262 JOURNALISTS JAILED IN 2017, SAYS COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS

Penpushing further reports that, the group gave details that  at the end of 2017, 262 journalists jailed included over 70 in Turkey, 40 in China, and 20 in Egypt, while about 52 per cent of those jailed were behind bars because of their reporting on human rights violations.

However, May 2018 report by the United Nations (UN_ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) mandated with safeguarding the freedom of the press and the safety of journalists condemned the rise in the arbitrary imprisonment.

 “Arbitrary imprisonment of journalists, which fosters self-censorship and impinges on the public’s right to access information, has reportedly continued to rise. Many governments have maintained that particular journalists have been imprisoned for reasons unrelated to their journalistic work”, UNESCO observed.

Penpushing further reports that, in his remark, the Committee  Executive Director, Joel Simon, declared that “governments around the world routinely use emergency laws to censor media outlets and publications.

He added, “Increasingly they also bring ‘fake news’ charges against journalists who contradict official statements. They try journalists in military courts, they hold them in pre-trial detention indefinitely. These are all actions that contradict international human rights law, and the standards set by the UN”.

‘Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guarantees the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The universality of this was reinforced in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’.

,Penpushing reports that  the United Nations  General Assembly in 2013, declared  November as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which is increasingly observed across the world.