Countries imprisoning journalists in 2022
Countries with deaths in 2022
Attacks on the Press in 2022
Attacks on journalists’ lives and liberty escalated in 2022, with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ documenting 363 journalists imprisoned for their work as of the December 1 date of its annual prison census — a new global high that overtook the 2021 record by 20% — and a total of 67 journalists and media workers killed in the course of the year.
Interactive map by Geoff McGhee for CPJ
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Attacks on journalists’ lives and liberty escalated in 2022, with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ documenting 363 journalists imprisoned for their work as of the December 1 date of its annual prison census — a new global high that overtook the 2021 record by 20% — and a total of 67 journalists and media workers killed in the course of the year.
Interactive map by Geoff McGhee for CPJ
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Journalists imprisoned in 2022
This year’s top five jailers of journalists are Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus, respectively. A key driver behind authoritarian governments’ increasingly oppressive efforts to stifle the media: trying to keep the lid on broiling discontent in a world disrupted by COVID-19 and the economic fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
This map shows the countries imprisoning journalists in 2022.
Journalists imprisoned in 2022
This map shows the countries imprisoning journalists in 2022.
Read about our methodologyImprisonments by country
Click on countries in the list at left to see journalists imprisoned in 2022.
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Imprisonments by country
Click on countries in the list below to see journalists imprisoned in 2022.
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Iran — #1 in 2022
Following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested for allegedly breaking Iran’s hijab law, Iran’s crackdown on mass protests left at least 62 journalists in jail as of December 1. This represents the highest number documented by CPJ for Iran in the 30 years of its census, easily surpassing the previous imprisonment record set during the aftermath of the country’s disputed 2009 election.
China – #2 in 2022
China’s tight censorship of the media and the fear of speaking out in a country that conducts such extensive surveillance on its people makes it especially difficult to research the exact number of journalists among its prison population. Against that backdrop, the slight drop in the known number of journalists jailed in the country – from a revised total of 48 in 2021 to 43 in 2022 – should not be interpreted as any easing of the country’s intolerance for independent reporting.
Myanmar – #3 in 2022
Myanmar catapulted into CPJ’s census rankings as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in 2021, when a February military coup ousted the country’s elected government and cracked down on coverage of the new regime. The number of Myanmar journalists known to be jailed on December 1 rose to at least 42 – up from a revised 30 last year – as the regime doubled down on its efforts to mute reporters and disrupt the country’s few remaining independent media outlets.
Turkey – #4 in 2022
The number of journalists held in Turkey rose from 18 in 2021 to 40 in 2022 after the arrests of 25 Kurdish journalists in the second half of the year. The journalists’ lawyers told CPJ all were jailed on suspicion of terrorism – a result of the country’s ongoing efforts to silence those it associates with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). While even this year’s jump in numbers has left fewer journalists in prison than in the aftermath of a failed 2016 coup attempt, Turkey’s independent media remain decimated by government shutdowns, takeovers, and the forcing of scores of journalists into exile or out of the profession.
Belarus – #5 in 2022
Belarus held 26 journalists in custody on December 1 – up from 19 last year. Almost half are yet to be sentenced; two are serving terms of 10 or more years. All known charges are either retaliatory or anti-state, such as treason. The arrests have taken place against the backdrop of President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s ongoing vindictiveness against those covering the aftermath of his disputed 2020 election.
Journalists killed in 2022
At least 41 journalists and media workers were killed in direct connection with their work, and CPJ is investigating the motives for the killings of 26 others to determine whether they were work-related. More than half of the 67 killings occurred in just three countries–Ukraine (15), Mexico (13), and Haiti (7).
Read about our methodologyDeaths by country
Click on country names in the list to learn about journalists who were killed there in 2022.
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Explore the data
Read more about the journalists who were killed in 2022, and explore CPJ’s data on journalists who were jailed because of their work.
Previous reports
Methodology
Imprisonments
CPJ’s annual prison census accounts only for journalists in government custody and does not include those who have disappeared or are held captive by non-state actors. These cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.”
CPJ’s list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at 12:01 a.m. on December 1, 2022. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year. CPJ includes only those journalists who it has confirmed have been imprisoned in relation to their work. Journalists remain on CPJ’s list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.
Killings
CPJ began compiling detailed records on all journalist deaths in 1992. CPJ staff members independently investigate and verify the circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case work-related only when its staff is reasonably certain that a journalist was killed in direct reprisal for his or her work; in combat-related crossfire; or while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as covering a protest that turns violent.
If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died in relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as “unconfirmed” and continues to investigate.
CPJ’s list does not include journalists who died of illness or were killed in car or plane accidents unless the crash was caused by hostile action. Other press organizations using different criteria cite different numbers of deaths.
CPJ’s database of journalists killed in 2022 includes capsule reports on each victim and filters for examining trends in the data. CPJ maintains a database of all journalists killed since 1992 and those who have gone missing or are imprisoned for their work.
A note on the map
The map reflects that CPJ holds Russian authorities responsible for press freedom violations in Ukraine’s Crimea after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula led to de facto control of its media sphere.
