Over 360 journalists jailed in 2024

Over 360 media workers were behind bars in the final month of 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported Thursday, highlighting China and Israel as jailing the highest number.

In its annual census the New York-based organization counted 361 people as being in prison on December 1, 2024, its highest total since 2022, when 370 were counted.

China, Israel, and Myanmar -- with 50, 43 and 35 journalists detained, respectively -- "emerged as the world's three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work," CPJ said.

The organization said China's "pervasive censorship" made it difficult to determine the exact number of journalists jailed there and highlighted rising cases in Hong Kong, notably the continued imprisonment of media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

CPJ said that Israel, a multi-party democracy, had rarely appeared on the annual prison sentence before the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.

It nonetheless "catapulted to second-place last year as it tried to silence coverage from the occupied Palestinian territories," CPJ said, noting all journalists detained by Israel were Palestinians.

Asia remained the region with the highest number of jailed journalists, with Vietnam (16), Afghanistan (2), Bangladesh (4), India (3) and the Philippines (1) adding to China and Myanmar's world-leading figures.

"Journalists who were merely seeking to expose corruption and wrongdoing, or the devastating impact of climate change on local communities, have found themselves thrown behind bars," CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi said in a statement.

"There is no way to suppress the truth forever."