The non-governmental organization “Reporters Without Borders” announced that 1,668 journalists were killed in the world between 2003 and 2022, at an average of 80 journalists per year, while it indicated that Iraq and Syria occupied the first ranks among the most dangerous countries for this profession.
The report stated that “with a total of 578 journalists killed in twenty years,” it was recorded a third was in Iraq and Syria alone.”
They are ahead of Mexico (125), the Philippines (107), Pakistan (93), Afghanistan (81) and Somalia (78), with more than 95 percent of those killed being men. During the past two decades, the “darkest years” date back to 2012 and 2013, when “144 and 142 journalists were killed, respectively, mainly because of the conflict in Syria,” according to “Reporters Without Borders.”
These two peaks were followed by “low numbers as of 2019,” according to the press freedom organization. But the death toll began to rise again in 2022, which recorded 58 journalists killed, compared to 51 the previous year, due to the war in Ukraine.
Globally, coverage of armed conflict accounts for the number of journalists killed in the past 20 years, but “more journalists have been killed in peace zones than in war zones because of their investigations into organized crime and corruption.”
