The Deadliest Places on Earth to Be A Journalist

The Committee to Protect Journalists released its 2012 Impunity Index mid last month and just before yesterday’s World Press Freedom Day.

The Index seeks to highlight countries where journalists have been killed in duty and end up going scott-free as the murderers remain uncharged or in some cases end up fleeing. The meticulous index calculates unsolved journalist murders in comparison to a country’s population, which ends up revelaing some shocking statistics.

The index, released on the 17th of April 2012 by the CPJ, noticed that several countries experienced sharp rises in what it termed as ‘deadly and unpunished violent attacks on journalists’. Of particular highlight was Pakistan and Mexico, with the CPJ stating that Pakistani authorities routinely fail to bring these murderers to justice mainly because of government links, while those in Mexico were yet to effectively combat those who target media houses in the Central American nation.

“Impunity is the oxygen for attacks against the press and the engine of those who seek to silence the media,” the deputy editor of the Mexican daily El Siglo de Torreón, Javier Garza told the CPJ.

This follows two attacks on a local leading newspaper’s offices in a span of four years and yet culprits have not been apprehended. The latest index examined murders that took place between January 2002 and December 2011 and features nations with only five or more unresolved cases. Just so you know, unresolved cases are considered as those with no convictions won.

At the top of the list are countries that are struggling or have recently been struggling with cases of insurgency or strife, with Iraq at the top of the list, closely followed by Kenya’s neighbour, Somalia.

The research by the CPJ also revealed that a vast number of these unresolved attacks at journalists cause the victims to retreat and hide most of their work, in most cases opting to report via aliases on social media networks to avoid attracting attention to themselves.

One of the most startling revelations however was that threats are a strong indicator of a potentially deadly attack because in more than 40 percent of the cases, the victims had recieved death threats before they were killed.

At a time when political temperatures are high in the country, and as World Press Freedom Day was marked just yesterday, it is important to be alert and responsible as journalists as by its very nature of work, the profession exposes you to a number of risks.

Checkout this Citizen TV report on the tough job of being a journalist:

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The 2012 CPJ Impunity Index ranks (in order from worst performing) is as follows:

1. Iraq
2. Somalia
3. Philipines
4. Sri Lanka
5. Colombia
6. Nepal
7. Afghanistan
8. Mexico
9. Russia
10. Pakistan
11. Brazil
12. India