Number of jailed journalists worldwide tops 134

Print media, photographers and editors account for 67 cases, while 49 are from the internet media. Since the arrest of the first internet journalist in 1997, the number of online journalists detained has been increasing year after year.

Media Helping Media, a UK-based online website pioneering media freedom in countries with limited freedom of expression, quoted CPJ executive director Joel Simon as saying: "This is a crucial point in the fight for press freedom because authoritarian states have made the internet a major front in their efforts to control information."

Simon also said that China is challenging the notion that the internet is impossible to control or censor.

"If it succeeds," he added, "there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom around the world."

'Appalled'

Virginia Setshedi, of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), is saddened and appalled by this state of affairs. "It is sad and disturbing that journalists have to fear for their lives when executing their duties through their career," Setshedi told Bizcommunity.com this week.

"I am afraid this growing trend might result in a clear erosion of freedom of expression in the world, most especially in Africa."

Apart from Eritrea and Ethiopia - countries leading the African pack - independent reports have also singled out 'no-go areas' such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Swaziland, Angola, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Guinea, Chad - to name only a few. While some are tortured and detained indefinitely, the CPJ says that many journalists are taken to secret locations and their whereabouts are unknown.

Setshedi regrets that this situation continues to occur even in countries that have embraced democracy. "Definitely this contradicts the very principles of democracy that preach freedom of expression and freedom to impart and receive information," she remarked.

"I want to agree with Joel Simon [CPJ executive director] that if the civil society does not stand up against this trend, we will find ourselves in societies that oppress views and ideas, and only read and hear governments' propaganda."

Furthermore, the CPJ also said that a total of 51 journalists were officially killed in 2006, with Iraq being the worst offender with 29 cases. "They either died in the line of duty or were deliberately targeted for assassination because of their work of reporting, or their affiliation to a news organisation," the lobby media group concluded.

The CPJ is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to the global defence of media freedom.