WAR-TORN Iraq remains the world’s deadliest country for journalists. The Philippines and Russia also continue to rank among the deadliest nations for the press—and among the worst in solving the murders.
So concluded the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists in its yearend analysis as it recorded 41 journalists killed in line of their work for 2008. Eleven deaths were recorded in Iraq.
The CPJ, which is undertaking an international campaign in journalist murders especially in the Philippines and Russia, said two journalists—Dennis Cuesta and Martin Roxas, both from radio—were killed this year after reporting on local controversies. Another two were slain in Russia.
The committee noted a shift in what it described as “global hot spots,” citing the many deaths in restive areas of Asia and the Caucasus, including 13 in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India, three in Thailand and three in Georgia.
Bolivia and Cambodia also made the CPJ list of places with journalist deaths in 2008.
Murder remained the leading cause of work-related deaths, the CPJ said.
More than 90 percent of the slain journalists were covering the news for local, regional, and international news outlets, the CPJ said.