CHINA: China jails more journalists than any other country and, along with Cuba, Eritrea and Burma, accounts for more than 75 per cent of journalists imprisoned around the world, a new report showed yesterday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said its annual review had found 122 journalists imprisoned in 20 countries, 16 fewer than at the same time a year earlier. The advocacy group said the list included one US journalist, Jim Taricani, who was sentenced to six months house arrest in December for refusing to reveal the source of a leaked videotape.
For the sixth year in a row, China was the leading jailer of journalists, with 42, followed by Cuba with 23, Eritrea with 17, and Burma with 11. "These four countries operate outside the international mainstream," said Ms Ann Cooper, the group's executive director. The New York-based group picked out the US for criticism, saying that two other US journalists faced possible federal prison terms linked to their refusal to reveal sources - Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of the New York Times. Both were subpoenaed in a grand jury investigation of whether the Bush administration illegally leaked a covert CIA officer's name to the media. Both have refused to testify.