China remained the world’s largest jailer of journalists in 2025, with at least 50 reporters imprisoned in connection with their work as of December 1, 2025, according to the 2025 Prison Census released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on January 21, 2026. The figure places China at the top of the global list for the third consecutive year and accounts for roughly 15% of the 330 journalists jailed worldwide at the time of the census.
Although the global total fell slightly from a record 384 imprisoned journalists in 2024, CPJ warned that the overall number remains historically high, marking the fifth straight year in which more than 300 journalists were behind bars. The organisation linked the persistence of high numbers to expanding authoritarian practices, the weaponisation of national security laws, and the growing number of armed conflicts worldwide.
China’s approach stands out for its heavy reliance on vaguely defined “anti-state” charges, including subversion of state power, inciting subversion, and espionage. CPJ reported that more than two-thirds of jailed journalists in China were held or sentenced under such provisions, which allow authorities wide discretion and are frequently criticised by legal experts for lacking transparency. Globally, 61% of all imprisoned journalists in 2025 were jailed on similar anti-state charges, underscoring a broader international trend toward criminalising journalism under the guise of national security.
Several high-profile cases illustrate the severity of China’s crackdown. Dong Yuyu, a veteran editor and columnist and a recipient of CPJ’s 2025 International Press Freedom Award, was detained in February 2022 while meeting a Japanese diplomat in Beijing. He was convicted of espionage in November 2024 and sentenced to seven years in prison, a verdict upheld in November 2025 after repeated delays. CPJ noted that Dong’s family was denied regular access to him for nearly four years, raising concerns about his health and treatment in custody.
Another prominent example is Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist known for her reporting from Wuhan during the early COVID-19 outbreak. After completing a four-year sentence in 2024, she was re-arrested and sentenced again in September 2025 to an additional four years on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to reporting by Reuters and international rights groups. Her case has been widely cited as evidence of China’s determination to silence independent reporting even after journalists have served full sentences.
Beyond individual cases, conditions inside Chinese detention facilities have drawn sustained criticism. CPJ’s long-term data show more than 30 documented cases of mistreatment of journalists in Chinese custody since 1992, including allegations of torture and prolonged solitary confinement. Reuters, citing CPJ findings, reported that nearly one in five imprisoned journalists worldwide in 2025 said they had experienced physical abuse, with Asia accounting for a significant share of those reports.
Other international assessments reinforce CPJ’s findings. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked China 178th out of 180 countries in its 2025 World Press Freedom Index, placing it among the world’s most restrictive environments for journalism. RSF has also highlighted the use of national security legislation in Hong Kong to prosecute journalists and media owners, extending Beijing’s press controls beyond the mainland.
CPJ noted that nearly half of all jailed journalists worldwide were being held without a formal sentence as of December 1, 2025, and that 26% of those unsentenced detainees had been in prison for five years or more, in violation of international standards on due process. Among journalists who had been sentenced, almost three-quarters faced prison terms of at least five years, including eight life sentences and one death sentence globally.
Commenting on the findings, CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said the imprisonment of journalists has become a deliberate tool to suppress scrutiny and accountability. “Persecuting journalists is a means of silencing them,” she said, warning that such practices allow corruption and abuse of power to flourish unchecked.
While China was not the only country with high numbers Myanmar, Israel, Russia, and Belarus also ranked among the top jailers CPJ emphasised that ten countries accounted for nearly 75% of all imprisoned journalists worldwide. China’s continued dominance of the list, coupled with its expansive use of national security laws and opaque judicial processes, places it at the centre of what press-freedom groups describe as a deepening global crisis for independent journalism as 2026 begins.
