From 2003 to 2022, 1,668 journalists have been killed worldwide, or 80 per year on average, according to a report published this Friday, December 30 by Reporters Without Borders, Iraq and Syria dominating the ranking of the most dangerous countries for the profession.
Coronavirus – RSF: “This pandemic cannot be an excuse to hamper press freedom”
“With a total of 578 killed in 20 years”these two war-torn states “collect, alone, more than a third of the reporters killed”ahead of Mexico (125), the Philippines (107), Pakistan (93), Afghanistan (81) and Somalia (78), with men accounting for more than 95% of deaths.
Over the past two decades, the years “black” date back to 2012 and 2013, with “respectively 144 and 142 murders of journalists, in particular because of the conflict in Syria”underlines RSF.
Eight journalists killed in Ukraine
These killer spikes were tracked “of a gradual lull, then of historically low figures from 2019”, notes the organization for the defense of freedom of the press. But the death toll started to rise again in 2022, with 58 journalists killed in the line of duty, compared to 51 the previous year, due to the war in Ukraine.
Moscow Journal: “Russian Journalists in Exile Didn’t Forsee Such Level of Russophobia in the West”
Eight journalists have lost their lives there since the Russian invasion in February, adding to the 12 journalists who were killed there. “in the previous 19 years”. Ukraine is thus in second place in the ranking of the most dangerous countries in Europe, behind Russia (25 killed in 20 years).
“Since Vladimir Putin came to power, attacks – including fatal ones – on the freedom of the press have been systematic there, as RSF has often denounced, with in particular the emblematic liquidation of Anna Politkovskaïa on October 7, 2006 »insists the NGO.
“More journalists killed in ‘peace zones’ than in ‘war zones'”
With eight deaths recorded, France appears in fourth place in Europe, behind Turkey, “because of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in 2015”.
Globally, while coverage of armed conflict accounts for many deaths, over the past 20 years there have been “more journalists killed in ‘peace zones’ than in ‘war zones’ because of their investigations into organized crime and corruption”.
Concentrating nearly half of the journalists killed in 2022, the American continent (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, etc.) is thus proving “today unquestionably the most dangerous for the media”according to RSF.
