A report from Reporters Without Borders said journalist deaths rose by 8 percent this year. Hatred whipped up by "unscrupulous politicians" contributed to the increase, the organization said.
Image: gemeinfrei
Advertisement
A total of 80 journalists were killed in the first 11 months of 2018, while 348 were in prison and 60 more were being held hostage, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The RSF report, which was released on Tuesday, said 49 of those killed between January 1 and the start of December had been murdered or were deliberately targeted with violence.
"Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year, and the situation is now critical," the organization's head, Christophe Deloire, said in a statement which accompanied the report's release.
"The hatred of journalists that is voiced, and sometimes very openly proclaimed, by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders, and businessmen, has tragic consequences on the ground, and has been reflected in this disturbing increase in violations against journalists."
Deloire added that social media networks "bear heavy responsibility" as they amplified expressions of hatred that "legitimize violence, thereby undermining journalism, and democracy itself, a bit more every day."
In the first 10 months of 2018, 73 journalists and media workers have died — and not just in war zones. Threats to investigative reporters are increasing, with a number being arrested and jailed over the last year.
Image: Getty Images/C. McGrath
Viktoria Marinova, Bulgaria
The 30-year-old TV presenter had recently hosted investigative journalists working on alleged corruption involving European Union funds. She was brutally murdered in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse in October 2018.
Image: BGNES
Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia
The 60-year-old author, <i>Washington Post</i> columnist and former editor-in-chief of Al Arab News Channel was last seen walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to get papers to verify his divorce. His fiancee waited outside for 11 hours, and she says he never came out. Khashoggi had previously said he believed the Saudi leadership wanted to kill him.
Image: Reuters/Middle East Monitor
Samim Faramarz, Ramiz Ahmadi, Afghanistan
TV news reporter Samim Faramarz was killed in September 2018 with his cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi when they were reporting from the scene of an explosion in the west of Kabul. The car bomb went off just meters from where they were just finishing a live report. Afghanistan remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Marai
Mario Gomez, Mexico
After Afghanistan and Syria, Mexico is the most dangerous nation for journalists. There were 14 journalists killed in 2017, and at least 10 more lost their lives in 2018. Mario Gomez, a 35-year-old correspondent, was shot dead by armed men as he left his home in Chiapas in September 2018. He had reportedly received death threats after investigating corruption among state officials.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Y. Cortez
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Myanmar
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had reported the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers. They were arrested in December 2017 after being invited to meet police for dinner in Yangon. In September 2018, after 39 court appearances and 265 days in detention, they were jailed for seven years for breaching the 1923 Official Secrets Act.
Image: Reuters/A. Wang
Marlon de Carvalho Araujo, Brazil
A major issue in Brazil's election campaign was corruption. Radio journalist Marlon de Carvalho Araujo focused on reporting graft, and he wrote on corruption involving officials at various levels of the Bahia regional administration. In August 2018, four gunmen burst into his home in the early hours and shot him dead.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Sa
Shujaat Bukhari, Kashmir
Kashmir journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead outside his newspaper office in Srinagar in June 2018. A contributor to DW, he advocated a peaceful resolution to the conflict between India and Pakistan over the mountainous region.
Image: twitter.com/bukharishujaat
The Capital, Maryland, USA
Editor Wendi Winters, her assistant Robert Hiaasen, writer Gerald Fischman, reporter John McNamara and sales assistant Rebecca Smith died when a gunman shot through the glass door into their office in June 2018. The man, who had filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper, was arrested at the scene and charged with their murders.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ngan
Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, Slovakia
An ex-police officer was named as the killer of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova in February 2018. The murders sparked mass protests and led to the resignation of the prime minister. Kuciak had been investigating ties between government officials and the Italian mafia.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/D. Voijnovic
Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta
Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist who linked Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to the Panama Papers scandal, was killed when a bomb destroyed her car in October 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L.Klimkeit
10 images1 | 10
Journalist deaths
Afghanistan was the world's deadliest country for journalists and media members in 2018 with 15 deaths, the report said. Nine of the deaths occurred during a double bombing on April 30, which was the world's deadliest attack on reporters since the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. That attack killed 32 journalists.
Nearly half the media fatalities occurred in countries not at war, including Mexico, India and the United States. Mexico remains the deadliest country not at war for journalists, with nine murdered in 2018. Six journalists were murdered in India, the report said, and "many others were the targets of murder attempts, physical attacks and threats."
In the US, four journalists were among the five employees of the Capital Gazette who were killed in a shooting at the local newspaper's headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland. Two others were killed in South Carolina by a falling tree during subtropical storm Alberto.
DW journalists speak out on freedom of expression
01:26
This browser does not support the video element.
Incarcerated Journalists
China remains the biggest jailer of journalists with 60 currently being held, according to RSF. A majority of them are non-professional journalists, who the report says "are being held in often inhuman conditions for nothing more than a post on social networks or messaging services."
The other leaders in journalist incarcerations include Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Despite having released many non-professional and professional reporters, Turkey continues to be the world's biggest jailer of professional journalists, the report said. It added: "The fall in the number of detainees, compared with this time last year, is deceptive."
Of the 60 journalists currently being held hostage, only one is outside the Middle East — Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian journalist who has been held by the self-proclaimed "Donetzk People's Republic" since 2017 on the suspicion of spying.
The so-called Islamic State, which currently is holding 24 journalists, remains the world's largest hostage-taker, followed by Yemen's Houthi rebels with 16, the report said.
RSF said three journalists are currently missing: Agustin Silva Vazquez, missing since January 21 in Mexico; Vladjimir Legagneur, missing since March 14 in Haiti; and Leonid Makhinia, missing since June 7 in Russia.
Where freedom of the press doesn't exist
Many states routinely attack and intimidate journalists and bloggers to keep them in check. In its 2015 press freedom index, Reporters Without Borders ranks the performance of 180 countries. These states come in last.
Image: Fotolia/picsfive
Africa's very own North Korea: Eritrea
Eritrea ranks second-last in the World Press Freedom Index. Reports from the disastrous state of affairs in Eritrea are rare, and many journalists have been forced to leave the country. Radio Erena is the only one to broadcast independent information to the people of Eritrea — from Paris.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Juinen
Dictated by the dictator
Press freedom is also non-existent in North Korea. Sealed off from the rest of the world, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un keeps a check on what the media publish. State TV and radio are available, nothing more. People who express their opinions vanish in political prison camps — along with their entire families.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Yonhap/Kcna
Keeping tabs in Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov owns almost all of the country's media corporations. The newspaper Rysgal is the only exception, and even here, every edition needs state approval before it can go to press. A new law against media monopolies gives the people of Turkmenistan access to foreign news, but the government still keeps tabs on the Internet, and blocks most websites.
Image: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Culling the critics
Independent media do not exist in Vietnam. The ruling Communist Party tells journalists what to publish. For the most part, publishers, editors and the reporters themselves are party members. Authorities have recently taken a greater interest in bloggers who challenge the authoritarian Communist Party's opinion monopoly - and try to silence them by sending them to jail.
Image: picture alliance/ZB/A. Burgi
China's non-freedom
China, Reporters Without Borders says, is the world's biggest prison for bloggers and journalists. The authoritarian regime takes massive steps against unwelcome news coverage; pressure on foreign reporters is also on the rise. Entire regions are taboo to them, their work is closely monitored and Chinese assistants or interview partners can quite simply be imprisoned.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schiefelbein
Under fire in Syria
Many journalists have been persecuted and killed since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, whom Reporters Without Borders has ranked as an enemy of press freedom for years. The al-Nusra front, which fights against Assad, and the Islamic State group in turn attack Syrian state media reporters, kidnapping or publicly executing the journalists and correspondents.
