Skip to main content

At least 46 journalists reported killed in 2009

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 GENEVA: At least 46 journalists have died while reporting the news in 21 countries this year, with Somalia and Mexico the most dangerous places for media, according to the International News Safety Institute (INSI).But the Brussels-based body, which tracks killings and deaths of journalists and their aides around the world, said the once-high casualty rate in Iraq was dwindling rapidly with the relative decline in violence in the country.Up to the end of July, six Somali reporters for local and foreign news organisations had been killed, while two journalists taken hostage in 2008 remained in captivity 11 months later, INSI said."But the situation in Mexico is causing grave concern with at least three deaths confirmed and three more under investigation," said the organisation, which is backed by major media and professional bodies around the globe.Three journalists had each died in Pakistan, Iraq and Philippines, it said. INSI noted a key media body in Sri Lanka reported 34 journalists and media workers have been killed there since the present government came to power in 2004.The toll of at least 46 by July 31 -- which includes cameramen and photographers -- compared with 109 in 36 countries for the whole of 2008. INSI counts accidental deaths while on reporting assignments in its figures.It quoted the Colombo-based Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka as saying that, apart from the 34 dead, 10 journalists had been abducted over the same period and more than 50 had gone into exile, fearing persecution.INSI itself records two deaths there this year -- including the assassination in January of Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor-in-chief of the independent Sunday Leader and a critic of both government and the now defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.The organisation -- a charity which provides courses around the globe for mainly developing country journalists on how to minimise danger while reporting -- said the decline in media deaths in Iraq was tremendously encouraging.Up until the end of last year, 252 journalists and their aides had been killed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. In the first seven months of last year a total of 11 had died.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...