UNESCO Says One Journalist Dead Every 4.5 days

On Wednesday, UNESCO announced a disturbing report about journalist killings statistics. According to the institution, one journalist is killed every four and a half days. 39 members of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO requested the report. In which Syria tops the list as the worst country for a journalist killed in the line of duty.

According to the report from the Director-General, 827 journalists died while on the job within the past 10 years. The report said, “The extent of the risks faced by journalists is demonstrated by the 827 killings recorded by UNESCO over the course of ten years,”

Worst Countries

In the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity report, the worst countries belong to the Arab Nations. Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, the four countries with the highest journalist fatalities top the list. Latin America followed next as the worst affected nation.

The report indicates that in the last two years of 2006 to 2015, 59% of the deaths occurred in conflicted zones. Throughout those years, 78 out of the 213 correspondents killed in the Arab Nation. It’s a staggering 36.5% ratio of the journalist casualties.

The most shocking surge of journalist slayings occurred in Western Europe and North America. In 2014, no journalist died in the line of duty, the number drastically increased to 11 journalists killed in 2015.

Local Journalist more vulnerable

The report also revealed that local journalists are more vulnerable to danger than foreign correspondent, amounting to 90% of the fatalities. However, a huge spike of deaths recorded for foreign correspondents in 2014. On the same year, 17 journalists killed compare to an average of 4 correspondents in the past years.

Online Journalist

Similarly, online journalist falls victims to the killings. A huge increase in fatalities with a total count of 21 from 2 in 2014, Syrian bloggers reckoned half of them.

Men vs Women

The UNESCO report also uncovered that men were 10 times more susceptible to killings than women. A total of 195 to 18 deaths recorded from 2014 up to 2015. TV journalists serve main targets than the print journalists.

Findings of the report indicated that death is not the only danger journalist have to face.

The report stated for the world to understand, “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.”

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