The number of journalists killed worldwide has almost doubled so far, according to a report released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Organization located in New York revealed that at least 34 journalists had been targeted and killed because of their work. At least 53 journalists were killed while doing dangerous work. While in 2017 there were about 18 revenge murders out of 48 murders in total.
The report also found that the number of jailed journalists is on the rise.
"The context of the crisis is varied and complex and closely related to technological changes that have allowed more people to do journalism and have also expanded journalism to political and criminal groups that once needed the media to deliver their messages through her", it is stated in the annual report.
The report came a day after the independent media group Reporters Without Borders released its report saying that the United States for the first time ranks among the top 5 countries where journalists are killed, with six journalists killed this year. Four of these journalists were killed by a gunman in the June attack on the newspaper "Capitale Gazzete" in Maryland. While two other journalists were killed while reporting on a storm.
The group in Paris documented 63 journalists killed in 2018 worldwide.
Both organizations investigate and verify the circumstances of each journalist's death before listing them, but differ in the type of circumstances they include. For example, Reporters Without Borders included the two journalists who died because of the storm, along with journalists who died fighting, from shootings or because they were involved in dangerous work.
The report of the Committee to Protect Journalists also includes the murder of the Washington Post columnist, jamal khashoggi, with nationality from Saudi Arabia who firmly criticized the royal regime. His death on October 2 inside the Arab consulate in Istanbul caused a stir on the global political stage because Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman was implicated in the allegations.
Khashoggi lived in exile in the United States, but had gone to the Saudi Arabian consulate to formalize his divorce. He was strangled and butchered and Saudi Arabian agents are accused of this.
Saudi Arabia denied Prince Mohammed's involvement, but the kingdom admitted the event was planned by Saudi agents close to the Prince, following international pressure.
Asked if he believed the Prince of Saudi Arabia had ordered the event, President Donald Trump said last month: "Maybe, maybe not." While the President condemned the violence against journalists, the report states that he called journalists "the enemy of the people".
Time magazine last week selected as its "person of the year" the journalists killed and imprisoned during 2018, including: Khashoggi, Maria Ressa imprisoned in the Philippines, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo imprisoned in Myanmar as well as the group of journalists killed in "Capital Gazzete".
The main country of journalists killed this year is Afghanistan, according to the Committee's report. 13 journalists were killed there, some by suicide bombings by Islamic State group militants.
In Syria and Yemen, the two countries with the most devastating wars, fewer journalists have been killed since 2011. 3 died in Yemen and in Syria, the Committee recorded 9 deaths compared to the 2012 high of 31. However, the decline may be it because of limited access or because of extreme risk which discourages media presence, the report says.
