On June 23, Al-Jazeera journalists Peter Greste and his Egyptian-Canadian colleague Mohammad Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison, while producer Bahar Mohammad was given 10 years after being found guilty of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and "spreading false news".
From Argentina to Egypt, Ethiopia to Thailand, there are currently 170 journalists behind bars, according to non-for-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders, which tracks press freedom (and breaches) internationally.
According to its records 170 journalists are imprisoned, not including 11 media assistants and 184 ‘netizens,' also behind bars.
Reporters Without Borders has identified the following countries as the 'biggest prisons for journalists.'
1) China- at least 30 journalists and 70 netizens currently held for providing information
2) Eritrea- 28 journalists in prison
3) Turkey- at least 27 journalists and 2 media assistants in jail.
4) Iran- 20 journalists and 51 netizens imprisoned.
5) Syria- 20 journalists jailed, at least 18 foreign journalists and 22 Syrian news providers 'missing.'
Notable inmates:
Libyan journalist Abdullah Ali Al-Sanussi Al-Darrat has been imprisoned since 1 January 1973. If he is still alive, he would be the oldest prisoner in the world, but little is known about where he is incarcerated. Many people think he is now dead.
Lin Youping was sentenced to death in China after his arrest in July 1983 for launching a freedom publication. This was later commuted to a life sentence which he is serving in Fuzhou in south-eastern Fujian province.
Jose Antonio Torres, a correspondent in Santiago was convicted of spying after being arrested in 2011. He wrote articles about the mismanagement of an aqueduct project and the installation of fibre-optic cables between Venezuela and Cuba. In July 2012 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
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