currents

Hard Numbers

Freedom of the press
July 1, 2014

60
percent of US journalists in 1982 said they had “almost complete freedom” in selecting their stories

33.6
percent of US journalists in 2013 said they had “almost complete freedom” in selecting their stories

8
number of leak cases in which the Obama administration has brought criminal charges

3
number of leak cases in which the US government brought criminal charges, under all previous administrations combined

25,000
number of incriminating documents rescued from the lake at the Ukrainian ex-president’s house, which were then digitized and published online by journalists

16
number of journalists imprisoned in Egypt since the ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi in 2013

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25
maximum number of years in prison faced by 16 Egyptian journalists accused of joining the Muslim Brotherhood

148
days that detained Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Abdullah Elshamy was on hunger strike, until his release, due to health concerns, on June 17. He was detained without charges for 10 months.

Sources: Indiana University, The New York Times, Wired, Committee to Protect Journalists, The Guardian, Daily News Egypt

Gabriel Rosenberg is a Pittsburgh-based journalist going to school in Connecticut, and a former intern for CJR. He tweets on @GabrielJR.