China remains world's largest prison for journalists, ranks 178th in index

China remains the world’s largest prison for journalists, and its regime conducted a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information across the world. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this in its latest annual survey. China has kept in detention 110 journalists and three media workers. The Chinese regime has been using surveillance, coercion, intimidation and harassment to stop independent journalists from reporting on issues it considers sensitive like issues related to Tibet. China has been ranked 178th out of 180 nations in the world press freedom index, ahead of North Korea and Eritrea. It has dropped two spots lower than its last year’s ranking at 176th. 

RSF has also condemned the Chinese authorities for denying journalist Zhang Zhan access to legal counsel and isolating her from the outside world, urging the global community to intensify pressure on Beijing to end her persecution.The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party sends a detailed notice to all media every day that includes editorial guidelines and censored topics. The state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) and Radio China International (RCI) spread the regime’s propaganda all around the world.
As per report, the constitution of China guarantees “freedom of speech and of the press” but the regime routinely violates the right to information, in total impunity. To further silence journalists, it accuses them of “espionage”, “subversion”, or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, three “pocket crimes'', a term used by Chinese law experts to describe offences that are so broadly defined that they can be applied to almost any activity. Independent journalists can also be legally placed in solitary confinement for six months under “Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location” (“RSDL”) in China’s “black prisons”, where they are deprived of legal representation and may be subjected to torture.