Sixty journalists were killed in the first half of 2015, according to a report by the UK-based organisation International News Safety Institute (INSI). Killing The Messenger looks at the number of reporters killed for simply doing their job. It also details how they died and where they worked. Since its publication, that figure has risen to 65, according to the INSI website.
For the first time, a peaceful Western democracy tops the list as the deadliest country in the world to be a journalist. Eight reporters were killed in the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in France at the start of the year.
The coffin of Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac is carried out of the town hall of Montreuil, near Paris, during his funeral on January 15, 2015. Gunmen opened fire in the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo on January, killing 12 people including (from left) deputy chief editor Bernard Maris and cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut, aka Cabu, Charb, Tignous, Honore (Philippe Honore) and Michel RenaudAFP
INSI president Richard Sambrook said 2015 is shaping up to be worse than the previous year for journalists' deaths. "Local journalists are under most threat – from investigating crime and corruption – and account for more than 90% of those killed," he said.
The report reveals South Sudan and Yemen were the second bloodiest countries for journalists in the first half of 2015, with six members of the news media killed in each place, while Iraq and Libya are close behind, with five journalists losing their lives in each country.
Killing the Messenger/INSI
Syria, which has topped the list for the past three years, saw a decline in the number of reporters killed – down from 11 in 2014 to two during the first six months of 2015. The country has become a no-go zone for most journalists since the high-profile beheadings of Japanese and American freelancers, which is thought to be the main reason for the decline.
"So far this year seven journalists have been decapitated by jihadist groups – a figure unthinkable a few years ago. The consequence of all this is that the public know less about the world than they should, and the killing of journalists is increasingly seen as a political act or means of censorship," said Sambrook.
Journalists beheaded by Islamic State include (from left) Freelance American journalist James Foley in August 2014, Japanese freelance video journalist Kenji Goto in January 2015, and American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff in September 2014Reuters
The report found that more than half of the journalists killed died during peacetime and their murderers enjoyed near total impunity. INSI identified only five cases in which suspects were identified or arrested.
IBTimesUK pays tribute to photographers and reporters killed, injured or harassed doing their jobs in hostile environments.
Relatives of Indian journalist Jagendra Singh, who died after he was set alight, take part in a protest demanding an investigation in the Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on June 14, 2015. Singh, a freelance journalist, died a week after he was set alight shortly after publishing an article and posting allegations on Facebook against local minister Ram Murti Singh Verma. The victim's family allege Verma and a group of policemen raided Singh's home, beat him up and then doused the 42-year-old with petrol and set him alightAFPFrom left: Two journalists working with London-based Kalsan TV – Abdulkadir Hassan Jokar and Abdulkadir Hassan Yeyow – and Mohamed Adan Sodal, a journalist working with Mogadishu-based radio station Dalsan, recover in hospital on December 6, 2014 a day after being injured in a twin bomb attack in the central Somali city of BaidoaAFPA photojournalist is evacuated after he was wounded during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters following a rally marking Nakba Day near the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 15, 2015Mohamad Torokman/ReutersPolice examine the body of prominent pro-Russian journalist Oles Buzyna, 45, after he was shot dead in Kiev on April 16, 2015Volodymyr Shuvayev/AFPA friend of journalist Abdul Kareem al-Khaiwani kisses his coffin during his funeral procession in Sanaa on March 24, 2015. Assailants on a motorbike shot one of Yemen's top journalistsKhaled Abdullah Ali/ReutersMarch 11, 2015: Guatemalan journalists protest to condemn an armed attack that left two colleagues killed and another injured in the south of the country. Danilo Lopez, a journalist with Prensa Libre, and Federico Salazar of Nuevo Mundo radio, were killed by gunmen in a park in Mazatenango municipalityJohan Ordonez/AFPAsif Hassan, a photographer with French news agency Agence France-Press (AFP), sits in a police vehicle in Karachi on January 16, 2015 after being shot in his chest during a protest against Charlie Hebdo, which featured a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad as the cover of its first edition after an attack by Islamist gunmenAkhtar Soomro/ReutersPhotojournalist Andrew Gombert of the European Press Photo Agency is held down on 3rd Avenue while being detained by New York City Police officers during a march by students and activists protesting against the verdict announced in the shooting death of Michael Brown, on December 1, 2014Mike Segar/ReutersJournalists protest to demand justice for the death of their colleague Pablo Medina, who worked for newspaper ABC Color, in front of the National Congress in Asuncion October 23, 2014. Medina was shot on a rural road in Curuguaty, northern ParaguayJorge Adorno/ReutersA coffin containing the body of Russian photojournalist Andrei Stenin is seen during a memorial service in Moscow, on September 5, 2014. Stenin, staff photographer of Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) news agency, former RIA Novosti, went missing while covering a military conflict in the eastern UkraineSergei Karpukhin/ReutersGetty Images staff photographer Scott Olson is arrested by police on August 18, 2014 as he covers the demonstration following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MissouriJoe Raedle/Getty ImagesAssociated Press photographer Hatem Mussa, who was wounded when unexploded munitions below up, is wheeled on a stretcher at a hospital in Gaza City, before being transferred to receive treatment in Israel, on August 13, 2014. Italian journalist, Simone Camilli, a freelance translator and three Palestinian bomb disposal experts were killed when unexploded munitions blew up in Beit LahiyaAhmed Zakot/Reuters
Palestinians carry one of two journalists who were killed by Israeli shelling near a market in Shejaya, Gaza City on July 30, 2014Ashraf Amra/ReutersAl-Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed listen to the verdict inside a cage during their trial for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, on June 23, 2014. The Egyptian court sentenced the three to jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years. They were released in February 2015Khaled Desouki/AFPAnja Niedringhaus, a veteran Associated Press photographer who had covered wars around the world, was shot dead on April 4, 2014 by an Afghan policeman while covering Afghanistan's presidential electionsReuters
