A total of 110 journalists were killed around the world in 2015, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, noting that while many died in war zones the majority were killed in supposedly peaceful countries. Sixty-seven journalists were killed in the line of duty, the watchdog group said in its annual roundup, listing war-torn Iraq and Syria as most dangerous places for journalists with 11 and 10 fatalities respectively, followed by France, where eight journalists were killed in a jihadist assault on a satirical magazine.
A further 43 journalists around the world died in circumstances that were unclear and 27 non-professional "citizen-journalists" and seven other media workers were also killed, RSF said. The high toll is "largely attributable to deliberate violence against journalists" and demonstrates the failure of initiatives to protect media personnel, the report said, calling for the United Nations to take action.
The report spoke of the growing role of "non-state groups" - often jihadists such as the Islamic State group - in perpetrating atrocities against journalists. In 2014, it said, two-thirds of the journalists killed were in war zones. But in 2015, it was the exact opposite, with "two-thirds killed in countries 'at peace'."
"Non-state groups perpetrate targeted atrocities while too many governments do not comply with their obligations under international law," RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said. "The 110 journalists killed this year need a response that matches the emergency. A special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for the safety of journalists must be appointed without delay."
The 67 deaths bring to 787 the total number of journalists who were murdered, knowingly targeted or killed in the course of their work since 2005, the Paris-based organisation said. In 2014, there were 66 such fatalities. France was the scene of an unprecedented attack on the press in January, when gunmen opened fire at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including eight journalists.
"A western country had never suffered a massacre of this kind in the past," RSF said. "Charlie Hebdo's journalists and employees have been living under close protection ever since. Some of them still have to keep changing their place of residence." In Syria, the northern town of Aleppo was described as "a minefield" for professional and citizen-journalists alike. "Caught between the various parties to the conflict since 2011, journalists are liable to end up as collateral victims, being taken hostage by a non-state group (such as Islamic State, the Al Nusra Front or the Free Syrian Army) or being arrested by the Assad regime," RSF said.
Those murdered in Syria included Japanese freelance reporter Kenji Goto, whose execution by the Islamic State group was unveiled in a macabre video in January. A separate report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 69 journalists were killed for their work in 2015, with 40 percent at the hands of Islamic militant groups such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State group. The CPJ said it is investigating the deaths of at least 26 others to determine whether they were work-related. "Unlike in the past three years, the deaths were widely distributed across countries," the CPJ report said. "At least five journalists were killed in each Iraq, Brazil, Bangladesh, South Sudan, and Yemen."
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