News / Society

110 journalists killed in 2015: Reporters Without Borders

Tuesday, 29 December 2015 11:20 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 December 2015 11:20 AM ]

Women hold pictures of anti-Daesh Syrian journalist and documentary maker Naji Jerf, who was killed on December 27, during his funeral in Gaziantep, Turkey, on December 28, 2015. ©AFP

The media rights group Reporters Without Borders says a total of 110 journalists have been killed around the world in 2015, with many of them falling victim to acts of violence in countries “at peace.”

In its annual round-up on Tuesday, the France-based NGO, known by its French acronym RSF, said 67 journalists were killed while reporting and the rest died under unclear circumstances.

In a stark contrast with the death toll recorded in 2014, when most of the victims had died in war zones, this year saw two-thirds of the deaths in countries “at peace,” said the report.

Iraq and Syria, where Takfiri terror groups are wreaking havoc, were ranked as the deadliest countries for journalists this year, with 11 and 10 fatalities respectively.

It referred to France as the third dangerous state for journalists, where eight of them lost their lives in a terrorist attack in January on offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“It was an unprecedented tragedy,” the RSF report said, adding that “a Western country had never suffered a massacre of this kind in the past.”

According to the RSF, another 27 non-professional “citizen-journalists” and seven media workers were also killed during the period.

The organization further warned that more reporters were deliberately targeted for their work, adding the high death toll was the result of “deliberate violence against journalists.”

“Non-state groups perpetrate targeted atrocities while too many governments do not comply with their obligations under international law,” RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said.

In a separate report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based NGO, put the number of journalists killed in the line of duty this year at 69, saying at least 28 of them had received threats before their deaths.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk