For the first time in 15 years, Cuba did not appear on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) census of jailed journalists, that organization reported Thursday, Dec. 8. Still, the census showed that overall, the number of journalists worldwide in prison rocketed up 20 percent to levels not seen since the mid-1990s, according to the Associated Press.
Iran, Eritrea and China top the list, which shows 179 writers, editors and photojournalists jailed worldwide as of Dec. 1, compared with 34 imprisonments at the same time last year, reported Voice of America. Iran alone accounts for 43 of the 179 -- 24 percent -- detained news people.
CNN noted that for the first time since CPJ started tallying the number of jailed journalists in 1990, "not a single journalist in the Americas was in jail for work-related reasons on Dec. 1."
See CPJ's complete list of jailed journalists here.
In April of this year, Cuba freed its last jailed journalist, Albert Santiago Du Bouchet, who had been in jail since 2009 for defamation. In March, Cuba released -- the majority into exile in Spain -- the last of the journalists who had been jailed in the 2003 crackdown on dissidents known as the "Black Spring." In July 2010, the Cuban government agreed to begin freeing the 52 political prisoners.
