VIENNA, (voa) – An international free press defense group is calling on governments to locate and prosecute those who murder journalists.
The Vienna-based International Press Institute, IPI, says that 53 journalists have been killed so far this year. By comparison, 56 journalists were slain in all of 2000.
IPI director Johann Fritz says, “the murder of journalists has become the preferred method of censorship for extremists, organized criminals, and corrupt officials who seek to prevent the media from exposing their activities.”
Another factor is war. Eight of the 53 journalists killed so far in 2001 died in Afghanistan, in a period of only 17 days.
The institute says the most dangerous region for journalists was the Americas, with a total of 20 journalists killed in North and Latin America. Ten of those murders took place in Colombia, with the journalists killed by drug lords, leftist rebels, and right-wing paramilitaries. In the United States, terrorism claimed the lives of two journalists.
IPI says 11 journalists have been killed in Europe in 2001, two of them in Kosovo. Four journalists have died in the Middle East, three of them in the Palestinian territories. In Asia, 15 journalists have been killed this year.
The group says the region showing the greatest improvement is Africa, with only three journalists murdered in 2001. That compares to nine in 2000, and 19 in 1999.
