Press freedom is a cornerstone of democratic societies, serving as a mechanism for holding those in power accountable, fostering informed public discourse, and safeguarding individual liberties. However, this pillar is not universally upheld, and a concerning trend persists across the globe – the alarming incarceration of journalists who work to fulfill their role as watchdogs. In various countries, journalists find themselves behind bars, facing intimidation, harassment, and even life-threatening risks, all for carrying out their duty to report and investigate.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 363 journalists were imprisoned in 2022. The number represents almost one arrest per day. This issue not only stifles the free flow of information, it also highlights the pressing need for concerted efforts to protect and promote the essential role of journalists in upholding transparency and democracy.

To understand the real dimension of the data, let's do an exercise:

Can you imagine sharing the same room with all the journalists imprisoned in 2022?

A crowded room

Sharing space with the journalists arrested last year would make a room like Pulitzer Hall's Lecture Hall at Columbia University uncomfortably crowded. Also, bringing all these media professionals together would require them to fly in from 36 different countries around the world—especially from Asia, where the territories with the highest number of imprisoned journalists are located.

Hover your mouse over the "blueprint" map to see information about the countries.

If we add the sentence time given to each of the journalists, we reach a number of more than 1,227 years of imprisonment. The number is high, especially if we consider that almost 60% of cases have not yet received a sentence.

Male journalists are the main target of this form of censorship around the world.