PARIS: Fifty journalists and media workers were killed in connection withtheir work in 2020, the majority in countries that are not at war,Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Tuesday.
The figure shows an increase in the targeting of reporters investigatingorganised crime, corruption or environmental issues, the watchdog said.
It highlighted murders in Mexico, India and Pakistan.
Eighty-four percent of those killed this year were “deliberately targeted”for their work, RSF said in its annual report, compared to 63 percent in2019.
“For several years now, Reporters Without Borders has noted thatinvestigative journalists are really in the cross hairs of states, orcartels,” said Pauline Ades-Mevel, RSF editor-in-chief.
Mexico was the deadliest country, with eight killed. “Links between drugtraffickers and politicians remain, and journalists who dare to cover theseor related issues continue to be the targets of barbaric murders,” said thereport.
None of the Mexico killings had yet been punished, added RSF, which hascompiled annual data on violence against journalists around the globe since1995.
Five journalists were killed in war-torn Afghanistan, it said, noting anincrease in targeted attacks on media workers in recent months even aspeace talks between the government and Taliban are ongoing.
RSF also highlighted the case of Iranian opposition figure Ruhollah Zam,who ran a popular social media channel that rallied regime opponents, andwho was executed in December.
His execution “confirms Iran’s record as a country that has officially putthe most journalists to death in the past half-century,” it said.
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Ades-Mevel said RSF had also noted the “developing” trend of violenceagainst media workers covering protests, notably in the United Statesfollowing the killing of George Floyd, and in France against acontroversial new security law.
The total number of journalists killed in 2020 was lower than the 53reported in 2019, although RSF said fewer journalists worked in the fieldthis year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the first part of the report, published this month, RSF said it wasconcerned that measures imposed by governments to fight the pandemic hadcontributed to a “significant peak in violations of press freedom”.
It listed 387 jailed journalists, which it called “a historically highnumber”.
Fourteen of those had been arrested in connection with their coverage ofthe coronavirus crisis, it said.
Chinese authorities have punished eight virus whistleblowers so far as theycurb criticism of the government’s response to the outbreak. -APP/AFP
