In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists - Committee to Protect Journalists 1/24/25, 10:29 AM 2023 and come from some of the country’s last remaining independent media, including investigative outlet Abzas Media – known for its corruption investigations into senior state o%cials. Most of the journalists and media workers were arrested on currency smuggling charges related to alleged Western donor funding, as relations between Azerbaijan and the West declined following Azerbaijan’s military recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan authorities also arrested and detained another six journalists and media workers with Meydan TV, Azerbaijan’s largest exiled media outlet, on currency smuggling charges after CPJ’s December 1 census date. Turkey, with 11 imprisoned journalists – including four serving life sentences on anti-state charges – is no longer one of the world’s top media jailers. But three house arrests of reporters working for pro-Kurdish outlets in 2024 perpetuated a longstanding pattern of targeting those who report on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey classi#es as a terrorist organization. Two of those held – Mezopotamya News Agency reporter Tolga Güney and JİNNEWS reporter Melike Aydın — were indicted on charges of PKK membership. "e third, Delal Akyüz, had not been charged at the time of publication. Kyrgyzstan, once an exemplar of press freedom in post-Soviet Central Asia, continued its descent into authoritarianism as populist President Sadyr Japarov sought to bring its once-vibrant independent media under ever tighter state control. In Tajikistan, eight journalists were imprisoned as President Emomali Rahmon continued his e!orts to centralize control by silencing political opponents and independent voices. Seven journalists are serving sentences of seven to 20 years, many convicted on extremism charges after closed-door trials. Local journalists told CPJ that press freedom in Tajikistan was at its lowest point since the country’s civil war three decades earlier. Kyrgyzstan, once an exemplar of press freedom in post-Soviet Central Asia, continued its descent into authoritarianism as populist President Sadyr Japarov sought to bring its once-vibrant independent media under ever tighter state control. Two journalists from the prominent anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live, Makhabat Tajibek kyzy and Azamat Ishenbekov, are serving six and #ve-year sentences respectively after being convicted of calling for mass unrest. Kyrgyz authorities also shuttered Kloop, another leading outlet known for investigations into senior state o%cials, and enacted a Russian-style “foreign agents” law. Sub-Saharan Africa Eritrea remained the leading jailer in sub-Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists who were incarcerated between 2000 and 2005 still appearing on CPJ’s 2024 census. Globally, the country tied with Iran and Vietnam as the seventhworst o!enders. "ose held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world; no charges against them have ever been disclosed. Over the years, Eritrean o%cials have o!ered vague and inconsistent explanations for the journalists’ arrests — accusing them of involvement in anti-state conspiracies in connection with foreign intelligence, skirting military service, and violating press regulations. O%cials, at times, even denied that the journalists existed. https://cpj.org/thematic-reports/in-record-year-china-israel-and-myanmar-are-worlds-leading-jailers-of-journalists/ Page 17 of 27