TORONTO – It was a deadly year for journalists with at least 70 killed on the job in 2013, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The report says two-thirds of journalist deaths took place in the Middle East, including 29 who died covering the Syrian civil war, 10 slain in Iraq and six who died covering the unrest in Egypt.
The 29 deaths in Syria in 2013 brings the total number of journalists killed there since the conflict began in 2011 to 63.
“The Middle East has become a killing field for journalists. While the number of journalists killed for their work has declined in some places, the civil war in Syria and a renewal of sectarian attacks in Iraq have taken an agonizing toll,” the committee’s deputy director, Robert Mahoney, said in a statement.
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The total number of journalists killed in 2013 was down slightly from 74 in 2012.
The New York-based nonprofit has been tracking reporters who have been killed in the line of work since 1992, with CPJ staff members independently investigating the circumstances of each journalist’s death.
Covering the ongoing conflict in Syria has not only been deadly, but journalists have also risked being kidnapped.
Roughly 60 journalists were abducted this year, with 30 still missing according to research from the CPJ.
Pakistan, Somalia, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Mali, and Russia also saw the deaths of multiple journalists.
Two French journalists were kidnapped and killed in northern Mali. Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, had been working for Radio France Internationale when they were abducted by an armed group following an interview with a Tuareg rebel leader in the town. Their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds.
The report found for the first time in a decade, no journalists were reported to have been killed in Mexico, a country gripped by drug violence.
The CPJ is continuing to investigate the circumstance of the deaths of 25 additional journalists not included in the list of 70.
*With a file from the Associated Press
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