Bangladeshi cartoonist Kabir Kishore has topped the April ranking of the One Free Press Coalition’s ‘10 Most Urgent' list of press freedom cases, reports Forbes.
The ‘10 Most Urgent’ list was published on Thursday at www.onefreepresscoalition.com by the organisation of a united group of pre-eminent editors and publishers and focuses on journalists whose press freedoms are being suppressed or whose cases seek justice.
Kishore was released in March after nearly 10-month in pre-trial detention for allegedly “spreading rumour” on social media
He was arrested in May last year in a case filed under the Digital Security Act along with writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who died in jail on February 25.
Kishore is currently suffering from serious health issues due to alleged physical abuse while he was behind bars.
The One Free Press Coalition list for April, which also included Lu Yuyu of China, Hopewell Chin’ono of Zimbabwe, and Elena Solovyova of Russia among others, highlighted cases of journalists that have faced retribution for their online and social media posts.
Social media offers one of the few outlets for journalists to publish critical reporting in many countries around the world, especially those with restrictive media environments, says the Forbes report.
Out of the 274 journalists who were jailed in 2020, 79 per cent report and publish on the internet, and 58 per cent are considered internet reporters, the report said.
The 26th ‘10 Most Urgent’ list also includes Mohammad Mosaed of Iran, Ricardo Noblat of Brazil, Otabek Sattoriy of Uzbekistan, Arzu Geybulla of Azerbaijan, Basma Mostafa of Egypt and Rana Ayyub of India.
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