One hundred and thirty-four journalists and media support staff were killed while on reporting assignments last year, with India fourth on the list of countries with the most number of deaths, the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said on Tuesday.
Most of those killed were targeted deliberately.
Of these, 65 died covering armed conflicts - primarily in Syria, where 20 were killed, and Iraq, where the death total was 16 - while 51 were killed in peacetime covering issues like crime and corruption, and 18 died in accidents.
After Syria and Iraq, cited by the Institute as the most dangerous countries for journalists last year, came Philippines with 14 deaths, India with 13 and Pakistan with 9.
The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012, but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists which largely go unreported, said the INSI study, "Killing the Messenger."
The institute, funded by major world news organisations including Reuters, has been issuing the report since 1996. Its main work is providing security training for journalists reporting in dangerous situations.
INSI said local journalists were the main victims, with 123 of the dead killed while covering their own country. Of the 20 who died in Syria, 16 were Syrian nationals.
"Most journalists were targeted, and shooting was the most common cause of death," INSI said. The report, compiled for INSI by the Cardiff School of Journalism in Wales, showed 85 of the victims were shot.
Others died in explosions, stabbings and beatings, under torture or by strangulation, or in accidents, according to INSI.
In 2012, 28 reporters died in Syria, 18 in Somalia, 12 in Nigeria, 11 in Mexico and 11 in Pakistan.
The 2013 total for the Philippines, which in past years has seen a mass shooting of reporters as well as individual assassinations, included five who lost their lives in natural disasters.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
India 4th most dangerous country for journalists in 2013
One hundred and thirty-four journalists and media support staff were killed while on reporting assignments last year, with India fourth on the list of countries with the most number of deaths, the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said on Tuesday.
Most of those killed were targeted deliberately.
Of these, 65 died covering armed conflicts - primarily in Syria, where 20 were killed, and Iraq, where the death total was 16 - while 51 were killed in peacetime covering issues like crime and corruption, and 18 died in accidents.
After Syria and Iraq, cited by the Institute as the most dangerous countries for journalists last year, came Philippines with 14 deaths, India with 13 and Pakistan with 9.
The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012, but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists which largely go unreported, said the INSI study, "Killing the Messenger."
The institute, funded by major world news organisations including Reuters, has been issuing the report since 1996. Its main work is providing security training for journalists reporting in dangerous situations.
INSI said local journalists were the main victims, with 123 of the dead killed while covering their own country. Of the 20 who died in Syria, 16 were Syrian nationals.
"Most journalists were targeted, and shooting was the most common cause of death," INSI said. The report, compiled for INSI by the Cardiff School of Journalism in Wales, showed 85 of the victims were shot.
Others died in explosions, stabbings and beatings, under torture or by strangulation, or in accidents, according to INSI.
In 2012, 28 reporters died in Syria, 18 in Somalia, 12 in Nigeria, 11 in Mexico and 11 in Pakistan.
The 2013 total for the Philippines, which in past years has seen a mass shooting of reporters as well as individual assassinations, included five who lost their lives in natural disasters.
Not Knowing The Worst Thing For Kin Of Slain Pakistani Soldiers
http://www.rferl.org/Are they dead or alive? That’s the question haunting relatives of a group of Pakistani soldiers who were captured four years ago. When the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) announced on February 16 that they had executed 23 members of the Frontier Corps, families of the missing soldiers expected answers. Instead, their questions have multiplied. In total, 35 Frontier Corps troops were kidnapped in June 2010 in Pakistan's northwestern Mohmand tribal agency, a district of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas that has been a source of militant activity in recent years. The killings announced this week by the Mohmand branch of the TTP came in response to the extrajudicial killings of militants in recent weeks, and amid efforts by Islamabad to negotiate an end to an insurgency that has left 40,000 dead since 2007. The Taliban has not revealed the identities of the 23 they claim to have killed, however, leaving relatives of the missing in despair. Mustafa, whose brother Anwar Shah was among the troops captured in 2010, said the family wants closure. "Our family is in mourning. Our women and children are crying. If they are really dead, we ask the Taliban to hand over their bodies, even if they have to drop them from a helicopter on the road," Mustafa said. "At least if we get their bodies it will end our mourning." Dawood Khan's nephew, Rahim Khan, was also among the soldiers captured when TTP militants overran their checkpoint in Mohmand tribal agency on June 17, 2010. He says his nephew's kidnappers have twice contacted the family to set up a meeting. On both occasions the family declined. Khan has slammed the government for what he sees as its unwillingness to go after the militants and rescue the missing soldiers. "If a single spent [ammunition] cartridge is lost, the army launches an inquiry," Khan said. "But when 23 soldiers are missing for four years the government doesn't do anything. The government doesn't do anything and doesn't tell us what to do. We don't know where to go." The militants posted a video message in Pashto this week explaining their reasons for the executions, but the recording did not show the bodies of the soldiers. It was not immediately clear whether the faction acted with the approval of the TTP's central command. The Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella organization of over a dozen militant groups, is fiercely divided and local commanders have often acted on their own. Feroz Khan, whose son Zahid Khan was captured during the 2010 operation, says his family is anxiously awaiting news of his fate. "Yesterday we rushed to the army offices and met with the colonel and he told us the army had no information about the killings," Khan said. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has led the effort for a negotiated peace with the TTP since taking office in 2013, called the purported deaths a "heinous" crime and warned they would impact the reconciliation process that began between Islamabad and the militant group last month. Meanwhile, government peace negotiators pulled out of scheduled talks on February 17. Negotiators declared the meeting "purposeless" after the "sad and condemnable" killings. Niamatullah, whose brother Nasim who was among the abducted soldiers, reiterated the feeling of helplessness felt by the families of those missing in action. "If they were killed, we ask that they hand over their bodies," Niamatullah said. "If not, then we will continue our mourning."