49 journalists killed in lowest death toll this year: RSF

KABUL (Pajhwok): Nonprofit group Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday forty-nine journalists were killed this year, 57 are being held hostage and 389 are currently in prison.

In its annual review, the Paris-based group found that the number of journalists killed in 2019 was the lowest since 2003, representing a “historically low” figure compared with an average of 80 journalists killed per year over the past two decades.

The fall in the number of journalists killed is due to a reduction in the number of journalists killed in war zones, Reporters Without Borders said, noting that 941 journalists have been killed over the past 10 years.

While conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan were less deadly for journalists than in previous years, the number of deaths in countries not at war remained “much the same” as in previous years, the group noted.

Some 63 percent of journalists killed worldwide were murdered or deliberately targeted, Reporters Without Borders added.

In Mexico, 10 journalists were killed in 2019 — the same as in 2018. With at least 14 journalists killed in Latin America overall this year, the group noted that the region was now as deadly for reporters as the Middle East.

In its report, Reporters Without Borders noted that a further eight journalists had been murdered in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia and Haiti, but they had yet to be added to the annual roundup pending verification.

The organization also noted that the number of journalists who had been arbitrarily detained was 12% higher than in 2018, with 389 journalists in prison connected to their work as of December 1. China, the report said, holds a third of arbitrarily detained journalists.

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