The number of journalists imprisoned around the world because of their work reached a record high of 262 in 2017, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For the second straight year, more than half of them are jailed in Turkey, China and Egypt.

“The pattern reflects a dismal failure by the international community to address a global crisis in freedom of the press,” the advocacy group said.

Almost three-quarters of the journalists were jailed after being accused of anti-government activities, many of them under broad and vague counter-terror laws. Of the total, 21 journalists were held on charges of “false news” – a term that gained resonance with strongmen who embraced United States President Donald Trump’s dismissal of his critics for spreading “fake news”, The New York Times reported.

“President Donald Trump’s nationalistic rhetoric, fixation on Islamic extremism and insistence on labeling critical media ‘fake news’ serves to reinforce the framework of accusations and legal charges that allow such leaders to preside over the jailing of journalists,” the organisation said.

Cases in India

The Committee to Protect Journalists mentioned two reported cases of journalists being imprisoned in India. The first is the case of Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on September 4 on the accusation of throwing stones at security forces. A spokesperson for the Kashmir Editors’ Guild had said that the agency had arrested Yousuf without giving any reasons.

The second case is that of senior journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested in New Delhi on October 27 on charges of extorting and blackmailing a minister in Chhattisgarh allegedly using sexually explicit material. The former BBC journalist and member of the Editors Guild of India denied the accusations and maintained that he is being falsely implicated.