Filenews 29 December 2020
Fifty journalists were murdered in 2020, almost seven out of ten in countries where peace prevails and not in war zones, stresses reporters sans frontières (RSF) in its annual report, released today.
Although the death toll "remained stable" compared to the 53 journalists killed in 2019, "more and more" journalists are being "murdered in countries where peace prevails": this year this year this has happened in 34 cases, or 68% of the total, points out the French NGO, whose account spans the period from 1 January to 15 December.
The proportion of journalists killed in areas where armed conflicts are taking place does not stop decreasing, falling from 58% in 2016 to 32% this year, in countries such as Syria or Yemen and in areas where "low- or medium-intensity armed conflicts" continue (Afghanistan, Iraq).
Mexico is described as the most dangerous country in the world for media professionals, with eight murders. They are followed by India (4), Pakistan (4), the Philippines (4) and Honduras (3).
Of the total number of journalists murdered in 2020, 84% were targeted and deliberately exterminated. This stood at 63% in 2019. "Some" of these murders were committed "in an extremely barbaric way," the NGO stresses.
Mexican journalist Julio Valve Rodriguez of Veracruz's El Mundo newspaper was found decapitated in the eastern part of the state.
Victor Fernando Alvarez Chavez, director of a local news website, was found dismembered in the town of Acapulco.
The case of Rakes Singh "Nirbik", an Indian journalist, is one of the most horrific: "he was burned alive after being surrounded (...) flammable liquid'.
Israel Moses, a television network correspondent in India's Tamil Nadu state, was murdered "with machetes," RSF reports.
In Iran, it was the state that sentenced him to death and then led to the gallows the director of Amadnews, Ruhlah Zam.
Of the twenty journalists-investigators murdered this year, ten were investigating cases of corruption at the local level or cases of the breakdown of public money, four were investigating the mafia and organised crime, while three covered issues related to environmental protection.
The RSF also records the deaths of seven journalists covering demonstrations in Iraq, Nigeria and Colombia, a "new" development, he points out.
In the first part of its annual report, published in mid-December, RSF spoke of 387 imprisoned journalists at international level, a figure that remains at a "historically high level" [23544575].
The International Federation of Journalists (IAS) for its part is talking about 2,658 murders of journalists since 1990.
Source: RES-BE
