2012 was one of the bloodiest years for journalists, new report says
LONDON – NOVEMBER 10: Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, gives the address during a service at St. Bride’s Church November 10, 2010 in London, England. The service commemorated journalists, cameramen and support staff who have fallen in the war zones and conflicts of the past decade. (Photo by Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
This year has been one of the bloodiest years on record for journalists, the International Federation of Journalists announced today. A total of 121 journalists were killed this year, up from last year's death toll of 107.
The IFJ said that Syria was the most dangerous country in the world for the media this year with 35 fatalities recorded, the Guardian reported. Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin died there in February. It was followed by Somalia, and then Mexico and Pakistan. The Philippines and Iraq trailed behind those.
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"The death toll for 2012 is another indictment of governments which pay lip service to the protection of journalists but have consistently failed to stop their slaughter," Jim Boumelha, IFJ President, said in a press release. "It is no wonder that these sky-high numbers of killed journalists have become a constant feature in the last decade during which the usual reaction from governments and the United Nations has been a few words of condemnation, a cursory inquiry and a shrug of indifference."
The IFJ, which represents more than 600,000 journalists in 134 countries, said that journalists were being deliberately targeted in many cases.
The IFJ's figure for journalists' deaths was higher than the total reported by another press group, Reuters reported. On December 19, Paris-based press group Reporters Without Borders said that 88 journalists were killed this year. Still, despite the lower figure, RWB said that its death toll figures were the highest it recorded in 17 years.