GUWAHATI: Afghanistan and Mexico are the most dangerous countries for media work in 2021, the global media safety and rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) stated in its annual report recently in Geneva. Since 1 January this year, 77 media workers have been killed in 28 countries so far across the world.
Among these countries, Afghanistan leads with 12 assassinations, ahead of Mexico where 10 journalists were killed.
Among the most dangerous countries are Pakistan (seven killed), India (six killed), the Philippines and Yemen (four deaths each), and Democratic Republic of Congo (three killed).
Two deaths were recorded each in Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina-Faso, Colombia, as well as in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Turkey. Finally, one victim each has been identified in the following countries: Ecuador, Gaza, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, Netherlands, Syria, and the United States of America.
Of the 77 journalists murdered, 29 were in war zones (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Gaza, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen). Terrorist groups were responsible of at least 20 murders (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen), an increase compared to previous years.
The PEC has strongly condemned these attacks and called for those responsible for these crimes to be brought to justice.
By region, Asia, with 40 dead (+7), is ahead of Latin America 17 (-10), Africa 14 (+5), Europe 5 (+2) and North America 1 (+1).
“The number of journalists killed decreased by 8% compared to the same period of last year, a slight improvement. Improvement has taken place in Latin America outside of Mexico, deterioration is observed in Africa and Europe. Mexico and Afghanistan have been among the most dangerous countries for journalists for many years, but the rise in Africa is particularly worrying,” commented PEC Secretary General Blaise Lempen.
In Europe, the targeted killings of three journalists, in Greece, Georgia and the Netherlands is a very sad development. In Burma (Myanmar) after the coup, and in Afghanistan after the departure of the NATO troops, press freedom has registered a very serious setback.
Over the last five years, Mexico has recorded the maximum number of victims (66), ahead of Afghanistan (53), then India (40), Pakistan (35), Syria (29), the Philippines (21), Iraq (18), Yemen (17), and Somalia (16). In 10 years, from 2012 to 2021, as many as 1,150 journalists were killed, or 115 per year, 2.2 per week, according to figures from the PEC.
One positive development, said PEC President Hedayat Abdel Nabi, is that the awareness across the globe has become more widespread due to the enthusiastic engagement of media colleagues to spread the message of media protection and the safety of journalists as well as press freedom.
“India has recently lost Buddhinath Jha (journalist cum Right to Information (RTI) activist, also known as Avinash Jha), whose body was found in Madhubani locality in Bihar on 12 November. The Benipatti-based family claimed that Buddhinath was offered a lot of money (as bribes) by some illegal healthcare clinic owners, but he did not listen to them. Later he received a number of threatening calls from unknown persons,” said the PEC’s country representative.
Prior to Buddhinath, the populous country lost five journalists namely Ashu Yadav, Sulabh Srivastava, Ch. Keshav, Manish Kumar Singh and Raman Kashyap to assailants this year.
Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed in Afghanistan.
India’s neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh reported (seven and two respectively) media casualties, while Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (China), the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar have not reported any incident of journo-murder to date this year.
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