Russia has curtailed media freedom since starting its war of aggression. There are more imprisoned journalists in the world than ever before.
Russia is the most dangerous country in Europe for journalists in the long term, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in your latest report (you will switch to another service).
In the last 20 years, 25 journalists have died in Russia in connection with their work.
The most famous murdered Russian journalist is Vladimir Putin reviewed by Novaja Gazeta’s editor Anna Politkovskaya. He was shot in front of his home door on Putin’s birthday in 2006.
However, the most dangerous country in Europe this year is Ukraine. The reason is the Russian war of aggression. Eight journalists have died in Ukraine this year.
In addition, during the previous 19 years, 12 journalists have died on the job in Ukraine, almost all of them after the conflict that started in 2014.
In 2014, several Russian journalists were among the dead in Ukraine. This year, the dead have mostly been Ukrainians and citizens of countries that support Ukraine.
Ukraine is the second most dangerous country for journalists in Europe based on the death tolls of the last two decades.
According to RSF, 58 journalists around the world have been killed because of their work this year. It is slightly more than last year, but far from the darkest years in the statistics, 2012 and 2013. At that time, there were more than 140 dead in both years, among them many journalists reporting on the Syrian civil war.
The most dangerous topics for journalists to report on are wars, organized crime and corruption.
According to RSF, four out of five journalists killed on the job were killed intentionally for the sake of their work. The rest were killed in accidents while working.
Earlier in December, the journalist association IFJ, which uses a different calculation method published statistics (you will switch to another service) according to this year, no fewer than 12 media representatives who were on duty have died in Ukraine and 67 in the whole world.
Almost half of all journalists killed on the job this year were killed in the Americas.
The number of imprisoned women journalists exploded
There are 533 journalists imprisoned for their work in the world’s prisons. The number is the largest that RSF has recorded in its history.
In particular, the number of imprisoned female journalists has increased this year. Many of them have been imprisoned in Iran since protests demanding women’s rights began in the country and spread from there.
China has the most jailed journalists, 110. Belarus has the most jailed journalists in Europe, and the fifth most in the world, with 31.
Myanmar and Vietnam are also in the top five for imprisoning journalists. More than half of the world’s imprisoned journalists are sitting in cells in these five countries.
The number of imprisoned journalists in Russia has also increased since the start of the war in Ukraine. There are currently at least 18 journalists in the country’s prisons.
In addition, this year Russia has significantly reduced the already limited freedom of the press, when even the last independent media outlets in the country have been driven into exile.
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