Journalists group says 45 reporters, staffers died on the job in 2021
BRUSSELS — A total of 45 reporters and media workers were killed doing their jobs over the last year, the highest number among them in strife-torn Afghanistan, the world’s largest organization of journalists said Friday.
The figure represents one of the lowest death tolls in 30 years, since the International Federation of Journalists first began publishing annual reports in 1991 on journalists killed in incidents related to their work. Sixty-five deaths were recorded in 2020.
But the IFJ said the numbers in 2021 confirm a trend showing that media staff are most often killed for exposing corruption, crime and abuse of power in their communities, cities and countries.
“These 45 colleagues we lost to violence this year remind us of the terrible sacrifice journalists across the world continue to pay for serving the public interest and we remain in the debt to them and thousands of others who paid the ultimate price,” said IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger.
Bellanger said that “the only tribute fit for the cause to which they gave their lives should be unrelenting pursuit for justice.”
The IFJ, which represents around 600,000 media professionals across the globe, said that the 45 journalists and media workers were killed in 20 countries. Of those, 33 died in targeted attacks. Nine were killed in Afghanistan, eight in Mexico, four in India and three in neighboring Pakistan.
The organization said that 2,721 journalists have been killed around the world since 1991.
Cargo flights suspended: Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airlines is suspending cargo flights for a week due to stricter quarantine requirements for air crews, potentially adding to strain on global supply chains.
Long-haul flights to Europe, across the Pacific and to Riyadh and Dubai are suspended through Thursday, the airline said.
Hong Kong is tightening up virus restrictions after confirming its first cases of community transmission of the omicron variant of the coronavirus on Friday, tied to a Cathay Pacific crew member who had returned from the United States on Christmas Day.
The airline’s workforce is stretched thin after the quarantine for Cathay Pacific flight crews who return from abroad was extended to one week in a hotel room from three days.
Cathay Pacific said in a statement that five crew members had tested positive for omicron recently, and some had not followed regulations. It apologized and said they would be disciplined.
Post-Brexit regulations:
New post-Brexit custom rules for goods arriving from the European Union to Britain are taking effect Saturday, and a leading food industry body has warned that the new border controls could lead to food shortages.
Under the new rules, importers must make a full customs declaration on goods entering the U.K. from the EU or other countries. Businesses will no longer be allowed to delay completing full import customs declarations for up to 175 days — a measure that was introduced to cope with the disruption of Brexit.
The British Frozen Food Federation said this week
the new restrictions on animal and plant products from the EU could result in major delays at ports in the new year because some in the supply chain, especially logistics companies on the EU side, may not be prepared for the changes.
The new measures require businesses to complete the correct paperwork at least four hours before goods can arrive at U.K. borders, or they risk being turned back at the border.
Animal and plant-based products must also have statements of origin certificates.
While drivers must declare their goods and origin certificates, checks are expected to be minimal until the rules ramp up beginning in July, when much stricter checks are expected to come into force. West Bank slaying: Israeli troops shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian man as he ran toward a bus
stop in an attempted stabbing attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the military said.
It said Amir Atef Reyan got out of a car at a junction and advanced toward a group of Israeli civilians and soldiers waiting at the bus stop. He was shot before reaching them.
The Palestinian Health Ministry later confirmed that Reyan died from his wounds.
Photos and video published online show the Palestinian lying face down at a junction near an Israeli settlement before being taken away in an ambulance. The Israeli military also released a photo of the knife.
The military later said it arrested another suspect who was in the car.
The alleged attack comes amid an uptick in stabbings against Israeli citizens. Earlier in December, an ultra-Orthodox Jew was seriously wounded after being stabbed by a Palestinian man just outside the
walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. The attacker was shot dead by Israeli police. Sudan strife: The World Food Program has suspended its operations across Sudan’s province of North Darfur following recent attacks on its warehouses, a decision expected to affect about 2 million local people.
A statement released by the U.N. food agency Thursday said all three of its warehouses in the area were attacked and looted. More than 5,000 metric tons of food apparently were stolen, the group said.
Earlier in the week, the WFP said an unidentified armed group had attacked one of its warehouses in North Darfur’s provincial capital of el-Fasher. In response, local authorities imposed a curfew across the province.
However, the attacks continued until early Thursday, said the statement. Hundreds of looters have
also dismantled warehouse structures, WFP added.
Sudan is one of the poorest counties in the world, with nearly 11 million people in need of food security and livelihood assistance in 2022, said the WFP.
On Thursday, the country’s state-run news agency reported that a number of suspects were arrested in el-Fasher after they were seen riding trucks and animal-drawn carts loaded with food stocks that were allegedly stolen from the WFP warehouses.
SUNA news agency did not say how many were arrested.
On Friday, a doctor’s group said that five people were killed in anti-coup protests that erupted a day earlier in several provinces across the country.
Security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of protesters, the group said.
With Thursday’s fatalities, the total death toll since the coup has risen to 53.