Being killed for their work is growing risk for journalists
NEW YORK » Journalists are familiar with the risks of reporting from war-torn lands, but the recent death or disappearance of three people in Turkey, Bulgaria and Mexico illustrate the growing dangers to reporters targeted for practicing their craft.
Authorities in Turkey are searching for Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing since walking into the Saudi Arabian consulate last week in Istanbul. There are concerns that Khashoggi, who has written critically of the Saudi regime, may have been killed there.
Elsewhere, Bulgarian national radio reported an arrest Tuesday in the death of television reporter Viktoria Marinova, host of a show that reported on the alleged misuse of European Union funds by a Bulgarian building company.
And in Mexico this past week, journalist and activist Sergio Martinez Gonzalez was shot and killed by two people on a motorcycle as he ate breakfast with his wife at a cafe.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 43 journalists have been killed in the line of their work so far in 2018. Last year, there were 46 deaths for all of 2017. The numbers aren’t that unusual and, in fact, have been higher: 73 in 2015 and 2013, 74 in 2012, the committee said.
What’s different is the way they are losing their lives. At least 27 journalists have been individually slain so far this year, compared with eight losing their lives while caught in the crossfire of violent conflicts, CPJ said. Of all the journalists killed since 1992, 848 were individually killed and 1,322 were lost in crossfire, CPJ said.