Number of Jailed Journalists at Record High

In 2022, more journalists than ever before were imprisoned for doing their job. Some 363 journalists were imprisoned in 30 different countries last year, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

By 2021, the number of detainees had already exceeded 300 - roughly doubling since 2015. An alarming trend that, according to the experts, is a sign of the deterioration of press freedom worldwide. In 2022, the largest number of journalists were held in an Iranian prison (62 people), in China (43), and Myanmar, where 42 people were locked away at the end of the year.

Developments in Eastern Europe are also cause for concern - the arrest of 'Wall Street Journal' journalist Evan Gershkovich by Russian authorities one recent indicator of the situation there. Gershkovich was arrested while reporting on the Ukraine war and is the first U.S. journalist since the end of the Cold War to be detained on espionage charges in Russia.