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 Travel Writers' Resources | December 2007 
Journalist Deaths Still Climbing Every Year
 Haider Rizvi - IPS
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| "Members of the press are being hunted down and murdered with alarming regularity. They are abducted at gunpoint and found dead later or shot dead on the spot."
- Joel Simon, CPJ |
For journalists across the world, this year has been the deadliest in more than a decade, according to a report released by a major media watchdog Tuesday.
In its year-end analysis of press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said as many as 64 journalists were killed this year while performing their jobs. These numbers are up from 56 deaths recorded last year.
CPJ researchers who are still investigating another 22 deaths to determine whether they were work-related called this year's death-count as "unusually high".
According to the New York-based media rights group, 1994 was the worst year, when as many as 66 journalists were killed. Most of those who died that year were working in conflict zones such as in Algeria, Bosnia and Rwanda.
The report describes Iraq as the "deadliest country in the world for the press". For the fifth straight year, Iraq remains the most dangerous place for media workers. Its 31 victims account for nearly half of the 2007 toll.
CPJ said many journalists who lost their lives in Iraq, including Washington Post reporter Salih Aldin, who died in Baghdad from a single gunshot wound to the head, were victims of targeted killings.
The analysis shows that 24 deaths in Iraq this year were plain "murders". Unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and U.S. military activity pose serious risks to journalists. All but one of 31 journalists killed were Iraqi nationals. They worked mainly for local media, although nine worked for international news organisations such as The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, and The Associated Press.
According to CPJ, the 2007 toll in Iraq is "consistent" with that of 2006, when 32 journalists died.
"Working as a journalist in Iraq remains one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. "Members of the press are being hunted down and murdered with alarming regularity. They are abducted at gunpoint and found dead later or shot dead on the spot."
"Those who die are nearly always Iraqi and many work for international news agencies. These journalists gave their lives so that all of us could be informed about what is happening in Iraq," Simon added in a statement.
Twelve media support workers, such as bodyguards and drivers, also died in Iraq. Since the beginning of the U.S. war in March 2003, more than 120 journalists and nearly 50 media workers have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history.
More than one-third of those killed during this period of time worked for international news organisations.
The report describes Somalia as the second-deadliest country for the media in 2007, with seven journalist killed. "Horrific violence in Iraq overshadowed the increasingly deteriorating environment for the media in Somalia," said Simon. "Journalists reporting in Somalia face great risks every day."
Included in the seven deaths in Somalia are the back-to-back assassinations of two prominent journalists. Mahad Ahmed Elmi, director of Capital Voice radio in Mogadishu, died after being shot four times in the head. Hours later, a remotely detonated landmine took the life of HornAfrik Media co-owner Ali Iman Sharmarke as he left Elmi's funeral.
Overall, according to CPJ, deaths spiked in Africa, from two last year to 10 this year. In 2007, two journalists were killed in Eritrea and one in Zimbabwe.
Beneath the terrible numbers, the group's research also shows some positive developments. There were no murders of journalists in Colombia this year -- the first time in more than 15 years. Also, for the first time since 1999, there were no work-related killings of journalists in the Philippines.
Worldwide, according to CPJ, murder remains the leading cause of work-related deaths for journalists. The group said seven in 10 deaths which occurred in 2007 were murders. The rest were either combat-related deaths or a result of dangerous assignments.
Last month, CPJ launched a global campaign against impunity to seek justice in journalist murders. The campaign focuses on the Philippines and Russia, two of the deadliest countries for the press over the past 15 years.
Despite recent convictions in both countries, the impunity rate in each remains at about 90 percent. "Unsolved killings spread fear and self-censorship, crippling the work of the media," said Simon. "We need to break the cycle by bringing the killers of journalists to justice."
In every region of the world, journalists who produced critical reporting or covered sensitive stories were silenced, said Simon, noting that in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, five journalists were killed for their work. In Pakistan, Muhammad Arif of ARY One World TV and two other journalists lost their lives as a result of suicide bombings.
In Sri Lanka, air force fighter jets bombed the Voice of Tigers radio station, killing three employees. One slaying occurred in the United States, where a masked gunman shot Oakland Post Editor-in-Chief Chauncey Bailey as he walked to work, in what police described as an "assassination".
The report recalls how millions of people around the globe watched the apparently deliberate murder of Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai by Burmese troops during the crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators in Rangoon. No apparent moves have been made to bring his killer to justice.
It also mentions the assassination of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink outside his newspaper office in Istanbul, which sent shock waves through the Turkish press and the international community. In Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbek independent journalist Alisher Saipov was shot and killed at close range, and in Peru, popular radio commentator Miguel Pιrez Julca was gunned down in front of his family.
Nepal, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Honduras, and Russia also made the list of places with journalist fatalities this year. Five journalists are classified as missing, three of them in Mexico.
Noting that media support workers are increasingly at risk, CPJ has compiled a list of media worker deaths. Worldwide, 20 translators, so-called "fixers", guards, and drivers were killed in 2007. The victims include three Mexican newspaper delivery workers slain by drug traffickers seeking to silence their employer. |
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