No fewer than 56 journalists were imprisoned across Africa in 2022 with Egypt being the top jailer, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists as seen in its annual prison census report.
Globally, CPJ reported that 363 journalists were imprisoned as of December 1, 2022 – a new global high that overtakes last year’s record by 20%.
The number of journalists jailed around the world set yet another record in 2022. In a year marked by conflict and repression, authoritarian leaders doubled down on their criminalization of independent reporting, deploying increasing cruelty to stifle dissenting voices and undermine press freedom, CPJ noted.
Countries like Iran, China, Myanmar, Belarus and Turkey were categorised as the worst offenders.
THE AFRICAN CONTEXT
“Egypt remains the top jailer of journalists across Africa, despite some releases under international pressure. Eritrea is one of the most censored countries in the world. The majority of the journalists imprisoned there have been detained without trial for 21 years, since the crackdown on the independent press in 2001.
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“Cameroon has appeared on the census every year since 2014, with some currently jailed journalists held since 2016. Senegal has one journalist imprisoned for their work, Pape Alé Niang, marking the first time the country has been on the census since 2008.
“Three of the 4 jailed journalists in Rwanda are YouTubers. Two of them – Aimable Karasira and Dieudonné Niyonsenga allege that they have been tortured and ill-treated while imprisoned.
“French journalist Olivier Dubois, who was abducted in Mali in April 2021, and five Tigrai TV journalists, detained in the rebel-held city of Mekelle in the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray, are not included in the census because they are in the custody of non-state actors,” the report reads.
