According to the UN cultural organization Unesco, 86 journalists were killed in a targeted manner worldwide last year. After several years of decline, that number has soared in 2022, said Audrey Azoulay, the organization’s director-general, in Paris on Monday. According to the Unesco Observatory, the number of murders of journalists averaged 58 per year from 2019 to 2021.
The development in 2022 is alarming, said Azoulay. “The authorities must redouble their efforts to put an end to these crimes and ensure that the perpetrators are convicted, because indifference is an important factor in this violent climate.”
About half of those killed were off duty
According to UNESCO, Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly dangerous for media workers. In this region, 44 murders of media people were registered last year, which is more than half of all journalists killed worldwide. 16 murders of journalists were recorded in the Asia and Pacific region, while eleven media workers were killed in Eastern Europe.
According to UNESCO, the most dangerous countries for journalists are Mexico (with 19 deaths), Ukraine (10) and Haiti (9). About half of the journalists killed were not on duty at the time of the attack, but were traveling, in their homes, in parking lots and other public places. This shows that there is no safe place for journalists, not even in their free time.