At the end of last year Reporters Without Borders published the details of the financial aid it had provided to journalists and the media in 2010.

In total it paid out 226 assistance grants to media workers, which it claims were to assist in areas such as helping journalists in exile, paying medical bills, providing financial support to families, purchasing equipment and paying lawyers fees.

The vast majority of aid, 55.6 per cent, was awarded in Iran, which which with China has the joint highest number of imprisoned journalists at 34, as of last December. Africa and Asia were 2nd and 3rd, with 17.3 and 10.2 per cent respectively.

The grants are made possible in part by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), of which Reporters Without Borders is a beneficiary.