India in the list of most dangerous countries for journalists: PEC report

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• Dec 10, 2021 | moderator

Digital Desk: Afghanistan and Mexico has emerged as the most dangerous countries for media work this year. The annual report released by the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), enlists the name of countries where journalists or media work have faced colossal hurdles. Since January, 77 media workers have been killed in 28 countries around the world.

Headquartered in Geneva, the PEC released the annual report on the occasion of World Human Rights Day, highlighting the number of journalists killed around the world in the past years.

Afghanistan leads with 12 assassinations, ahead of Mexico where 10 journalists were killed. Among the most dangerous countries are Pakistan (7), India (6), the Phillipines (4), Yemen (4) and Democratic Republic of Congo (3).

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Two deaths were recorded in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina-Faso, Colombia, as well as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Turkey.

Finally, one victim has been identified in the following countries: Ecuador, Gaza, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, Netherlands, Syria and United States of America.

By region, Asia leads with 40 dead, ahead of Latin America with 17 dead, Africa 154, Europe 5 and North America 1.

“The number of journalists killed decreased by 8 percent compared to the same period of last year, a slight improvement. Improvement has taken place in Latin America outside of Mexico, deterioration is observed in Africa and Europe. Mexico and Afghanistan are among the most dangerous countries for journalists for many years, but the rise in Africa is particularly worrying”, commented PEC Secretary General Blaise Lempen.

Press freedom has registered a serious setback after 3 journalists were killed in Greece, Georgia and Netherlands. In Burma (Myanmar) after the military coup and in Afghanistan after the departure of the NATO troops, press functioning has received a serious defeat.

Of the 77 journalists murdered, 29 were in war zones (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Gaza, Somalia, Syria and Yemen). Terrorist groups were responsible of at least 20 murders (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen), an increase compared to previous years.

In ten years, from 2012 to 2021, 1150 journalists were killed, according to figures from the PEC>

One positive development, says PEC President Hedayat Abdel Nabi is that the awareness across the globe has become more widespread due to the impressive engagement of media colleagues spreading the message of media protection and the safety of journalists as well as press freedom.

“India has recently lost Buddhinath Jha (journalist cum Right to Information (RTI) activist, also known as Avinash Jha), whose body was found in Madhubani locality of Bihar on 12 November. The Benipatti-based family claimed that Buddhinath was offered a lot of money (as bribes) by some illegal healthcare clinic owners, but he did not listen to them. Later he received a number of threatening calls from unknown persons,” said Nava Thakuria, PEC’s India representative.

Prior to him, the populous country lost five journalists namely Ashu Yadav, Sulabh Srivastava, Ch. Keshav, Manish Kumar Singh and Raman Kashyap to assailants this year. Indian photo journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed in Afghanistan. India’s two neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh reported (7 and 2 respectively) media casualties, however Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (China), Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar have not reported any incident of journo-murder till date this year.