PARIS: Israel ranks among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, as more than 300 media workers remained imprisoned globally for the fifth consecutive year, according to the latest annual prison census by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The report said Israel held 29 journalists behind bars as of December 1, making it the third-largest jailer of media workers worldwide, after China and Myanmar, amid what CPJ described as a broader global decline in press freedom fuelled by armed conflict and growing authoritarianism.
“For the fifth year in a row, more than 300 journalists were imprisoned worldwide as of the end of 2025,” CPJ said in its report, describing the figures as record-setting. It said journalists are often held in “cruel and life-threatening conditions,” quoting a freed Palestinian detainee who described detention as a “cemetery of the living.”
Israel ranked as the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with 29 media workers imprisoned as of December 1, accounting for nine percent of the global total, the census showed.
CPJ said Israel began rapidly imprisoning Palestinian journalists following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023. It added that many journalists were detained on undisclosed charges or held without charge, practices it said contravene international law.
While Israeli citizens enjoy certain civil rights, legal experts cited by CPJ said Palestinians in occupied territory face a markedly different standard of justice. The report said Israel arrested more than 90 journalists during the course of the war.
China topped the list for the third consecutive year, with 50 journalists imprisoned, representing 15 percent of the global total. Myanmar ranked second with 30 jailed journalists, up from third place in 2024.
CPJ found that the world’s 10 worst jailers accounted for nearly 75 percent of the 330 journalists imprisoned globally. Azerbaijan entered the top 10 for the first time since 2018, with 24 journalists imprisoned amid what the group described as a months-long crackdown on independent media.
The number of jailed journalists in Russia, Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt, and Eritrea remained largely unchanged from levels recorded over the past five years, the report said.
Although the total number of imprisoned journalists fell slightly from a record 384 in 2024, CPJ said the overall figures remain alarmingly high. “It has been more than a decade since fewer than 200 journalists were jailed worldwide,” the group noted.
The census, conducted annually at 12:01 am on December 1, found that more than one-third of imprisoned journalists are serving sentences longer than five years. Nearly half have never been sentenced, while 26 percent have been detained without sentencing for more than five years — conditions CPJ said violate international legal standards requiring fair trials without undue delay.
“Global deterioration of democracy and the erosion of human rights protections have paved the way for both new and old authoritarian leaders to suppress press freedom,” the watchdog said.
