WORLD: '1000 media personnel killed in last 10 years'

International News Safety Institute survey says that most journalists killed in peacetime

Times of India
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

London --- One thousand journalists and other media personnel have been killed around the world over the past ten years, including 45 in India, a majority of them from gunfire, according to a survey.

Iraq was the bloodiest country with a death toll of 138, followed by Russia (88) and Colombia (72). India came in sixth with 45.

The statistics, almost two deaths every week, also threw up a surprising finding, only one in four journalists was killed in war and other armed conflicts.

At least 657 men and women were murdered in peacetime.

The survey was conducted between January 1996 and June 2006 by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), a coalition of media organisations, press freedom groups, unions and humanitarian campaigners dedicated to the safety of journalists and media staff.

The news media death toll has increased steadily since 2000, with 2006 being the worst with 167 fatalities.

Shooting was by far the greatest cause of death, accounting for almost half of the total.

Bombing, stabbing, beating, torture, strangulation and decapitation were also used to silence reporting. Some men and women disappeared, their fate unknown.

In war, it was much safer to be embedded with an army than not -- independent news reporters, so-called unilaterals, accounted for 92 per cent of the dead.

The death toll was evenly split between press and broadcast media.

Date Posted: 3/7/2007