DHAKA: For the second consecutive year, world’s leading press advocacy body said in its latest report, Turkey is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in the report that the number of journalists in prison globally decreased from a year earlier but remains close to historical highs.

In its annual census, CPJ noted that Turkey, Iran, and China accounted for more than half of all journalists imprisoned around the world in 2013.

CPJ identified 211 journalists jailed for their work, the second worst year on record after 2012, when 232 journalists were behind bars.

The advocacy group said intolerant governments in Ankara, Tehran, and Beijing used mostly anti-state charges to silence a combined 107 critical reporters, bloggers, and editors.

Turkey and Iran retained their distinctions as the worst and second worst jailers for two years in a row, despite each having released some prisoners during 2013.

It added that journalists in Turkish jails declined to 40 from 49 the previous year, as some were freed pending trial. Others benefited from new legislation that allowed defendants in lengthy pre-trial detentions to be released for time served.

Additional journalists, the census said, were freed after CPJ had completed its census on December 1.

The report said authorities are holding dozens of Kurdish journalists on terror-related charges and others for allegedly participating in anti-government plots.

Broadly worded anti-terror and penal code statutes allow Turkish authorities to conflate the coverage of banned groups with membership, according to CPJ research, reports Today’s Zaman.

BDST: 1735 HRS, DEC 18, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor