JOURNALIST DEATHS HIT DECADE PEAK
CPJ Press Freedom Online, NY
d_07.html
Dec 18 2007
New York, December 18, 2007-Journalists were killed in unusually high
numbers in 2007, making it the deadliest year for the press in more
than a decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’
end-of-year analysis. Worldwide, CPJ found 64 journalists were killed
in direct connection to their work in 2007-up from 56 last year-and
it is investigating another 22 deaths to determine whether they were
work-related. CPJ has recorded only one year with a higher death toll:
1994, when 66 journalists were killed, many in conflicts in Algeria,
Bosnia, and Rwanda.
The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran speaks about the murder
of reporter Salih Saif Aldin in Baghdad.
For the fifth straight year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the
world for the press. Its 31 victims account for nearly half of the
2007 toll. Most of the victims were targeted and murdered, such as
Washington Post reporter Salih Saif Aldin, who died in Baghdad from
a single gunshot wound to the head. In all, 24 deaths in Iraq were
murders and seven occurred in combat-related crossfire.
Unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and U.S. military activity all
posed fatal risks for Iraqi journalists. All but one of 31 journalists
killed were Iraqi nationals. They worked mainly for local media,
although nine worked for international news organizations such as
The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, and The Associated Press.
The 2007 toll in Iraq is consistent with that of 2006, when 32
journalists died.
"Working as a journalist in Iraq remains one of the most dangerous
jobs on the planet," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "Members
of the press are being hunted down and murdered with alarming
regularity. They are abducted at gunpoint and found dead later or shot
dead on the spot. Those who die are nearly always Iraqi and many work
for international news agencies. These journalists gave their lives
so that all of us could be informed about what is happening in Iraq."
Twelve media support workers, such as bodyguards and drivers,
also died in Iraq. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003,
124 journalists and 49 media workers have been killed, making it
the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. More than
one-third worked for international news organizations.
Somalia was the second-deadliest country for the media in 2007, with
seven journalist deaths. "Horrific violence in Iraq overshadowed the
increasingly deteriorating environment for the media in Somalia," said
Simon. "Journalists reporting in Somalia face great risks every day."
Included in the seven deaths in Somalia are the back-to-back
assassinations of two prominent journalists. Mahad Ahmed Elmi,
director of Capital Voice radio in Mogadishu, died after being shot
four times in the head. Hours later, a remotely detonated landmine
took the life of HornAfrik Media co-owner Ali Iman Sharmarke as he
left Elmi’s funeral.
Deaths spiked in Africa overall, from two in 2006 to 10 this year.
Two journalists died in Eritrea and one in Zimbabwe in 2007.
Beneath the terrible numbers, CPJ documented some positive
developments: There were no murders of journalists in Colombia this
year for the first time in more than 15 years. For the first time since
1999, there were no work-related deaths of Philippine journalists.
Murder is the leading cause of work-related deaths for journalists
worldwide. Consistent with previous years, about seven in 10 journalist
deaths in 2007 were murders. (Combat-related deaths and deaths in
dangerous assignments account for the rest.) CPJ announced a global
campaign against impunity in November to seek justice in journalist
murders. The campaign focuses on the Philippines and Russia, two of
the deadliest countries for the press over the past 15 years.
Despite recent convictions in both countries, the impunity rate in
each remains at about 90 percent. "Unsolved killings spread fear and
self-censorship, crippling the work of the media," said Simon. "We need
to break the cycle by bringing the killers of journalists to justice."
In every region of the world, journalists who produced critical
reporting or covered sensitive stories were silenced. In both Pakistan
and Sri Lanka, five journalists were killed for their work.
Suicide bombers caused three of the five deaths in Pakistan, including
the death of Muhammad Arif of ARY One World TV, who was among the 139
people killed when bombs exploded during the homecoming of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto. In Sri Lanka, air force fighter jets bombed
the Voice of Tigers radio station, killing three employees. One slaying
occurred in the United States, where a masked gunman shot Oakland
Post Editor-in-Chief Chauncey Bailey as he walked to work. Police
moved quickly to apprehend the suspected gunman.
Millions of people around the globe watched the apparently deliberate
murder of Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai by Burmese troops during
the crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators in Rangoon. No apparent
moves have been made to bring his killer to justice.
The assassination of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink outside his
newspaper office in Istanbul sent shock waves through the Turkish
press and the international community. In Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbek
independent journalist Alisher Saipov was shot and killed at close
range, and in Peru, popular radio commentator Miguel Perez Julca was
gunned down in front of his family.
Nepal, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Honduras, and Russia
also made the list of places with journalist fatalities this year. Five
journalists are classified as missing, three of them in Mexico.
Media support workers are increasingly at risk, CPJ research shows.
For the first time, CPJ has compiled a list of media worker deaths.
Worldwide, 20 translators, fixers, guards, and drivers were killed
in 2007. The victims include three Mexican newspaper delivery workers
slain by drug traffickers seeking to silence their employer.
CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each
year. CPJ staff applies strict criteria for each entry on the annual
killed list; researchers independently investigate and verify the
circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case work-related only
when its staff is reasonably certain that a journalist was killed in
direct reprisal for his or her work; in crossfire; or while carrying
out a dangerous assignment.
If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a
journalist died in direct relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies
the case as "unconfirmed" and continues to investigate. CPJ’s list
does not include journalists who died from illness or were killed in
accidents-such as car or plane crashes-unless the crash was caused
by hostile action. Other press organizations using different criteria
cite higher numbers of deaths than CPJ.
A preliminary list of journalists killed for their work in 2007,
with reporting on each case, is available online. Also online are
capsules for the unconfirmed cases that CPJ is still investigating,
and capsules for media worker deaths. A final list of journalists
killed in 2007 will be released on January 2, 2008.