For the fifth year in a row, more than 300 journalists were imprisoned worldwide as of the end of 2025, according to CPJ’s annual prison census. These record-setting numbers reflect growing authoritarianism and escalating numbers of armed conflicts worldwide. Often, journalists are held under cruel and life-threatening conditions — “a cemetery of the living,” as one freed Palestinian prisoner described it.
Many imprisoned journalists bear these dangers for a long time, according to the census, an annual snapshot of journalists imprisoned as of 12:01 a.m. on December 1. More than one-third of the 330 in the 2025 census are serving terms of more than five years. Nearly half have never been sentenced at all, and of those, 26% have languished in jail without sentences for five years or more. Such detentions are in violation of international law, which requires fair trials without undue delay.
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