By Matters India Reporter
Brussels: India was listed the fifth most dangerous country for journalists by the largest organization for media persons in the world.
The International Federation of Journalists reports that as many as 2,658 journalists have been murdered all over the world in the past 30 years.
The federation with 600,000 members in 150 countries notes in the White Paper on Global Journalism that 42 journalists were killed in this year alone.
The white paper, a reference document, was released on December 9, the eve of the International Day for Human Rights. India with
In addition to studies on freedom of expression, working conditions, youth or gender equality, the IFJ’s 62-page document points out that 235 are currently in prison.
The federation says that when it first published the annual report of killed journalists in 1990, few had anticipated that the “journalists killed list” would still be going 30 years later, spanning the entire globe.
In 1990, the federation listed 40 journalists and media workers killed in that year. “Some believed that this was merely a blip. Sadly, this proved not to be. When aggregating all these numbers, the total adds up to a staggering 2658 killed in the last thirty years. This equates to about two journalists or media workers killed every week,” the federation reports says.
The IFJ was the first organization representing journalists to raise the alarm over their killing and chart their fate every year as they were targeted with impunity in every corner of the globe – brutalized, gunned down, kidnapped by the enemies of press freedom. The IFJ casualty toll included all journalists, freelance as well as support staff such as drivers, fixers and translators who died during newsgathering activities.
More than 50 percent journalists were killed in the ten most dangerous top spots featuring countries which suffered from war, crime and corruption as well a breakdown of law and order.
Iraq topped the list with 339 killed, followed by Mexico, 175, Philippines, 159, Pakistan 138, India 116, Russian Federation 110, Algeria 106, Syria 96, Somalia 93 and Afghanistan 93.
In Iraq, which topped the table and acquired the moniker of the most murderous country in the world for journalists, killings of journalists were rare in the first decade of this period. It was not until 2003, at the onset of the Anglo-American invasion, that the numbers started stacking up.
Similarly, in Afghanistan the numbers 93 reflect the aftermath of the US invasion in 2001. The link between deadly conflicts and a spike in the murders of journalists was also apparent in the civil war in Algeria which kicked off in 1993 and ended in 1996 – the bulk of the 106 killed journalists died in a short period of three years. This was also the case of the war in Syria which started in 2011, and is still ongoing, resulting in 96 killed journalists over the last nine years.
The long-running insurgency in Somalia has propelled the country to be the most murderous in Africa for journalists.
In the Indian sub-continent, murders of journalists in Pakistan and in India have featured almost every year since 1990, making up 40 percent of the total deaths in the Asia Pacific region.
With 91 media professionals in detention, Europe has the highest number of journalists in jail, the most of them in Turkey and Belarus. Africa follows on 62 with Egypt leading the region. Asia Pacific’s list, dominated by China, comes in third place with 47. The Middle East and Arab World with its tally of 33 claims fourth place, with Saudi Arabia at the top. The Americas are a distant fifth with just cases in Cuba and Venezuela.