The Committee to Project Journalists highlights a worrying trend in its report on press freedom across the world.
It says that the internet has fueled a growth in the number of jailed journalists. It found that 134 journalists were behind bars on December 1, up by nine from the previous year.
More significantly, it found that one in three is now an Internet blogger, online editor, or web-based reporter.
Abi Wright, CPJ’s communications director, was quizzed about this for an article by the Online Journalism review.
Her response:
“I think the rise in the number of Internet journalists on our prison list this year is startling, and reflective of trends that we’ve been following since 1997, when we documented the first jailing of an Internet writer. I think there’s two things going on. First of all, there are more people writing and doing journalism online. Secondly, the perennial offenders, China and Cuba, in particular, are just saying an increasing, or ever-present, I should say, intolerance towards reporting and dissent in any form, and online in particular.”
Digging into the report, it becomes clear that some of these Internet journalists are not necessarily paid journalists, but what could be called citizen journalists.
It is another sign how traditional definitions of who is a journalists are being challenged in the digital age.
The CPJ reports highlights both the rise of the Internet as a media platform, as well as increasing government efforts to stifle the web as a major conduit for information.
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