Kathmandu/Dhaka. The SAARC Journalists Forum has expressed its concern over the increasing imprisonment rate of journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international organization on the rights of journalists, said that the number of cases of imprisonment against journalists in countries around the world has increased more than before.
The killing of journalists has also increased. On Wednesday (December 14), RSF published the report on its own website. It is said that 533 journalists have been sentenced to prison in the world so far this year. Among them 455 men and 78 women.
Last year, 488 journalists were sentenced to prison worldwide. As a result, this rate increased by 13.4 percent in one year. More than half of the jailed journalists are from just five countries. China is at the top of this list.
110 journalists have been jailed in China so far this year. 62 journalists in Myanmar, 47 in Iran, 39 in Vietnam and 31 in Belarus have been sentenced to prison.
SAARC Journalist Forum President Raju Lama and Secretary General Md Abdur Rahman protested this in a joint statement.
