In 2021, the situation got darker as a total of 42 journalists died while 293 journalists were jailed for doing their jobs within the year.
Journalists around the world continue to face dangers in executing their duties. Journalists imprisoned in 2021 alone account for 15.72% of 1864 imprisoned from 1992 till date.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released statistics of the injustice meted to journalists in the line of duty. The figure, 293, recorded in 2021 represents the all-time high of imprisoned journalists, increasing from 280 in 2020.
Amongst the 42 that lost their lives, 24 were killed in direct relation to their work, while the remaining 18 died under questionable circumstances where it was difficult to ascertain if they were the target or not.
The 2021 edition is the CPJ’s sixth year of reporting violations against journalists within the year. These numbers do not include those imprisoned and released within the year.
In this year’s statistics, China tops the list of countries with imprisoned journalists as 50 journalists are still in prison. This makes up 17.06% of the global figure. In second place is Myanmar, which arrested and jailed 26 (8.87%) reporters. Egypt, 25; Vietnam, 23 and Belarus, (19) makes the top five.
Egypt had the highest in Africa, with 25 journalists imprisoned in 2021. Eritrea is second, with 16 journalists behind bars. Other Africa’s top five countries are Ethiopia 9, Rwanda 7, and Cameroon 6. There are a total of 75 journalists imprisoned in Africa.
The CPJ 2021 reported only one journalist imprisoned in Nigeria. This is Luke Binniyat of The Epoch Times, a human rights reporter jailed on November 24, 2021. Data gleaned from CPJ shows that in Nigeria, a total of 12 journalists have been killed between 1992 – 2021.
The figure of imprisoned journalists across the globe, as compiled by CPJ summed up to 1,864 in 2021. However, 1,422 journalists have been killed from 1992 to 2021, and 69 others were reported missing.
CPJ has continued its quest to ensure a fair playground for journalists across the globe. It reiterated its commitment to ensuring journalists’ freedom as its intervention saw to the early release from prison of at least 100 journalists in 2021.
To ensure justice for journalists murdered, CPJ initiated the People’s Tribunal, to address these issues.
Across the world and in Nigeria specifically, civic spaces continue to shrink. Civic technology has been used to great effect in the tracking and reporting of violations against journalists. In Nigeria, PTCIJ’s Press Attack Tracker is one such civic technology tool that is keeping track of infringements on the constitutionally guaranteed rights of journalists.
According to Stephanie Douglas, Project Officer managing the Press Attack Tracker, in 2021, the Press Attack tracker hosted twenty-nine (29) verified reports of attacks against the press with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kaduna and Lagos hosting the highest number of attacks. These attacks were mostly perpetrated by state actors (DSS and Police) in various instances. Data from the tracker also reports that journalists were mostly attacked for recording/reporting incidents such as protests and illegal activities.