Photo: VICTORIA RAZO/AFP/Getty Images
For: The opinion Posted Jan 16, 2023, 7:50 pm EST
A new report from the United Nations (UN) established that in 2022 at least 86 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide
Such a record is presented as a worrying rise for the organization, since there was an average of 58 murders a year between 2019 and 2021, according to the UNESCO Observatory of Murdered Journalists.
Latin America is the deadliest region for journalists
Latin America and the Caribbean was the deadliest region for journalists in 2022, with 44 homicides, more than half of all those killed in the world.
Mexico leads the list of countries that registered the highest number of homicides with 19 murders, followed by Ukraine with ten. and nine in Haiti.
Almost half of the deceased informants were traveling, at home, in parking lots and other public places outside their workplace. An upward trend in recent years that, according to UNESCO, “implies that there are no safe spaces for journalists, not even in their spare time.”
Death toll in non-conflict nations doubles
Although the number of reporters killed in countries in conflict grew, from 20 in 2021 to 23 in 2022, the global increase occurred mostly in nations with no confrontations where deaths almost doubled, going from 35 cases in 2021 to 61 in 2022.
The main causes of the murders were reprisals for reporting on organized crime, armed conflicts or coverage of compromising topics such as corruption, crimes against the environment, abuse of power and protests.
86% of murders go unpunished
Despite some progress over the past five years, the impunity rate for murders of journalists remains extremely high, at 86%.
In addition to murders, other forms of violence against journalists were forced disappearances, kidnappings and arbitrary detentions, harassment, and violence in the networks, particularly against women journalists.
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