Syria, India among three most dangerous countries for media in 2013

GENEVA: A total of 126 journalists and other media workers around the world have died on the job this year, the International News Safety Institute said on Friday.

Pakistan ranked fifth with nine casualties during the year and Syria was listed as the most dangerous place to work for the second year in a row.

That was 21 fewer than last year, but INSI said the incidence of kidnappings and disappearances was rising.

The institute, which organises safety courses for reporters and monitors risks in trouble spots, said 19 of the dead had lost their lives in Syria.

At least 18 foreign and 20 Syrian journalists are believed to be missing in the country after being detained or kidnapped there, it said.

The London-based INSI, whose report was officially released in Geneva, did not specify whether these were believed to be held by the Syrian government forces or militants who are known to be responsible for at least some of the deaths.

Overall the Syrian death total was down from 28 in 2012, but abductions of both foreign and local reporters increased, leading many international news organisations to stop sending journalists to cover the conflict.

INSI, founded in 2003 by major world news organisations and professional bodies like the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, said the Philippines and India were the next most dangerous countries for the media after Syria, with 13 dead each.

In the Philippines, nine were murdered by unknown assailants and four others died while covering the recent typhoon disaster.

In India, the INSI report said, seven journalists were murdered but none of their killings had been thoroughly investigated. Two were killed while covering communal violence and four died in accidents while on assignment.

In Iraq, 11 journalists have died, 10 of them murdered by armed groups and seven of them in the northern city of Mosul.