Wednesday 21 April 2010

Getting away with murdering journalists


Deadly, unpunished violence against the press has soared in the Philippines and Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.
The CPJ says impunity in journalist murders also rose significantly in Russia and Mexico, two countries with long records of entrenched, anti-press violence.
There was some good news, CPJ reports: "Brazil and Colombia, historically two of the world’s deadliest nations for the press, each made marked improvement in curbing deadly violence against journalists and bringing killers to justice. Recent convictions in Brazil, in fact, moved the country off the index entirely."
The CPJ lists 12 countries where journalists are murdered on a recurring basis and governments are unable or unwilling to prosecute the killers. The index covers the years 2000 to 2009.
The 12 are: Iraq, Somalia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India.

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