…2022 tops record on Violence against Journalists
Hope James
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has revealed that over 500 Journalists are currently detained. Stating that the year 2022, has set a new and unfortunately sad record.
This was made known in its annual end of year round up, which publishes a data of journalists killed, detained, held hostage or missing.
According to its findings, the number of journalists killed has also risen in 2022 to 57.
“At the same, 65 journalists are now classified as held hostage and 49 as missing.
In another new trend, women now account for nearly 15% of the detained journalists, as against only 7% five years ago.
Two of the women detained in Iran, Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, are facing a possible death penalty for helping to draw attention to the fate of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death has triggered a big wave of protests in Iran.”
The Round-up also looked at some of the year’s most striking cases, such as that of Ivan Safronov, one of Russia’s best investigative journalists, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest jail sentence registered by RSF in 2022; and Dom Phillips, a British journalist whose dismembered body was found in a remote part of the Brazilian Amazon.
The RSF on its newsletter called on journalists to commit themselves to the need for the work, defending journalists and the right to reliable, verified news and ensure that information is greater than ever.