66 journos killed in 2022 amid waning press safety
The outgoing year has witnessed a devastating decline in journalists’ safety as 66 journalists, including a Bangladeshi, have been killed across the globe in connection with their profession.
The figure marks a steep rise from the total of 45 journalists killed in 2021, said the International Press Institute (IPI) in its annual report on Thursday.
The global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists prepared the report on the basis of information collected between 1 January and 23 December in 2022.
According to the report, the 66 journalists were killed in connection with their work or lost their lives on assignment. Eight were female and 58 were male.
The report incorporated a death case from Bangladesh where a journalist -- Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem, reporter of Dainik Cumillar Dak -- was shot dead near the Bangladesh-India border in Cumilla by alleged drug smugglers on 13 April.
Among the total killings, some 39 journalists have been subjected to targeted murder for their work. Seven journalists were killed while covering armed conflict, compared to three cases in the category in 2021. Besides, two were killed while covering civil unrest, and two lost their lives while on assignment.
In the remaining 16 cases, the circumstances and motive behind the journalist’s killing remain unconfirmed, but a work-related killing cannot be ruled out, the report noted.
The IPI noted that spiraling attacks against journalists in Mexico as well as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are key factors behind the rise in journalist killings.
Some 14 journalists were killed in Mexico in 2022, the deadliest year for the country’s media since 2017. Also, eight journalists were killed while covering the Russia-Ukraine war.
The report said 2022 witnessed some shocking attacks on journalists, such as the fatal shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank in May.
States’ failure to ensure justice for attacks on journalists continues to provide fertile ground for violence against the press, the global journalism network said, calling on authorities to end impunity for these crimes and to ensure the protection of journalists.