China still good at jailing journalists
A man appears overwhelmed with the choices of magazines and newspapers for sale 25 May 2000 at a street-side news stand in Beijing, China.
For the first time in more than a decade, China is not the world's top jailer of journalists.
In its latest annual survey on press freedom in the world, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that Iran outpaced China in locking up journalists over the past year.
China hasn't improved, with 27 Chinese journalists behind bars, a number comparable to past years. But Iran was even worse last year, the organization reported.
More from GlobalPost: Journalists "illegally" held in China, says US envoy Jon Huntsman
In China, 17 of the 27 journalists locked up were arrested in connection with covering issues related to China's ethnic minorities.
"That [China] was supplanted in 2011 was a reflection of the high numbers in Iran rather than a significant drop in China. The total of 27 journalists jailed in China on December 1 was consistent with figures documented over the past several years," CPJ said on its website.
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