The number of journalists jailed worldwide rose by over 20%, reaching the highest level since the mid-1990s, announced on Thursday the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), based in New York, reports AP.
Press advocacy group supports the latest report that Iran is currently imprisoned more journalists than any other country. Thus, Iran is behind bars 43 of the 179 journalists imprisoned around the world, according to data by 1 December of the CPJ.

Among those currently detained are Mohammad Iran Davar editor, winner of CPJ Press Freedom Prize, whose site exposed abuses of detainees in a detention center that was closed in the meantime, it said in a statement.

Committee to Protect Journalists said that the Iranian government's post-election crackdown in 2009 kicked off a campaign to send journalists to prison, a campaign that continues today.

"The number of arrests, interrogations and those released on bail is enormous. The effect is that many journalists know that it must address critical issues," said the exiled Iranian journalist Omid Memarian.

Among the countries with the largest number of journalists sent to prison include Eritrea, China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Turkey and Syria, according to CPJ research.

Among regions, governments in the Middle East and North Africa held behind bars on December 1, 77 journalists, almost 45% of the world total.

For the first time since the organization began to make annual reports in 1990, no journalist in the Americas is not closed for reasons of work.

CPJ notes that the total number worldwide is the largest since 1996, when the organization has counted 185 journalists jailed after crackdown on Turkey's Kurdish ethnic reporters.