A press freedom advocacy group said on Thursday that the past two years have been “absolutely atrocious” for the killing and imprisonment of journalists, with Syria the deadliest place to work and Turkey the No. 1 jailer.
At the launch of its annual report on “Attacks on the Press,” the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said wide-ranging government surveillance, the unchecked murder of journalists and indirect political and commercial pressures on the media are major threats to press freedom.
‘NEAR RECORD’
Committee executive director Joel Simon said last year saw “a near record” of 211 journalists imprisoned and 70 killed — slightly fewer than 2012, when 232 journalists were in jail and 72 were killed. That is tied with the highest death toll of the Iraq war.
“The last two years have been absolutely atrocious — the worst ever in CPJ’s history,” Simon said.
He said “there is no respect whatsoever for the work of the media,” with journalists being targeted and killed in crossfire, which accounts for the high death toll.
He said “anti-terror” charges are the main factor in the increasing imprisonment of journalists.
According to the report, Egypt experienced the greatest deterioration in press freedom last year.
TOP JAILERS
Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Mideast and north Africa coordinator, said Egypt was for the first time among the top jailers of journalists last year, and it was also the third-deadliest country with six journalists killed.
Syria remains the most dangerous country for journalists with more than 63 killed since 2011, including 29 last year, and “an unprecedented number of kidnappings” — more than 80 since 2011 including 57 last year, Mansour said.
CPJ has also documented more than 70 Syrian journalists forced into exile, he said.
Iran remains the second major jailer of journalists, with 35 behind bars at the end of last year, he said, and in Iraq 10 journalists were killed in the last quarter of last year, compared to zero in 2012.
‘MORE REPRESSIVE’
CPJ Europe and Central Asia coordinator Nina Ognianova said “Russia and Turkey have gotten progressively more repressive for journalists” over the past year, despite Moscow’s hosting of the winter Olympics.
CPJ Africa coordinator Mohamed Keita said “a great press freedom crisis” also persists in Ethiopia, Somalia and Gambia, and “there are alarming trends or backsliding in countries that are relatively democratic such as Tanzania, Zambia, Liberia, Kenya and even South Africa.”
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