisoned.

The latest to be arrested was Lady Ann Salem of the Manila Today news website in the Philippines, who was nabbed on December 10, 2020, ironically International Human Rights Day, for purportedly possessing firearms and explosives. Salem accused the police of planting the weapons, which witnesses confirmed.

President Duterte also accused Altermedia as a front of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) without offering proof. Three other journalists—Ronnie Villamor, Jobert Bercasio and Virgilio Maganes-- were killed this year. Rappler’s Maria Ressa was convicted of cyber libel, slapped with another cyber libel case and tax charges.

In July, Duterte’s congressional allies shut down ABS-CBN broadcast network, the biggest in the country. The Philippine Daily Inquirer is also being intimidated.

China topped the list with 47 journalists jailed, followed by Turkey with 37, Egypt with 27 and Saudi Arabia with 24. The report said many jailed in China were serving long prison sentences or were detained in Xinjiang province without their charges having been disclosed. At least two journalists in China -- Cai Wei and Zhang Zhan -- were arrested due to their coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, the report said.

Cai was arrested in April and was being held in pretrial detention in connection to publishing articles on COVID-19, while Zhang, who covered the outbreak in city of Wuhan on Twitter and Facebook, was arrested in May, according to CPJ. The report doesn't include China's arrest earlier this month of Haze Fan, a Chinese citizen who works for Bloomberg News. China said she was held on suspicion of endangering national security, attracting the condemnation of the European Union (EU).

The Press Freedom Tracker has tallied at least 110 journalists were arrested or criminally charged and 330 were assaulted in 2020, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported. The report also found that 26 journalists and media workers had been murdered this year, with Mexico listed as the world's most dangerous country for the press.

While the US had no reporters in jail as of the report's release, the survey noted an "unprecedented" 110 had been arrested or detained through the course of the year. The CPJ said the outgoing Trump administration bore some of the blame for the worsening global press freedom -- not only for the US president's lack of global leadership on human rights, but also his emboldening of authoritarians abroad with his hostility towards the media.

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