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Posted: Sunday 6 January, 2013 at 4:38 PM

2012 was deadliest year for journalists

Somali people carry the body of journalist Abdisatar Dahir who was killed in a double suicide attack in a restaurant in Mogadishu. ( Phhoto courtesy Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images)
By: Stanford Conway, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – JOURNALISM is a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting of events at the local, national, regional and international levels in a timely manner. And a good journalist is not influenced by financial offerings or is persuaded by political pressures to distort facts and truth, but one who promulgates the facts and truth of an event or issue to the reading and listening public.

     

    The role of the media, which is termed the Fourth Estate, is “to inform, educate, teach and entertain”. But many people do not seem to comprehend these important tenets of the profession; for they perceive journalists as a group of inquisitive individuals pursuing them and even invading their privacy to get information on an event or issue that they may deem personal.

     

    This profession is a very dangerous one and words are the most important tool of its practitioners.

     

    Dangerous, especially if the journalist practices investigative journalism; and words, especially in the print and broadcast media, to give readers and listeners, respectively, a vivid account of what transpired.

     

    The media highlight the success of politicians and political leaders, among others, the world over. The media also expose corruption at all levels and bring to public attention those who are affiliated with drug lords, drug cartels and gangsters. And because of this, every year the lives of journalists are threatened and some of them are killed, even in those countries that claim to be advocates of democracy.

     

    Last year, 2012, was the deadliest year for journalists; 88 of them were killed. However, Caribbean countries, especially the twin-island of St. Kitts and Nevis, can boast of not losing any of its media practitioners to such heinous crimes.

     

    According to Reporters Without Borders, 2012 has been exceptionally deadly, with a 33 percent rise in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work over the previous year.

     

    “The worst-hit regions were the Middle East and Northern Africa (with 26 killed), Asia (24 killed) and sub-Saharan Africa (21 killed). Only the western hemisphere registered a fall in the number of journalists killed,” a release from Reporters Without Borders stated.

     

    It also stated that the 88 journalists killed in 2012 lost their lives while covering wars or bombings, or were murdered by groups linked to organiced crime (including drug trafficking), by Islamist militias or on the orders of corrupt officials.

     

    “The reason for the unprecedented number of journalists killed in 2012 is mainly the war in Syria, the chaos in Somalia and Taliban violence in Pakistan,” Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said. “The impunity enjoyed by those responsible for violations of human rights, in particular, the right to freedom of information, encourages the continuation of these violations.”

     

    The release added that since 1995 when Reporters Without Borders began producing an annual roundup, 2012 has seen the worst set of figures of journalists being killed.

     

    The number of journalists murdered or killed was 67 in 2011, 58 in 2010 and 75 in 2009. The previous record was in 2007, when 87 were killed.

     

    The 2012 victims were news providers of all kinds. Citizen-journalists and netizens have been hit hard – 47 killed in 2012 compared with five in 2011 – especially in Syria. These men and women act as reporters, photographers and video-journalists, documenting their day-to-day lives and the government’s crackdown on its opponents. Without their activities, the Syrian regime would be able to impose a complete news blackout on certain regions and continue massacring in secret.

     

    Reporters Without Borders claims that while 88 journalists were killed in 2012, 879 were arrested, 1 993 were threatened or attacked, 38 were kidnapped and 73 fled from the countries within which they operated.

     

    This international non-governmental organisation also claims that Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Mexico and Brazil are the five deadliest in the world within which journalist practice their profession.

     

    Syria – cemetery for news providers
    At least 17 journalists, 44 citizen-journalists and four media assistants were killed in 2012.

     

    Bashar Al-Assad’s bloody crackdown in Syria has hit news providers hard because they are the unwanted witnesses of the atrocities being committed by a regime with its back to the wall.
    Journalists have also been targeted by armed opposition groups, which are increasingly intolerant of criticism and ready to brand journalists as spies if they fail to reflect their views. Because of the polarisation of information sources, news manipulation, propaganda, technical constraints and the extreme violence to which journalists and citizen-journalists are exposed, anyone trying to gather or disseminate news and information in Syria needs a real sense of vocation.

     

    Somalia – a black year
    Eighteen journalists were killed in 2012 in this Horn of Africa country.

     

    Twice as many journalists were killed in Somalia in 2012 as in 2009, until now the deadliest year for media personnel. The second half of September was particularly bloody with seven journalists killed, two of them in the space of 24 hours. One was gunned down, the other beheaded. Most are the victims of targeted murders or bombings. Those responsible for this violence are either armed militias such as Al-Shebaab or local government officials who want to silence news outlets. Somali journalists are subject to the most appalling constraints in both the capital Mogadishu and in the rest of the country. The lack of a stable government in this failed state for the past 20 years, endemic violence and generalised impunity all contribute to the grim death toll.

     

    Pakistan – a journalist killed every month
    Ten journalists and one media assistant killed in 2012 – a minefield for the media because of endemic violence in Balochistan and Taliban reprisals.
     
    Ten journalists were killed in Pakistan for the second year running - almost one a month since February 2010. It was the world’s deadliest country for the media from 2009 to 2011, and Balochistan continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous regions. With its Tribal Areas, its border with Afghanistan, its tension with India and its chaotic political history, Pakistan is one of the world’s most complicated countries to cover. Terrorist threats, police violence, local potentates with unlimited powers and dangerous conflicts in the Tribal Areas place often deadly stumbling blocks in journalists’ paths.

     

    Mexico – journalists are targeted by organised crime
    Six journalists were killed in 2012.
     
    Mexico’s violence, which has grown exponentially during the federal offensive against the drug cartels of the past six years, targets journalists who dare to cover drug trafficking, corruption, organised crime’s infiltration of local and federal government and human rights violations by government officials.

     

    Brazil – behind the scenes
    Five journalists were killed in 2012.
     
    Drug traffickers operating across the Paraguayan border seem to have had a direct hand in the deaths of two of the five journalists murdered in connection with their work in Brazil in 2012. Both had covered drug cases. Two of the other victims were blogging journalists, who often find that the least criticism of local officials can expose them to danger.
       
    Reporters Without Borders is an international non-governmental organisation that aims at defending journalists and media assistants imprisoned or persecuted for doing their job and exposes the mistreatment and torture of them in many countries. It fights against censorship and laws that undermine press freedom, gives financial aid to journalists or media outlets in difficulty, as well to the families of imprisoned journalists, and works to improve the safety of journalists, especially those reporting in war zones.

     

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