Killing of journalists
Media watchdog blames it on hatred churned by ‘unscrupulous politicians’.
PARIS: Hatred whipped up by “unscrupulous politicians” has contributed to the shocking rise in the number of journalists murdered this year, a media watchdog said.
Eighty journalists have been killed worldwide so far this year – most notably Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi – with 348 in jail and 60 more held hostage, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released yesterday.
“Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year and the situation is now critical,” said RSF 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.”
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 United States also became the fifth deadliest country for reporters this year 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% 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 “highlight- ed 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.
Over 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”.
The overall toll did not include 10 deaths of media workers that the RSF said it was still investigating. — AFP
Expressions of hatred legitimise violence, thereby undermining journalism and democracy itself. Christophe Deloire