Thirty-four new journalists joined the thirteen who were already under the locks in Iran before the start of the protests, according to the annual report of reporters without borders, published on Wednesday.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Iran joined this year the “dark prize list” of the five countries that imprison the most journalists in the world, according to RSF. The Islamic Republic has imprisoned journalists in a arm of arms since September, the beginning of the demonstrations against the death of Mahsa Amini, and, more broadly, the number of media professionals held in the world has reached a record level in 2022, according to the balance sheet annual reporters without borders (RSF).
Throughout the planet, they are 533, about forty more than last year on the same date (488), where we already recorded a historic level of imprisoned journalists, according to the Defense NGO freedom of press. More than half are detained in only five countries: in China, which remains “the largest prison of journalists in the world” (110), in Burma (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).
The Islamic Republic has indeed imprisoned an unprecedented number of “unprecedented” media professionals in twenty years since the start of the protest movement that broke out in September. Thirty-four new journalists joined the thirteen who were already under the locks before the start of the protests. “The dictatorial and authoritarian regimes carry out an accelerated filling of their prisons by incarcerating journalists,” denounced Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF.
“An unprecedented number of women journalists”
Within this global global assessment, RSF notes an unprecedented number of women journalists imprisoned: they are 78 (against 60 last year), which is partly explained by “the growing feminization of the profession”. “Women journalists now represent almost 15 % of detainees, against less than 7 % five years ago”, according to RSF.
This is for example the case of the Iranian women Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, “who had helped draw attention to the death of the young Iranian Kurdish Mahsa Amini” and “now risk the death penalty”. The demonstrations that shake Iran were triggered by the death on September 16 of this 22 -year -old young woman, after her arrest by the moral police for an offense in the strict dress of the Islamic Republic.
In total, “Iran alone has eighteen journalists’ eighteen women”, of which fifteen have been incarcerated since the start of the demonstrations. “This high figure of detained journalists shows the will of the Iranian authorities to systematically reduce the voices of women to silence,” said RSF. The NGO awarded its “price of courage” on Monday to one of these women journalists Iranian, Narges Mohammadi, who “spent only a few months outside prison” since 2011.
Men and women combined, two regions of the world concentrate three quarters of prisoners: “almost 45 % of journalists are detained in Asia and more than 30 % are in the Maghreb and the Middle East”. RSF also points to the fact that “repression has increased sharply in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February”.
Furthermore, the number of journalists killed (57) is also up, especially because of the war in Ukraine, while it was “historically low” in 2021 (48) and 2020 (50). “Of the eight journalists killed since the start of the Ukrainian conflict, five were foreign reporters,” notes RSF. According to the NGO, “almost 80 % of media professionals killed in 2022 were knowingly targeted because of their profession and the subjects on which they worked”, like “organized crime and corruption”.