2007 deadliest year for journalists in more than a decade
By Leah McBride Mensching, Wednesday 2 January 2008 at 23:32 :: Press Freedom & Laws :: #1038 :: rss
The number of reporters killed on the job has risen 244 percent over the past five years, largely due to the war in Iraq, media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced Wednesday.
A total of 86 journalists were killed worldwide in 2007, and more than half of those died in Iraq. Comparatively, 25 journalists were killed in 2002, and the number has steadily climbed since then.
“No country has ever seen more journalists killed than Iraq, with at least 207 media workers dying there since the March 2003 US invasion - more than in the Vietnam War, the fighting in ex-Yugoslavia, the massacres in Algeria or the Rwanda genocide,” RSF said in a statement.
“The Iraqi and U.S. authorities - themselves guilty of serious violence against journalists - must take firm steps to end these attacks. Iraqi journalists are deliberately targeted by armed groups and are not simply the victims of stray bullets. The Iraqi government cannot immediately stop the violence but it can send a strong signal to the killers by doing all it can to seek them out and punish them.”
The number of journalists killed on the job is at its highest since 1994, when 103 journalists were killed worldwide. Nearly half of those who died in 1994 were killed in the Rwanda genocide, about 20 died in Algeria's civil war and a dozen were killed in the former Yugoslavia.
Other than Iraq, three other deadliest countries for journalists in 2007 included Somalia, with eight reporters killed; Pakistan, with six killed; and Sri Lanka, with three.
In addition to the 86 journalists killed worldwide, 20 media assistants were also killed, 887 journalists were arrested, 1,411 were physically attacked or threatened, 67 were kidnapped, 528 media outlets were censored and at least 14 journalists are still being held as hostages, all of them in Iraq.
China put more journalists in prison than any other country, with 33 journalists jailed there in 2007, and also led in the list of countries censoring the Internet, RSF stated. About 2,500 were shut down by the Chinese government in just a few weeks, during the Communist Party congress in October.
Worldwide, at least 2,676 Web sites were shut down, largely for political reasons, according to RSF.
RSF counts only media workers it is positive have been killed because of their work. Several deaths were not included in the list, either because those deaths are still under investigation or because they were not connected with press freedom (such as accidents or other circumstances), the organisation stated.
The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists counted the number of media workers killed in 2007 at 171. This figure includes journalists and those who help them do their jobs, as well as 37 deaths ruled as accidents.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which uses more strict definitions, announced that 64 journalists were killed in 17 countries in 2007.
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