According to Data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ found China had the most media workers imprisoned.
In 2023, nearly half of China’s imprisoned journalists were Uyghurs, revealing the intersection of poor press freedom and human rights abuses. The U.S. and others accuse China of Uyghur genocide. Uyghur journalists face charges reflecting a broader suppression of intellectuals in Uyghur homeland (ET).
Analysts noted that the significant number of detained Uyghurs underscores the connection between Beijing’s limited press freedom and its human rights violations against Uyghurs. In the cases of the 19 Uyghurs examined, critics of the Chinese government frequently encountered charges related to separatism and terrorism. As an example, academic and blogger Ilham Tohti recently marked a decade in custody, having been arrested in January 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of alleged separatism.
