Turkey remains the world's worst offender for the second consecutive year when it comes to jailing reporters for their work. That's according to an annual report on press freedom released on Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a watchdog.

Despite releasing a handful of reporters this year, 73 journalists remained behind bars in Turkey compared with 81 last year, according to the CPJ. Dozens of others face trial, usually for alleged anti-state, terror-related crimes. Authorities also regularly carry out new arrests and shut down news organizations.

Read more: Jailed Turkish journalists win press freedom prize

The Turkish government's crackdown against the press, which began in 2016 and rapidly accelerated in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt that summer, has fractured relations with Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedlyto the watchdog is intended to intimidate critical reporters into silence. Anti-terror laws in Turkey, for example, will often conflate reporting terrorist activity and condoning it.

This increasingly common practice has seen a number of new states added to this year's list offenders. Notable states include Ecuador, Morocco and Ukraine.

The age of Trump

According to the CPJ, the pattern "reflects a dismal failure by the international community to address a global crisis in freedom of the press."

Repression on the press in authoritarian, US-allied states was in large part sanctioned by US President Donald Trump's own "nationalistic rhetoric, fixation on Islamic extremism, and insistence on labeling critical media "fake news," according to the watchdog.

Read more: Trump slams media as 'enemy of the people'

Trump's attack on the US press had effectively reinforced