The Philippines ranked the fifth deadliest country for journalists this year, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that has cited 13 countries for enabling “impunity” by leaving more than 200 media practitioners killing unsolved.
CPJ said the countries cited in its Global Impunity Index for 2019 were home to the majority of journalist killings over the past 10 years.
CPJ added the countries on its list “represent a mix of conflict-ridden regions and more stable countries where criminal groups, politicians, government officials, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical and investigative reporting.”
Somalia is the worst country for the fifth year in a row in a ranking based on deaths as a percentage of each country’s population—25 unsolved killings in a country of 15 million people.
Syria is second and Iraq, third.
The Philippines is the country with the largest number of unsolved killings, 41, followed by Mexico with 30.
The 13 countries had accounted for 222 of the 318 deaths in the last 10 years, CPJ said, with many cases linked to war and civil unrest.
“In the past decade, armed militant groups, such as al-Shabab, Boko Haram and the Islamic State group have most often targeted journalists with complete impunity,” the report said.
“However, criminal groups have become a major threat, killing large numbers of journalists and routinely escaping justice. Mexico, to date this year’s deadliest country for journalists, has seen its impunity rating worsen nearly every year since 2008, as criminal cartels waged a campaign of terror against the media,” it said.
Other countries making up the 13 worst are South Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria and India. (Source: Inquirer.net/AFP)