U.S. ranks sixth in jailing journalists

The United States ranked sixth among the world's leading jailers of journalists in 2005, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report issued yesterday. China, Cuba, Eritrea and Ethiopia were the worst offenders, the report said, together accounting for two-thirds of the 125 editors, writers and photojournalists imprisoned around the world.

The U.S. is holding four Iraqi journalists in detention in Iraq and one Sudanese national, an assistant cameraman for Al-Jazeera, in Guantanamo.

For the seventh consecutive year, China was the world's leading jailer of journalists, with 32 imprisoned, the report said. Fifteen of the cases in China involved Internet journalists. Cuba was second, with 24 journalists behind bars.