More than 1,000 journalists have been killed since 2009. Last year the most dangerous country for journalists was not somewhere in the Middle East but right in our own hemisphere: Mexico with 10 intentional murders of reporters. The International Federation of Journalists, based in Belgium, has been keeping tabs of journalists killed on the job or for being a reporter. Annually the IFJ presents a public document called Roll Call, honoring and naming all working media people killed because of their profession.
During 2019 there were 49 deaths of media personnel “killed for reporting on abuse of power, corruption and crime,” according to the IFJ report. Some journalists were killed among the crowds when a terrorist bomb exploded. Many of the deceased journalists were targeted for reporting the news of nations in political and social turmoil, last year involving 18 countries. Latin America had the highest death toll with 18 killings.
The IFJ also keeps tabs on escalating violence against journalists which last year was more than a hundred substantiated cases and dozens of harassment and media interference. One positive outcome in the report was the recent guilty verdict for the 2009 deaths of 32 journalists during the Philippines’ Mindanao massacre.
A few of the journalists murdered in 2019—including targeted attacks, bomb attacks and crossfire—were:
Lyra McKee, 29, shot while covering riots at the Creggan housing estate in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, by a gunman shooting at police;
Norma Sarabia Garduza, who covered violence in Huimanguillo, a city in Tabasco, Mexico, shot by two men on a motorbike after she arrived home. Because of threats, she had no longer included her byline on articles;
Hodan Nalayeh, 43, Somali journalist killed by a suicide attack.
Of the 49 journalists and media personnel killed last year, 18 were in the Americas. In Mexico journalists were killed on Feb. 2, Feb. 11, Feb. 20, May 2, May 16, June 11, July 30, Aug. 2 and Aug. 24.
The rest of the global figures were:
12 in Asia & the Pacific
9 in Africa
8 in the Arab world and Middle East
2 in Europe.
“Across the globe, media workers are killed, jailed and harassed simply for exercising their rights to free expression as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to inform the public,” according to IFJ’s Roll Call. In Europe alone last year, the IFJ investigated 137 “serious violations of press freedom including nearly 80 cases of violations of the safety and physical integrity of journalists.” Most of the European scenarios were in France (the yellow vest protests) and Spain (the Catalan uprising).
“Journalists have the right to work in safety, especially in conflict zones,” according to the IFJ Roll Call, “and failure to do so deprives societies of access to reliable information about events affecting their lives and undermines their ability to contribute to end the conflict.”
For more information, check the IFJ’s website at http://www.ifj.org.