Afghanistan deadliest country for journalists in 2021

KABUL (Pajhwok): Forty-five journalists were killed worldwide in 2021, with Afghanistan witnessing the highest number of fatalities, says a global media watchdog.

In a statement on Friday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) it was one of the lowest death tolls it had recorded for any year.

The toll included nine in Afghanistan, the highest number of deaths suffered by a single country, eight in Mexico, four in India and three in Pakistan.

“While this decrease is welcome news, it is small comfort in the face of continued violence,” IFJ said, adding media workers were killed for exposing corruption, crime and abuse of power.

Asia Pacific was the deadliest, with 20 killings. The Americas followed as the second deadliest with 10. In third place was Africa with eight.

Europe had six journalists killed, while the Middle East and Arab countries had just one.

“These 45 colleagues we lost to violence this year remind us of the terrible sacrifice journalists continue to pay for serving the public interest,” said the IFJ general secretary.

Anthony Bellanger added: “We remain in the debt to them and thousands of others who paid the ultimate price.”

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported the number of journalists behind bars reached a global high in 2021.

CPJ said 293 reporters were imprisoned worldwide as of December 1 this year.

PAN Monitor/mud

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