Prisoners are locked inside steel containers during periods of intense heat Photograph: Photo: Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders (RWB), the Paris-based press freedom watchdog, has launched a fund-raising campaign based around the plight of jailed journalists in Eritrea, China and Saudi Arabia.

The Eritrean prisoner is Dawit Isaak, who has been imprisoned without trial for 13 years after being arrested along with other newspaper editors in 2001.

Isaak is reported to be dying slowly in a prison camp where detainees are tortured by being shut inside steel containers during periods of intense heat. And RWB has used that image of a container to publicise its campaign.

In his appeal for donations, RWBs secretary-general, Christophe Deloire, writes:

In Eritrea, political prisoners are being detained and tortured, sometimes in steel shipping containers without any form of trial, simply because they expressed their opinion.

What do we know about this shocking situation? Not much, in fact, because the journalists who could tell us about it have all been locked away or murdered by the regime. Precisely because they try to shed light on these atrocities for us, they are often the barbaritys first targets.

Reporters Without Borders supports news media that work to provide us with independent information. So that Eritreans have access to freely-reported, uncensored information, we created Radio Erena, the only independent radio station broadcasting to Eritrea, in 2009.

Our staff strives constantly to support news media for the publics sake. A world without journalists is a closed world, where the most terrible things happen without anyone knowing. We refuse to accept that.

You, too, can provide assistance and defend the cause of all those who fight for one of the pillars of democracy, freedom of information. Make a donation to Reporters Without Borders.

See more here:

Press freedom body highlights plight of Eritrea's jailed journalists