Syria is deadliest country for journalists in 2012

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Year 2012 was considered the deadliest year for journalists worldwide by the press freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders, which also tagged Syria as the deadliest country for newsmen.

Since the Belgium-based RSF began its annual round-up in 1995, year 2012 “has been exceptionally deadly, with a 33 percent rise in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work.”

RSF said there were 88 journalists killed, 879 arrested, 1,993 threatened or physically harmed, 38 kidnapped, and 73 others forced to flee their country this year.

The RSF report also showed six media assistants,  47 netizens and citizen-journalists felled, and 144 bloggers and netizens arrested.

Regions with the highest number of death include the Middle East and Northern Africa with 26; Asia, 24, and sub-Saharan Africa, 21.

Only the Western hemisphere registered a drop in the number of incidents.

“This is the worst set of figures since (they) began producing an annual roundup in 1995,” the RSF said.

It said in 2011, there were 67 journalists killed worldwide; 58 in 2010; 75 in 2009; 60 in 2008 and 87 in 2007.

RSF’s annual review indicated that the 88 fallen journalists were either killed while covering wars or bombings, or murdered by groups linked to organized crime (including drug trafficking), by Islamist militias, or on 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,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in the annual review.

“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 victims were news providers of all kinds. Citizen-journalists and netizens have been hit hard – five killed 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 them, the Syrian regime would have been able to impose a complete news blackout on certain regions and continued with the carnage.

To compile these figures, the RSF used detailed information it gathered while monitoring violations of freedom of information throughout the year.

Syria, tagged by RSF as a “cemetery for news providers,” topped the five deadliest countries with at least 17 journalists, 44 citizen-journalists and four media assistants killed this year. 

The Syrian government’s bloody crackdown “has hit news providers hard because they are the unwanted witnesses to the atrocities being committed by a regime,” the RSF said.

Journalists have also been targeted by armed opposition groups, which are intolerant of criticism and ready to brand the newsmen as spies if they fail to reflect their views.

“Coming in second is Somalia where 18 journalists were felled. Somali journalists are subjected to the most appalling constraints in both the capital Mogadishu and in the rest of the country,” the RSF said, adding the lack of a stable government in this state for the past 20 years, endemic violence and generalized impunity all contribute to the death toll.