Tajikistan ranks in the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of imprisoned journalists

Tajikistan has entered the top ten countries in the world where the highest number of journalists are imprisoned. This is stated in a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, published on January 21, 2026.

According to the report by the international organization for the protection of journalists, by the end of 2025, 330 journalists were behind bars due to their work. The number of journalists in custody remains consistently high amid deepening authoritarianism and instability in the world.

The report notes an increase in the persecution of journalists on charges of terrorism, extremism, and collaboration with foreign entities—charges that human rights defenders describe as fabricated.

Thus, Tajikistan has for the first time in recent years made it into the top ten countries with the highest number of imprisoned journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2025, nine journalists were in Tajikistan’s prisons. This figure is the result of a sustained increase in the imprisonment of journalists that began in 2022. The report emphasizes that Tajikistan, as an ally and partner of Russia, employs similar approaches to restricting the activities of independent media.

The authors of the report note that the rise in the number of imprisoned journalists in Tajikistan coincided with intensified efforts by the authorities to “destroy independent media.”

In the ranking by the Committee to Protect Journalists, China ranks first, with 50 journalists in custody. This is followed by Myanmar with 30 and Israel with 29 imprisoned journalists. Next are Russia (27), Belarus (25), and Azerbaijan (24). Other Central Asian countries did not make it into the top ten. Tajikistan’s entry into the top ten for the first time indicates a deepening crisis of freedom of speech in the country.

The report also pays special attention to the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A sharp increase in the detention of journalists has been recorded amid the war in the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023. As of December 1, 2025, Israel was holding 29 journalists in custody, all of whom are Palestinians.

According to the report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel is the only democratic state on the list with the highest number of imprisoned journalists. Israel resorts to arbitrary detentions, “through which it restricts the public’s right to receive information about what human rights organizations and experts consider genocide.”

The report notes that an unprecedented number of targeted killings of journalists by the Israeli army, defamatory campaigns against reporters and news outlets, and the prevention of independent media access to the Gaza Strip have been documented.

The report documents numerous cases of abuse against Palestinian journalists in places of detention, including prolonged solitary confinement, beatings, denial of medical assistance, and humiliating conditions of confinement.

Research by the authors of the report indicates that the trend of accusations of anti-state activities against journalists was observed worldwide in 2025: 61% of all imprisoned journalists were convicted on charges of anti-state activities.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 26% of journalists accounted for in the census spent five or more years in prison without a conviction, which is a violation of international law.

The authors of the report note that many journalists are held in brutal and life-threatening conditions, with nearly one-third of journalists experiencing abuse, of which 20% reported torture and beatings.

The committee’s director, Jodie Ginsberg, noted that authoritarian and democratic regimes imprison journalists “to suppress dissent and curb independent journalism.”

“Every imprisoned journalist is a blow to the public’s right to information,” she stated.