A new report has found that journalists face more danger than at any other time over the past 10 years, with 78 journalists killed and a further 326 imprisoned while doing their job or for their work in 2017.
Article 19, a U.K.-based human rights NGO working to advance freedom of expression and information, released the report on Wednesday showing that journalists around the world have faced a substantial increase in physical and verbal attacks compared to previous years. The report also noted that a decline in media freedom around the world, particularly in countries such as Turkey, Russia and Hungary, had been matched by an increase in authoritarian tendencies guided by strongman leaders.
The research also found that 97% of jailed journalists were local reporters often imprisoned on anti-state charges. Over the past year, international attention has been drawn to the cases of imprisoned Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar, the death of Maltese journalist Daphne Car..