A new report by Reporters Without Borders reveals the bleak dangers
that journalists are faced with in their daily work. With 141 people
killed, 2012 has been one of the worst years for press freedom in a
long time.
"2012 was an extremely deadly year," says
Ulrike Gruska of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The organization's
just-published annual report shows a total of 141 journalists, bloggers
and media workers were killed because of their work. Of these, six
were media employees and 47 were bloggers - the report describes these
as "citizen journalists." In addition, 88 professional journalists were
killed in the course of their duties - more than at any time since the
introduction of the RSF annual reports in 1995.
2012
was particularly dangerous for citizen journalists, bloggers and
Internet reporters. Five died in 2011 - but in 2012 there were 47 deaths
around the world, 44 in Syria alone. "In Syria, many people have tried
to break through the regime's information blockade," Gruska said, "by
getting information out of the country, whether in the form of blogs
and video messages or mobile phone videos. And we had to rely on this
heavily in our Syria coverage in Germany because there were hardly any
professional journalists on the ground."
Reporters
Without Borders also counts Brazil among the most dangerous countries -
even though it is the venue for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Summer
Olympic Games in 2016. Five reporters have died here - two were
apparently murdered because they were researching cases of drug
smuggling.
At present, 193 journalists are in
prisons worldwide, 70 in Turkey (an EU member candidate) alone. In the case of 42 of them, RSF
is sure that there is a connection with their profession. China also
imprisons professional and citizen journalists - at present there are
about 100 behind bars, most of whom have been there for many years are
are living in inhumane conditions. Often corrupt regional officials are
behind the judgments, to get rid of their harshest critics.
Read more: A deadly year for press freedom | World | DW.DE | 19.12.2012
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