By George Mhango:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified Angola, Cameroon, Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tunisia as among the leading jailers of journalists globally in 2024.

According to a census published this week, Eritrea remains the leading jailer in sub- Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists incarcerated between 2000 and 2005 still included in the 2024 survey.

The census shows that 67 journalists were jailed in Africa last year, most facing charges such as anti- State offences, criminal defamation and spreading false news.

“In 2023 about 68 were jailed as compared to 57 of them in 2022. Journalists detained in Rwanda and Senegal speak of mistreatment behind bars, including beatings,” the CPJ census reads.

Many of those listed in CPJ’s 2024 census have been sentenced to long prison terms, with 10 receiving life sentences and one sentenced to death.

A total of 54 are serving more than 10 years, 55 between five and 10 years and 62 between one and five years.

The census says that some of the journalists in Eritrea have been imprisoned for the longest periods globally, with no charges ever disclosed against them.

“Over the years, Eritrean officials have offered vague and inconsistent explanations for the journalists’ arrests— accusing them of involvement in anti-state conspiracies in connection with foreign intelligence, skirting military service and violating press regulations. Officials, at times, even denied that the journalists existed,” CPJ’s census notes.

The CPJ census also states that Egypt has used enforced disappearances to intimidate and silence journalists before detaining them.

It is reported that Egypt violated its criminal procedure law by extending the incarceration of Egyptian-British blogger Alaa Abdelfattah by two years, despite his release being due in September.

“In Angola, Carlos Alberto was still in jail on December 1 despite becoming eligible for parole the previous month after his three-year sentence for criminal defamation was reduced to 27 months under a 2022 amnesty law,” the census says.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that Lai, Zamora, Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, Rwandan journalist Théoneste Nsengimana and Palestinian journalists Mohammad Badr and Ameer Abu Iram are among those held in violation of international law.

In Senegal, a CPJ investigation found that René Capain Bassène was sentenced to life imprisonment for a crime he could not have committed.

Tunisia has used its new cybercrime law to imprison a record number of journalists, according to the CPJ census.

More than 60 percent of the journalists in CPJ’s 2024 census—228 in total—are imprisoned under anti-State laws used to silence independent voices.

Charges or convictions for terrorism or “extremism”