« Previous | Main | Next »

New Report: China Is Top Journalist Jailer

December 06, 2007 8:33 AM

Newreportchin_mn China tops the list of world's biggest jailer of journalists, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York–based nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.

"We can encourage it to change, but until its government sees value in having a free press, China will continue throwing journalists into jail," CPJ's Asia director Bob Dietz told ABC News.

China has detained more journalists than any other country for nine consecutive years, according to the CPJ report.

Dietz said China has failed to meet its promises to improve press freedom before the 2008 Olympics, as reported earlier on the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

"Nothing's changed for Chinese journalists since 2001; if anything, it's gotten tougher for journalists in China," said Dietz.

The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to requests from ABC News for comment on this article.

CPJ's annual worldwide census of imprisoned journalists found 127 behind bars on Dec. 1, a decrease of seven from the 2006 tally.

The United States also made CPJ's report. The group finds the U.S. is detaining two journalists, one in Guantanamo Bay and one in Iraq. Cuba, Eritrea, Iran and Azerbaijan round out the top five jailers among the 24 nations that imprison journalists, according to the CPJ report.

Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?

December 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Mr Brian Ross,

How can you report "Carol Sue would be alive today if not for Huckabee". Why dont you report "3000 persons would be alive today if it were not for the Al Queda ramming airlines into World Trade Centers" -- In other words, you can report better subjects cant you ? Your supposed to be a first class reporter.

Posted by: Charlie Wooster | Dec 6, 2007 8:56:45 AM

Note to America, Our news is censored. Last week, 3 Brits, found guilty of collusion with Enron, were convicted, and sentenced, but, was censored from our news stations. The Pope made some comments about our President that were also censored. Welcome to Homeland Security, all it's really doing is protecting the Presidency from Impeachment.

Posted by: zuzu | Dec 6, 2007 3:42:04 PM

China wants to be the world's biggest example of capitalism but God forbid they allow their society to see what journalists report on. Why be a open society when it comes to exporting goods and a closed society on information? The leaders are extremely paranoid that their people might actually have a reason to disagree.

Posted by: Bob | Dec 12, 2007 8:56:48 AM

Post a comment