In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists - Committee to Protect Journalists 1/24/25, 10:29 AM While 2024 was a heartbreaking, and, in several countries, a record-breaking year for journalists imprisoned around the world, some hope shone through. Around 90 journalists were freed ahead of CPJ’s December 1 annual prison census and, although some still faced exile or post-prison harassment, they managed to be reunited with friends and family. Here are images of some of those journalists who #nally were released from jail. Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, is welcomed home by her family in Texas on August 1, 2024, after her release in a prisoner swap from Russia, where she had been held since October 2023. Kurmasheva received CPJ’s 2024 International Press Freedom Award. (Photo: AP/Eric Gay) Palestinian journalist Moath Amarneh is greeted following his release from an Israeli prison in July 2024. He had been held in administrative detention since October 2023. (Screenshot: Media Workers 4 Palestine/YouTube) Colleagues welcome journalist Stanis Bujakera (center) at the o!ces of Congolese news outlet Actualite.cd, the day after his release from prison in Kinshasa on March 20, 2024. He had been jailed since September 2023. (Photo: AFP/Arsene Mpiana Monkwe) Imprisoned for more than 15 years, Vietnamese journalist Tran Hunyh Duy Thuc is reuinted with his father in September 2024. (Screenshot: Radio Free Asia/YouTube) Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is greeted by his mother August 1, 2024, on an Air Force tarmac in Maryland. The U.S. reporter was released in a prisoner exchange after 16 months behind bars. (Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Senegalese reporter Ndèye Maty Niang, also known as Maty Sarr Niang, celebrates after being released on March 12. (Screenshot: Pulse Senegal/YouTube) Journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca at the Miami International Airport with his wife following his release into exile in the United States on June 5, 2024, after serving nearly three years in prison. (Screenshot: Univision Miami/YouTube) Omar Radi, a journalist and activist (center), with family and friends after he was pardoned and released from prison in Morocco on July 29, 2024. He is one of several journalists pardoned after being charged with sex crimes and espionage in prosecutions widely seen as retaliation for their critical reporting. (Photo: AP) Burundian journalist Floriane Irangabiye shows her release order after walking out of the Bubanza prison following a presidential pardon on August 16, 2024. She had been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2023. (Photo: AFP/Tchandrou Nitanga) Recommendations https://cpj.org/thematic-reports/in-record-year-china-israel-and-myanmar-are-worlds-leading-jailers-of-journalists/ Page 20 of 27