7 journos behind bars, India draws criticism from global press body

India continues to draw criticism on press freedom with a new report by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) underlining the imprisonment of as many as seven journalists, a record high in the country.

In an annual report by the CPJ has said that the number of journalists across the world who have been put behind bars for practising their profession has reached a record high this year. The CPJ said the figure is a new global high which overtakes last year’s record by 20%, adding that it marks another “grim milestone in a deteriorating media landscape”.

In India, seven journalists are in jail, a record high for the second consecutive year since CPJ began its prison census in 1992. These seven journalists are Aasif Sultan, Siddique Kappan, Gautam Navlakha, Manan Dar, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah and Rupesh Kumar Singh. Six out of the seven jailed journalists are being investigated under or charged under the anti-terrorism law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), it noted. Of these seven journalists, three have been in jail for more than a year.

Global Situation

Imprisoning journalists is just one measure of how authoritarian leaders try to strangle press freedom. Around the world, governments are also honing tactics like “fake news” laws, are using criminal defamation and vaguely worded legislation to criminalize journalism, are ignoring the rule of law and abusing the judicial system, and are exploiting technology to spy on reporters and their families, said the report.

According to the census, this year’s top five jailers of journalists are Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey and Belarus. CPJ said that a “key driver” behind authoritarian governments’ increasingly oppressive efforts to stifle the media is trying to “keep the lid on broiling discontent” amid the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reported The Wire.

This is the seventh consecutive year when the number of incarcerated journalists is more than 250, according to the report.

Iran climbed to the list of top jailers this year due to anti-government protests that has swept the Islamic country for nearly three months since 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict hijab dress code for women, reported Scroll.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM