Syria the ‘deadliest' place for journalists: CPJ report

Syria the ‘deadliest' place for journalists: CPJ report
Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:44:19

At least 29 journalists have lost their lives covering the conflict in Syria during 2013, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said in its annual report.

"... the huge number of deaths in Syria does not tell the complete story of the danger to journalists there," CPJ said in its report released on Monday, adding that Syria remained the "most deadly" place for journalists on the job since the foreign-sponsored insurgency erupted in March 2011.

The report said some 60 journalists were abducted in Syria this year, "mostly by rebel groups," and half of them were still missing by year's end.

"The international community must prevail on all governments and armed groups to respect the civilian status of reporters and to prosecute the killers of journalists," the New York-based organization said.

The report also gave numbers of journalists killed in other conflicts across the Middle East; at least 10 journalists were killed doing their work in Iraq this year, nine of them murdered. Six journalists were killed in Egypt's political protests and street violence, including three on one single day, August 14, when they covered protests by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

The report said Iraq and Egypt displaced Pakistan and Somalia, which were the second and third most deadly countries for journalists in 2012. CPJ confirmed five deaths in Pakistan and four in Somalia in 2013.

Three local journalists lost their lives on the job in Brazil in 2013 after reporting on local crime and corruption. In Mexico for the first time in a decade, CPJ said it could not confirm any work-related deaths of journalists in 2013.

The conflict in Mali claimed the lives of two French journalists, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verion of Radio France Internationale. CPJ said they were the first journalists killed in the country since it began documenting journalist deaths in 1992.

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