In the line of fire

For the people who bring the news to our living rooms, 2012 was the most dangerous since 1995, writes Dick Skellington.

May 3 was World Press Freedom Day, a day that went largely unnoticed in Britain. The day was a conduit for raising public awareness of the risks journalists and photographers take every day to bring the news to our televisions and media outlets.

Since 1995, when Reporters Without Borders first began collecting casualty rates among media personnel in war and conflict zones, the rate has been increasing. Last year was the most dangerous yet as the civil war in Syria took its toll. 

In total 90 journalists were killed, 6 media assistants, and 48 citizen journalists lost their lives. The total of 90 dead journalists was the highest for any year since 2002*. This total included 18 killed in Syria, 18 in Somalia, 10 in Pakistan, and 6 in Mexico.

2013 shows continues of the bleak trend. By the end of May, 23 journalists had been killed and 9 citizen-web journalists have lost their lives. A further 175 journalists and 162 citizen web-journalists had been imprisoned. Most of the victims were in Syria and Pakistan. It included the legendary French journalist Maria Colvin who was killed in Homs.

Since 2002, over 700 journalists have died in world conflict zones, according to Reporters Without Borders. I believe it is important we reflect on these chilling statistics every day we read a newspaper or watch the news.
Dick Skellington 5 June 2013

The views expressed in this post, as in all posts on Society Matters, are the views of the author, not The Open University.

 

*Note: Journalists killed only includes cases where Reporters Without Borders has clearly established that the victim was killed because of his/ her activities as a journalist.
 

Cartoon by Gary Edwards