"historic levels" with at least 155 murders, assassinations and unexplained deaths. Not included were the 22 journalists killed in "accidental deaths," the IFJ explained.
"Media have become more powerful and journalism has become more dangerous," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary in a statement from Brussels. "2006 was the worst year on record – a year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists."
Many journalists are also imprisoned, including in Cuba, where reportedly persecuted Christians have expressed concerns over the health of journalist and prisoner of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta who sewed his mouth shut this week and was believed to continue his action Sunday, December 31, BosNewsLife learned.
IRAQ BLOODIEST
Those killed were especially targeted in Iraq, said the IFJ in remarks obtained by BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest. Media, it said, became "prime targets of terror attacks" or "victims of poor soldiering."
By year’s end, 68 media staff had been killed, bringing to 170 the number killed in the country since the invasion in April 2003.
Elsewhere, the IFJ concluded that continuing violence in Latin America, particularly Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, claimed the lives of 37 media staff, while in Asia "relentless attacks" in the Philippines and Sri Lanka pushed the total of killings to 34.
"The only positive sign came in the final days of the year when the United Nations, for the first time ever, issued a statement condemning targeting of journalists and calling for prosecution of the killers of media staff," the IFJ said.
UN RESOLUTION
In a resolution passed on December 23 the UN Security Council unanimously called on governments to respect international law and to protect civilians in armed conflict. The Council called for an end to impunity and for prosecution of the killers of journalists and agreed to prepare annual reports on the risks facing media.
"This was the only bright spot in a year of unremitting gloom," said White. "For the first time the United Nations has put the focus on a deepening media crisis. It is long overdue. We want to see action against countries that allow impunity in the killing of journalists." The previous high was in 2005 when the IFJ recorded 154 deaths, a number "inflated tragically" by the deaths of 48 Iranian journalists on a military assignment, the group explained.
Full details set out in the IFJ report ‘Journalism Put to the Sword’ were to be published in the middle of January. The report also covers the work of the IFJ Safety Fund, which provides humanitarian aid to the victims of violence and their families.
"During 2006 the vast majority of killings have been at the hands of terrorists and sectarian gangs who have made the streets of Baghdad and other major cities no-go areas for many news teams…But the crisis of impunity is not confined to conflict zones,"
the IFJ explained.
INTERNATIONAL INQUIRY
In December 12 the Federation launched with other international press support groups an International Commission of Inquiry into the killings of journalists in Russia. The action follows the assassination of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow on October 7. Her death was the latest in over 200 killings of journalists in Russia since 1993. Many of these have been explained, but since President Vladimir Putin came to power "around 40 killings of journalists" have taken place "and none of them have been satisfactorily resolved," the IFJ claimed.
It also expressed concerns over the situation in the Philippines where 13 journalists died in 2006, bringing to 49 the number of media staff murdered since President Gloria Arroya came to power in 2001, "surpassing the numbers killed under the 14-year Marcos Dictatorship," the IFJ said. Church leaders and human rights groups have also expressed concerns over wide spread killings often involving military personnel, the BosNewsLife Southeast Asia Bureau in Manila reported this year.
In Latin America journalists in Mexico moved ahead of Colombia as the deadliest country for reporters "covering crime and corruption with 10 deaths, many of them investigative" journalists, the IFJ said. In Africa countries wracked by internal conflict also proved to be the most dangerous for journalists. Swedish freelance Martin Adler was shot while filming a demonstration in Mogadishu and veteran journalist Mohammed Taha, a Sudanese editor, was kidnapped and killed, investigators said.
"It has been a year in which small steps have been taken to confront this media catastrophe,” said White, "The issue will figure strongly at the IFJ World Congress to be held in Moscow in May. We must do more, particularly to help the victims of violence and to bring the killers of our colleagues to justice," he added. (With BosNewsLife reports from Cuba and the Philippines).
