Report Says Record Number of Journalists Jailed Worldwide, Turkey is the worst offender with 49 journalists behind bars.

Report Says Record Number of Journalists Jailed Worldwide, Turkey is the worst offender with 49 journalists behind bars.(RN).The number of journalists jailed worldwide hit a record high in 2012, with 232 reporters, photographers and editors imprisoned in 27 countries at the start of this month, according to a report released Tuesday by the US based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Turkey is the worst offender with 49 journalists behind bars. CPJ said dozens of Kurdish reporters and editors have been jailed on terror-related charges and other journalists “on charges of involvement in anti-government plots.”
The committee said “broadly worded anti-terror and penal code statues have allowed Turkish authorities to conflate the coverage of banned groups and the investigation of sensitive topics with outright terrorism or other anti-state activity.”
Iran came in second, with 45 jailed journalists. CPJ said the country has sustained a crackdown on journalists since the 2009 contentious presidential reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and authorities have also followed a pattern of freeing some members of the press on six-figure bonds while making new arrests.
China was third on the list with 32 journalists behind bars, according to CPJ, which said China used anti-state charges to jail writers for expressing their political views and documenting ethnic tensions.
CPJ found that widespread use of anti-state charges such as terrorism, treason and subversion were the most common allegations brought against journalists worldwide.
Turkey, Iran and China “each made extensive use of vague anti-state laws to silence dissenting political views, including those expressed by ethnic minorities,” the committee said.
Mehmet Ali Birand, an editor with the Istanbul-based television station Kanal D, calls the use of anti-state laws against journalists a “national disease” and that “the government does not differentiate between these two major things: freedom of expression and terrorism.”
The majority of the 232 imprisoned journalists are being held by their own governments, and three foreign journalists were imprisoned worldwide.
Eritrea, Syria, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia were also included in the top ten nations for jailing journalists, according to CPJ.
In two of those nations, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, “authorities used retaliatory charges such as hooliganism and drug possession to jail critical reporters and editors,” the report stated.
No journalists are being detained in Russia or the United States, according to CPJ, but it reported that American journalist Austin Tice is believed to be currently held in Syrian state custody.Hmmmm.....Turkey Obama's BFF.Read the full story here.