Iran joined this year the “dark track record” of the five countries that imprison the most journalists in the world, according to RSF. The Islamic Republic has imprisoned journalists with a vengeance since September, when protests began over the death of Mahsa Amini, and, more broadly, the number of media professionals detained around the world reached an all-time high in 2022, according to the report. annual report of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
On the whole planet, they are 533, that is to say about forty more than last year on the same date (488), when we already recorded a historic level of journalists imprisoned, according to the NGO for the defense of the freedom of the press. More than half are detained in just five countries: in China, which remains “the largest prison for journalists in the world” (110), Burma (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).
The Islamic Republic has in fact imprisoned a number of media professionals ” unprecedented “ in twenty years since the beginning of the protest movement which broke out in September. Thirty-four new journalists have joined the thirteen who were already locked up before the protests began. “Dictatorial and authoritarian regimes are accelerating the filling of their prisons by incarcerating journalists”denounced Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF.
“An unprecedented number of female journalists”
Within this overall global assessment, RSF notes an unprecedented number of women journalists imprisoned: they are 78 (compared to 60 last year), which is partly explained by “the growing feminization of the profession”. “Female journalists now represent almost 15% of detainees, compared to less than 7% five years ago”according to RSF.
This is for example the case of the Iranians Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, “who had helped draw attention to the death of the young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini” et “now risk the death penalty”. The protests rocking Iran were sparked by the September 16 death of the 22-year-old, after she was arrested by vice squad for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
In total, “Iran alone detains eighteen women journalists”fifteen of whom have been imprisoned since the protests began. “This high number of journalists detained shows the Iranian authorities’ desire to systematically silence women’s voices”, says RSF. The NGO awarded on Monday its “Prize of Courage” to one of these Iranian female journalists, Narges Mohammadi, who “only spent a few months out of prison” since 2011.
Men and women combined, two regions of the world concentrate three quarters of prisoners: “nearly 45% of journalists are detained in Asia and more than 30% in the Maghreb and the Middle East”. RSF also points to the fact that “repression has increased sharply in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February”.
Furthermore, the number of journalists killed (57) is also on the rise, in particular because of the war in Ukraine, when it was “historically low” in 2021 (48) and 2020 (50). “Of the eight journalists killed since the start of the Ukrainian conflict, five were foreign reporters”, notes RSF. According to the NGO, “nearly 80% of media professionals killed in 2022 were knowingly targeted because of their profession and the topics they were working on”as “organized crime and corruption”.