India deadliest nation for journalists

PARIS:

After Iraq and Syria, India has become the third deadliest country for journalists in 2015, media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday.

Sixty-seven journalists were killed globally this year, either targeted because of their work or dying while reporting, Paris-based RSF said in its annual report. Some 27 citizen (amateur) journalists and seven media workers were also killed.

Eleven journalists were killed in Iraq, 10 in Syria and nine in India this year, the three most lethal countries for journalists. France, Yemen and Mexico were declared the fourth most deadly countries followed by South Sudan, the Philippines and Honduras where seven each journalists were killed in 2015.

“The majority aren’t journalists in the wrong place at the wrong time during a bombing raid, they’re journalists who are murdered to stop them from doing their jobs,” RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said. The 2015 death toll is one more than in 2014 and slightly below the average of the past 10 years. Separately, RSF also compiled for the first time the number of journalists who died for unclear reasons.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2015.