Why Can't They Throw Bill O'Reilly in Jail?

In all seriousness, okay not so serious, jailed journalists. It happens, and quite frequently these days. Although in some of the countries Cooper visits, I think it might be better to be jailed versus kidnapped by terrorists, but either way it's no stroll on the Santa Barbara beach.

I vote to imprison Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. I guess they fit the term of journalist, albeit very loosely.

Could you imagine Anderson Cooper behind bars? All those horrible prison movies come to mind...you know the kind I'm talking about. I wonder who Lifetime would cast to play the part of Cooper? And of course, you know the other question I'm dying to ask, but will refrain from asking here...my dirty little mind at work again. Ugh.

Jailed journalists worldwide hits record
By Michelle Nichols, Reuters

NEW YORK - The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work rose for the second year with internet bloggers and online reporters now one third of those incarcerated, a US-based media watchdog said today.

A Committee to Protect Journalists census found that a record 134 journalists were in jail on Dec. 1 -- an increase of nine from the 2005 tally -- in 24 countries with China, Cuba, Eritrea and Ethiopia the top four nations to imprison media. While print reporters, editors and photographers again made up the largest number of jailed journalists -- with 67 cases -- there were 49 imprisoned internet journalists, making them the second biggest category, the New York-based committee said.

"We're at a crucial juncture in the fight for press freedom because authoritarian states have made the internet a major front in their effort to control information," Committee Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. "China is challenging the notion that the internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom all over the world."

Among those jailed in China were Zheng Yichun, a Chinese freelance contributor to overseas online news sites who wrote a series of editorials criticizing the Communist Party. The census also found there were eight television journalists, eight radio reporters and two film/documentary makers in jail. Other countries where journalists were imprisoned were Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Iran, Maldives, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said 84 journalists were jailed for "anti-state" allegations like subversion and divulging state secrets, with many of those imprisoned in China, Cuba and Ethiopia. The census also showed 20 imprisoned journalists were held without any charge or trial and that Eritrea accounted for more than half those cases.

The committee said the United States imprisoned two journalists without charge or trial -- Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, now held for eight months in Iraq, and Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, jailed for five years and now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Joshua Wolf, a freelance blogger who refused to turn over video of a 2005 protest to a US federal grand jury, was also in jail. For the eighth year in a row, China led the way in jailing journalists with a total of 31 imprisoned on Dec. 1, the census found, followed by Cuba with 24 reporters behind bars, Eritrea with 23 in jail and Ethiopia with 18 journalists jailed.