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International Press Institute: â€œ51 journalists killed this yearâ€

15 July 2011 12:37 (UTC +04:00)

Chairperson of the IPI Azerbaijan National Committee Umud Rahimoglu told APA that the state of freedom of press was a little improved. The report says that 51 journalists were killed during the 6 months. According to the report, 51 journalists have been killed so far in 2011. Sixteen of those journalists were killed in Latin America and 21 in the Middle East. Eight journalists were killed in Iraq.

Fifty four journalists were killed in the first six months of 2010, and 102 in the entire year. Pakistan, which was the worldâ€™s most dangerous country for journalists in 2010, saw four journalists lose their lives for doing their jobs, while five journalists were killed in Mexico, all in what appear to be targeted killings related to their work. Events in the Middle East and North Africa, the so-called Arab Spring revolutions, had profound implications for media in the region and beyond. â€œThroughout the region, a pattern of media repression has emerged,â€ says the IPI report. â€œGovernment leaders tried to hack or block electronic communications, particularly social media websites Facebook and Twitter, even resorting to the wholesale shutdown of the Internet and electricity, in Syria, to stop news from being transmitted. Throughout the region, journalists covering the unrest remain subject to threats and attacks, imprisonment on national security charges, or expulsion.â€ The repercussions of the Arab Spring movements had impacts in other parts of the world.

In President Teodoro Obiangâ€™s Equatorial Guinea, there was a â€œtotal news blackout on the MENA events,â€ according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The group said that one state radio presenter was forced off the air by censors after referencing Libya in a live program, and later received an indefinite suspension. In the Gambia, Taranga FM was taken off the air because of a program that translated international news reports into the local language, journalists told IPI in January. It was allowed to resume broadcasts only after agreeing to cancel the program, IPI was told. In Sudan, protests against the Khartoum government in January were met with violence, and protestors were reportedly subjected to physical and sexual assault. Security forces confiscated copies of newspapers that reported on these attacks, and other sensitive matters, and journalists reporting on these issues face detention and criminal charges of defamation. In China, journalists were harassed, censored, imprisoned and denied visas in an effort to pre-empt a â€œjasmine revolutionâ€ inspired by anti-government protests in the Middle East.

Violence against journalists continued in other parts of the world. Censorship, harassment and impunity emerged the main problems facing journalists in many parts of Asia. Official censorship, arrest and detention continue to greatly hinder press freedom in significant parts of Asia, where non-democratic governments clamped down on independent media to retain their grip on power.

According to information, the report also touched the release of Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatyullayev from jail in May. Impunity for attacks on journalists remained a major issue from Russia to the Balkans. Turkish and Belarusian governments were seriously criticized.

â€œEvents in the Middle East have demonstrated that people want access to information and accountability from their leaders, and the lengths they will go to achieve these goals. A free media is integral to all of these, and to democracy as a whole, â€ said Alison Bethel McKenzie, IPI Director.

â€œHowever, these events have also demonstrated the lengths that governments will go to, to prevent damaging truths from emerging, and to clamp down on free speech. This report is proof that around the world, there remain many lessons to be learned about respecting free speech and defending a free media.â€

â€œWe remain concerned about the number of deaths so far this year. In Iraq alone, eight journalists were killed in six months, as opposed to six in the whole of last year,â€ said Bethel McKenzie. â€œBased on the data so far, 2011 does not appear to be a good year for press freedom.â€