A record number of journalists around the world — at least 262 — are currently imprisoned because of their jobs.
A report released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists gave the estimated number, which was a bit higher than last year’s 259, adding that 87 percent of those in jail covered political news in countries with repressive regimes.
The report included those detained as of Dec. 1, and did not include those who had died in custody in 2017 or who had been released.
China, Egypt and Turkey had the most journalists imprisoned, and more than half of the detainees were being held in those three countries.
A failed military coup in 2016 gave Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an excuse to crack down on dissidents and increase censorship in Turkey, with Erdogan even calling the attempted coup a “gift from God.”
Xi Jinping has weakened free speech rights in China during his time in leadership, arresting many journalists after forcing them to make false confessions, Reporters Without Borders said.
Some journalists affiliated with CPJ fear U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media and what he terms “fake news” on Twitter and during some of his speeches will have a dampening effect on a free press in the U.S. as well, although arrests of journalists here are not likely.
“Our task in helping to get reporters freed or prevent the detention of others is made harder by the perception that the United States is not as bright a beacon of press freedom as it once was,” CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told HuffPost.
He added that Trump’s negative comments about the press send a bad message to other countries about how they should view the press.
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