Mapping Attacks on the Free Press

Every year the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) releases an annual report on the number of journalists imprisoned and killed by countries across the world. Nearly every year China tops the chart as the worst offender, most years killing and imprisoning more journalists than any other country in the world. You probably won't be surprised to hear that Putin's Russia also consistently imprisons journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Attacks on the Press 2021 documents and maps the numbers of journalists who were killed and imprisoned in every country in the world last year. In 2021 a record number of journalists were jailed around the world. In total 293 journalists were jailed last year and at least 27 journalists were killed.

The CPJ map colors the world's countries based on the number of journalists that were imprisoned during 2021. The yellow dots show where journalists were killed in 2020 in relation to their work. As you scroll through the story the map pans to explain the attacks on the press in the worst offending countries. A menu allows you to switch between imprisoned journalists, journalists killed in 2020 and an 'explore' option. If you select 'explore' you can then click on the individual yellow dots on the map to learn more about the individual journalists who were killed around the world during the course of last year.

Mapping Media Freedom is another organization which is dedicated to tracking attacks on the free press. Mapping Media Freedom maps threats to the media throughout the European Union and neighboring countries. It is a joint initiative from the Index on Censorship, the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. The map uses clustered markers to show the locations of crowdsourced reports of threats, violations or limitations faced by journalists, newspapers or other media.

You can filter the reports shown on the map by location, date range or category. The categories include different types of censorship and limits to press freedom. They also include the option to filter by sex, type of journalist and the source of the threat to media freedom.