A total of 80 journalists were killed this year, with 348 jailed and 60 held hostage, according to annual figures from Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres). Press freedom group warns of 'unprecedented hostility' towards media workers.
This year's figures from RSF suggest that more than half of the journalists killed in 2018 were deliberately targeted and that there has been a 15 per cent increase in such killings since 2017.
“Journalists have never before been subjected to as much violence and abusive treatment as in 2018,” RSF warned.
There has been an increase in incidents across all categories – including murders, imprisonment, hostage-taking and enforced disappearances.
Among the journalists killed in 2018 were Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Slovak data journalist Jan Kuciak and Bulgarian TV journalist Victoria Marinova
RSF general secretary Christophe Deloire said: “Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year, and the situation is now critical.
“The hatred of journalists that is voiced, and sometimes very openly proclaimed, by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen has tragic consequences on the ground, and has been reflected in this disturbing increase in violations against journalists.
“The hatred of journalists that is voiced, and sometimes very openly proclaimed, by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen has tragic consequences on the ground, and has been reflected in this disturbing increase in violations against journalists.
Afghanistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists in 2018, with 15 killed, followed by Syria, with 11 killed, the annual report shows.
The deadliest countries outside a conflict zone were Mexico, with nine journalists killed, and the United States, where five employees of Capital Gazette newspaper were murdered in a shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, in June.
The RSF has published an annual round-up of incidents against journalists since 1995, with figures covering professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers.
