The UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists & the Danger of Impunity states around 827 journalists have been killed and targetted in action.
The report further states, “The extent of the risks faced by journalists is demonstrated by the 827 killings recorded by UNESCO over the course of ten years. To this, one needs to add the countless other violations endured by journalists, which include kidnappings, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation and harassment, both offline and online, and seizure or destruction of material. This Report is focused exclusively on the killings of journalists, the ultimate form of censorship. In 2014-2015 alone, UNESCO’s Director-General condemned the killing of 213 journalists; 2015 was the second deadliest year for journalists in the last ten years with 115 journalists killed. In 2014, UNESCO recorded 98 cases of killings of journalists. In terms of regional breakdown, the Arab States were most affected by journalists’ killings in the last biennium, with 36,5% of all cases (or 78 killings) occurring in this region. This is largely due to ongoing conflict situations in the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Similarly, a gender-based analysis of the victims of journalists’ killings in 2014-2015 reveals that, as in previous years, men have been the target of a far greater number of killings than women, with 195 fatalities among male journalists against 18 among female journalists. This difference goes beyond the imbalanced representation of women in news media organizations and may partially be explained by the fact that fewer women journalists cover conflict zones. Likewise,  2015 witnessed a sharp increase in the number of online journalists killed, with 21 documented cases of killings (or 18% of all cases) compared to just two in 2014.  Almost half of these were Syrian journalists and bloggers covering the conflict in Syria.  The majority of journalists killed in 2014-2015 were television journalists, whereas in almost every previous year of the last decade print media journalists constituted the largest group affected by fatal attacks.   ”
The UNESCO Director-General Report responds to a call from the 39 Member States of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). The 2016 UNESCO Director-General Report will be presented at the 30th Session of the Intergovernmental Council on 17 November.
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