Life remains insecure for journalists in Pakistan as the country tops the list of deadliest countries in the world

Life remains insecure for journalists in Pakistan as the country tops the list of deadliest countries in the world

New York: (Tuesday, February 21, 2012) with at least 46 journalists killed in 2011 alone, Pakistan maintains its top of the list position among the deadliest countries for journalists in the world.

This is for the second consecutive year when Pakistan has maintained its position with almost no steps on part of the government to put an end to this phenomenon, said a rights based group in New York today.

Expressing its concerns over the killings of journalists at the hands of criminals and terrorists at free will, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) noted that most of the deaths happened during dangerous assignments such
as covering street protests, or reporting from the conflict affected areas, as they reached to the highest level in the last year.

In recent days, even the war torn Iraq witnessed lesser number of deaths of journalists (5) than Pakistan where 7 journalists laid their lives while responding to the call of duty. This is even unmatched with the countries like
Libya, Syria and even Afghanistan.

Commenting on the latest uprisings around the Muslim world that has swallowed lives of a number of journalists, a reporter lamented, “Seventeen journalists died while on dangerous assignments, many of them while covering the chaotic
and violent confrontations between authorities and protesters during the uprisings that swept the Arab world.”

Out of the total number of journalists killed in 2011, about 40 per cent included photojournalists and camera operators, more than twice ever since documented by the CPJ.

Sharing its findings, the CPJ also hinted towards the deaths of online or internet journalists that “rarely appeared on CPJ’s death toll before 2008.”

While unearthing the number of deaths reported last year, the CPJ said that it was still investigating other 35 deaths that may have been work related. According to the group, fourty-four journalists were killed in 2010.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=13479

Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Feb 21 2012. Filed under Latest News, Opinion, Pakistan, Society, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry