AFP :
Hatred whipped up by “unscrupulous politicians” has contributed to the shocking rise in the number of journalists murdered in 2018, a media watchdog said Tuesday.
Eighty journalists have been killed worldwide so far this year-most notably the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi-with 348 in jail and 60 more held hostage, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year, and the situation is now critical,” said the organisation’s head, Christophe Deloire.
“The hatred of journalists sometimes very openly proclaimed by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen… has been reflected in this disturbing increase,” he said.
RSF did not directly point the finger at US President Donald Trump, who regularly rails against journalists and has branded some “enemies of the people”.
But Deloire said “expressions of hatred legitimise violence, thereby undermining journalism and democracy itself.”
The US also became the fifth deadliest country in the world for reporters in 2018
after the shooting of five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland in June.
Afghanistan was the most dangerous country for journalists, with 15 killed including AFP’s Shah Marai, followed by Syria with 11 deaths and Mexico with nine.
Deloire said the hate stirred up against journalists is “amplified by social networks, which bear heavy responsibility in this regard.”
“Murders, imprisonment, hostage-taking and enforced disappearances have all increased,” he said, with the death toll of professional journalists up 15 percent after three years of a falling casualty rate.
“Journalists have never before been subjected to as much violence and abusive treatment as in 2018,” Deloire said.
The murders of Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and the young Slovak data journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend “highlighted the lengths to which press freedom’s enemies are prepared to go,” he said.
Khashoggi’s murder in October caused an international outcry and showed the extremes to which “some people will go to silence ‘troublesome’ journalists”, RSF said.
More than half of the journalists killed were deliberately targeted, the other 31 were caught in violence.
The RSF report said the number of non-professionals killed almost doubled from seven in 2017 to 13 this year.
It said citizen journalists now played a key role in helping get news from countries at war or with oppressive regimes, “where it is hard for professional journalists to operate.”
Hatred whipped up by “unscrupulous politicians” has contributed to the shocking rise in the number of journalists murdered in 2018, a media watchdog said Tuesday.
Eighty journalists have been killed worldwide so far this year-most notably the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi-with 348 in jail and 60 more held hostage, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year, and the situation is now critical,” said the organisation’s head, Christophe Deloire.
“The hatred of journalists sometimes very openly proclaimed by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen… has been reflected in this disturbing increase,” he said.
RSF did not directly point the finger at US President Donald Trump, who regularly rails against journalists and has branded some “enemies of the people”.
But Deloire said “expressions of hatred legitimise violence, thereby undermining journalism and democracy itself.”
The US also became the fifth deadliest country in the world for reporters in 2018
after the shooting of five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland in June.
Afghanistan was the most dangerous country for journalists, with 15 killed including AFP’s Shah Marai, followed by Syria with 11 deaths and Mexico with nine.
Deloire said the hate stirred up against journalists is “amplified by social networks, which bear heavy responsibility in this regard.”
“Murders, imprisonment, hostage-taking and enforced disappearances have all increased,” he said, with the death toll of professional journalists up 15 percent after three years of a falling casualty rate.
“Journalists have never before been subjected to as much violence and abusive treatment as in 2018,” Deloire said.
The murders of Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and the young Slovak data journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend “highlighted the lengths to which press freedom’s enemies are prepared to go,” he said.
Khashoggi’s murder in October caused an international outcry and showed the extremes to which “some people will go to silence ‘troublesome’ journalists”, RSF said.
More than half of the journalists killed were deliberately targeted, the other 31 were caught in violence.
The RSF report said the number of non-professionals killed almost doubled from seven in 2017 to 13 this year.
It said citizen journalists now played a key role in helping get news from countries at war or with oppressive regimes, “where it is hard for professional journalists to operate.”
