One Nigerian, Oloye Ayodele Samuel is among the 363 journalists jailed for practising the profession in 2022 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
CPJ in its annual prison census released on December 14 stated that the number of reporters deprived of their freedom as of December 1, 2022, is 20% higher than that of 2021 and marks another grim milestone in the deteriorating media landscape.
Samuel, the publisher of Taraba Truths & Facts Newspaper and founder of Rock FM 92.3 Jalingo was arrested on November 28 as part of a defamation case filed by a local business.
According to the annual report, 56 journalists were imprisoned across Africa with Egypt topping with 21, Eritrea (16) and Cameroon, (5).
Other countries in Africa where journalists were jailed include Rwanda, (4), Morocco, (3), DRC, (2), Algeria and Algeria, Burundi, Ethiopia and Senegal which have (1) each.
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Most of the journalists imprisoned in Africa are said to have been held on anti-state charges and others on false news and cyber crime allegations.
Four journalists, Chad, two and Somalia, two, were killed in Africa in 2022
This year’s top five jailers globally are Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus, respectively.
