PARIS (Reporters Sans Frontières/Pacific Media Watch): Reporters Without Borders is today publishing its round-up of abuses against journalists in 2014. According to RWB’s tally, 66 journalists were murdered this year, bringing to 720 the number of journalists killed in connection with their work in the past 10 years.
A total of 119 journalists were kidnapped this year, an increase of more than 35 percent on last year’s figure. Forty journalists are currently being held hostage.
Aside from a slight fall in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work, the Reporters Without Borders round-up for 2014 highlights an evolution in the nature of violence against journalists and the way certain kinds - including carefully-staged threats and beheadings - are being used for very clear purposes.
Abductions growing
The murders are becoming more and more barbaric and the number of abductions is growing rapidly, with those carrying them out seeking to prevent independent news coverage and deter scrutiny by the outside world. Exposed to such diverse forms of intimidation, twice as many journalists fled into exile this year as in 2013.
The annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists that Reporters Without Borders has been publishing since 1995 is based on precise data that RWB gathers in the course of its monitoring.
It includes figures for both professional and citizen-journalists killed in connection with their reporting. RWB continues to investigate cases when it has not yet gathered enough information to reach a clear determination.
Download the full report : http://rsf.org/files/bilan-2014-EN.pdf
Pacific Media Watch
