#1 Tied Position for Murdered Journalists: Mexico and Afghanistan

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Proceso

   Mexico, Afghanistan and Syria, the most lethal countries for journalists in 2018: PEC REPORT

GENEVA:  The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) announced that since the beginning of the year, 113 journalists were murdered in 30 countries, with Mexico and Afghanistan the most dangerous places to practice journalism, each one with a total of 17 communicators killed.

"In three countries, journalists paid an unacceptable price: Mexico with 17 dead, Afghanistan also with 17 dead and Syria with 11", the annual report of the PEC emphasizes.

After these countries, the most dangerous were Yemen and India, with eight journalists killed respectively. These five countries represent more than half of the dead (61).

Blaise Lempen @Blaisepec

 PEC annual report: 113 #journalists killed in 2018 an increase of 14 percent most dangerous countries: #Afghanistan 17 #Mexico 17 #Syria 11 #Yemen 8 #India 8 http://www.pressemblem.ch  #JournoSafe #PressFreedom

In Afghanistan, terrorist groups, and in Mexico, criminal groups, "are mainly responsible for the high price paid by media workers." In Yemen and Syria, journalists were killed in fighting or attacked by armed groups while covering ongoing conflicts.

In the sixth place are the United States with six dead due to the tragedy in Capital Gazette last June and Pakistan follows with five dead.

In Brazil and the Philippines, four journalists were murdered in each of these countries. And three journalists were murdered in the Central African Republic (three Russian journalists), Colombia, Ecuador, Russia and Somalia. Two more journalists were killed in Guatemala and two by Israel in Gaza.

A media worker was killed in the following countries: Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Germany, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia (at the Istanbul consulate), Slovakia and Ukraine.

In terms of gender, last year the number of women journalists killed increased considerably, from five in 2016 to 16 in 2017. This year, seven journalists were killed.

The most important decrease in deaths in the media was in Iraq (nine journalists killed last year against only one this year). The largest increase occurred in Afghanistan, where numbers have doubled (from eight in 2017 to 17).

"Two thirds of the victims died in conflict zones (including Mexico, a country that is not at war) and one third in countries that are at peace," observes the NGO.

By region, Asia represents the most affected with 36 dead, followed by Latin America with 32 dead, the Middle East 24 dead, Africa eight dead, Europe seven and North America six.

"During the last five years (2014 to 2018), the most dangerous countries for communicators were Syria (with 64 deaths), Mexico (61), Afghanistan (48), Iraq (46), Pakistan (36), India (30 ), Yemen (29), the Philippines (24), Brazil (22) and Somalia (22) ", details PEC.

Far from the goal:

The PEC strongly condemns all these attacks and asks the authorities to bring those responsible to justice, since impunity is one of the factors that promotes the continuation of these murders.

The brutal assassination at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi stands out, a case that "is unprecedented," and calls for an irrefutable and transparent clarification of the circumstances of this atrocious crime.

In brief statements to Proceso, PEC general secretary Blaise Lempen points out that the reduction of victims in 2017, which for the first time yielded a figure of less than 100 journalists worldwide, "brought us hope".

"However, by the end of 2018 we are very far from achieving the goal," deplored Lempen, who points out that at least it is necessary to reduce the number of journalists killed by half, an objective that should also be proposed by UNESCO and the Council of Europe. .

Finally, the PEC, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, is pleased to see that the idea of ​​an International Convention that strengthens the protection of journalists is gaining ground.

"If a new Convention is not reached, there will be no legal checks or balances," said PEC president Hedayat Abdel Nabi.