Watchdog

Turkey, Iran, and China are the top jailers of journalists, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) media watchdog.

More than half of all the imprisoned reporters, bloggers, and editors in the world are in those three countries, the CPJ said.

Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan also made the top 10 list of countries with jailed journalists.

It is the second consecutive year that Turkey and Iran topped the CPJ's list.

The CPJ says there are currently 40 journalists in Turkish prisons who are jailed for their work, down from 61 in October 2012.

In Iran, the number of jailed journalists is 35, down from 45 one year ago.

The remaining list of top 10 countries for jailing journalists is, in order: Eritrea, Vietnam, Syria, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Uzbekistan.

In a new report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documents censorship that is being exercised in the name of religion and God.

In the report released on December 13, the Paris-based group says news and content providers in "far too many countries" constantly face what it calls this "very special and formidable form of censorship."

RSF says that in Iran, the Persian Gulf emirates, and some Christian Orthodox countries, journalists are "branded as heretics as soon as they dare to describe the far-from-holy practices of the regime and its clergy."

If they dare to denounce the atrocities of Islamist militants in Pakistan, RSF says, they are gunned down as infidels.

The group urges international institutions to reject attempts by some governments to have "blasphemy" and "defamation of religion" treated as violations of fundamental human rights.