Committee to Protect Journalists | Reporters Without Borders
In the last decade, 100 journalists have been murdered in Iraq, and 100% of their killers got away with it, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists 2013 Global Impunity Index, released Wednesday.
With 100 journalists murdered in the last decade and 100 percent impunity, Iraq is the worst offender on the Impunity Index, a spot it has held since 2008, when CPJ first compiled the index. Nine new murders in late 2013 amid a resurgence of militant groups broke a two-year quiescence in fatal anti-press violence. Three of the victims, plus two media workers, were killed in a single attack when armed militants bombed and stormed Salaheddin TV station in Tikrit on December 23. Al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to news reports accusing it of warring against the Sunni people.
Impunity Index Rating: 3.067 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
Last year: Ranked 1st with a rating of 2.818
In the No. 2 spot sits Somalia. Syria joined the list this year at No. 5. Afghanistan is No. 6, and according to the report, that country is “one of the few countries where fatalities among foreign journalists are higher than for local journalists.” (The Associated Press’ Anja Niedringhaus was killed there on April 4th.)
According to the report, 96 percent of journalists killed are local to those countries, mostly covering politics and war. See the full report here.
Where are you most likely to get away with murdering journalists? @pressfreedom has the list http://t.co/FodYDLImPP pic.twitter.com/C2hsE7CU2N
— EmmaDaly (@EmmaDaly) April 16, 2014
Reporters Without Borders reports in its Press Freedom Index that in 2014, 10 journalists have already been killed. Seven of those deaths happened in countries on CPJ’s Impunity Index.
