….533 journalists detained worldwide
By Sarah NEGEDU
A total of 533 journalists are said to be currently detained in different parts of the world, with female journalists accounting for 15percent of the population.
A report by Reporters Without Borders, RSF, says after a relative respite, the number of journalists killed across the globe in 2022 also rose to 57.
The RSF annual end of year round up, publishes data of journalists killed, detained, held hostage or missing. It reports that 65 journalists are now classified as being held hostage and 49 as missing.
The 2022 report sets a new sad record as in another new trend, women now account for nearly 15percent of the detained journalists, as against only 7percent five years ago.
According to the report, “Two of the women detained in Iran, Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, are facing a possible death penalty for helping to draw attention to the fate of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death has triggered a big wave of protests in Iran.
“The Round-up also looks at some of the year’s most striking cases, such as that of Ivan Safronov, one of Russia’s best investigative journalists, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest jail sentence registered by RSF in 2022; and Dom Phillips, a British journalist whose dismembered body was found in a remote part of the Brazilian Amazon.”
