China and Egypt were atop the list of countries jailing journalists in 2015 as the number of journalists in prison worldwide slightly declined from previous years to 1999, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said today.

The annual report by CPJ, a media rights watchdog, found that while China maintained its position as the world’s worst jailer of journalists, media freedom has dramatically declined in Egypt and Turkey during this year.

China jailed 49 journalists during 2015, which is an increase from 44 in 2014, and which put the country on top of the list.

Egypt held 23 journalists behind bars this year, which is almost a two-fold increase compared to 12 journalists held in 2014.

Turkey has also doubled the number of jailed journalists to 14 during this year after it released dozens of media professionals from prison in 2014. CPJ noted that the trend is worrying given that Turkey had jailed more journalists than any other country in the world in 2012 and 2013.

Overall, the number of journalists in prison fell to 199 in 2015 from 221 in 2014, which marked the second highest number on record.

In Iran, which has one of the world’s worst records on media freedom, the number of jailed journalists fell from 30 to 19 this year. Among those remaining in jail is Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, who has been held on espionage charges.

Ethiopia, which has one of the highest levels of censorship, has released six bloggers from jail, but they reportedly still face travel restrictions, CPJ said.

- dpa