A new report by Reporters Without Borders reveals the bleak dangers that journalists are faced with in their daily work. With 141 people killed, 2012 has been one of the worst years for press freedom in a long time.
"2012 was an extremely deadly year," says Ulrike Gruska of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The organization's just-published annual report shows a total of 141 journalists, bloggers and media workers were killed because of their work. Of these, six were media employees and 47 were bloggers - the report describes these as "citizen journalists." In addition, 88 professional journalists were killed in the course of their duties - more than at any time since the introduction of the RSF annual reports in 1995.
2012 was particularly dangerous for citizen journalists, bloggers and Internet reporters. Five died in 2011 - but in 2012 there were 47 deaths around the world, 44 in Syria alone. "In Syria, many people have tried to break through the regime's information blockade," Gruska said, "by getting information out of the country, whether in the form of blogs and video messages or mobile phone videos. And we had to rely on this heavily in our Syria coverage in Germany because there were hardly any professional journalists on the ground."
Reporters Without Borders also counts Brazil among the most dangerous countries - even though it is the venue for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. Five reporters have died here - two were apparently murdered because they were researching cases of drug smuggling.
At present, 193 journalists are in prisons worldwide, 70 in Turkey alone. In the case of 42 of them, RSF is sure that there is a connection with their profession. China also imprisons professional and citizen journalists - at present there are about 100 behind bars, most of whom have been there for many years are are living in inhumane conditions. Often corrupt regional officials are behind the judgments, to get rid of their harshest critics.
Read more: A deadly year for press freedom | World | DW.DE | 19.12.2012