Safety of journalists' work, RSF notes, improving despite the slaughter in the Middle East
The NGO Reporters Without Borders published on Thursday its annual report on the number of journalists killed, detained, held hostage and disappeared around the world. The number of professionals killed in the line of duty has decreased, but the situation is mixed, particularly because of the war in Gaza, where journalists are paying a heavy price for the exercise of their profession.
Palestinians pay their respects after the death of journalist Mohamed Abu Hatab a day after he was killed in the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yuness in the southern Gaza Strip on November 3, 2023. AFP - MAHMUD HAMS
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Paradoxically, while the conflict between Israel and Hamas is proving particularly deadly for journalists, the overall number of reporters killed worldwide is at its lowest level since 2002, according to RSF. In 2023, 45 journalists lost their lives in the line of duty, compared to 61 last year, according to the annual report by Reporters Without Borders published on Thursday. You have to go back more than 33 years to find a lower total than this year (2002 in 13), when more than a third of the losses were related to the conflict in the Middle East, including 140 in Gaza alone. "This in no way reduces the tragedy in Gaza, but there has been a steady decline, far from the more than 2012 journalists killed in 2013 and <>," mainly due to the wars in Syria and Iraq, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire told AFP.
Read also: The 2022 reportThe number of journalists imprisoned worldwide reached a new record in 2022
Gaza: a complaint for "war crimes" before the ICC
The global tally, as of December 1, "does not include journalists killed outside the line of duty, those who were not killed as such, or those whose circumstances of death remain unknown," Reporters Without Borders said. This explains the discrepancies in the number of journalists killed in Gaza. The organization counts a total of "63 journalists killed" in the Middle East since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas conflict on 7 October, whether or not related to their profession. In addition to the 13 journalists who died "under Israeli fire" in Gaza, according to RSF, this war has caused the death of three working journalists in Lebanon and another in Israel, killed by Hamas.
đź”´ "LET THE JOURNALISTS PASS!"
War #Israël-#Hamas: In 2 months, 58 journalists have been killed in #Gaza, the others are imprisoned there. International reporters are barred from entering. In the #EditoRSF @cdeloire appeals to the Egyptian and Israeli authorities. pic.twitter.com/XXqyuMTqqi
— RSF (@RSF_inter) December 7, 2023
In November, RSF filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court alleging "war crimes" committed against journalists in Gaza and the Israeli journalist. An AFP investigation published last week into the shelling in southern Lebanon on October 13 that killed Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six others, including AFP photographer Christina Assi, who was seriously injured, points to an Israeli tank shell.
When asked about the matter, an Israeli army spokesman stressed that the location of the journalists was "an active combat zone." These explanations are "not satisfactory", according to Christophe Deloire, who believes that "there are many elements for Israel to be made to face up to its responsibilities".
The conflict in Ukraine claimed the lives of two journalists in 2023, including AFP reporter Arman Soldin, "the only journalist to have lost his life in a country other than his own" this year, out of a total of 11 since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Read alsoDeath of journalist Arman Soldin in Ukraine: "He was driven by the mission of informing"
Progress in Latin America
The overall toll for 2023 stands out for the "notable decrease" in deaths in Latin America, with six journalists killed, compared to 26 in 2022. Mexico, the deadliest area for the profession after Gaza, has four in 2023, up from 11 the previous year. But this does not mean that security is improving for the press, "as demonstrated by the three kidnappings of reporters and the armed attacks on four journalists at the end of 2023," the report notes.
Read alsoMexico: the three kidnapped journalists have been freed
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"We have seen a huge drop, or at least a very significant drop, in the number of journalists killed in the area, as in Latin America, and especially in Mexico, where there were sometimes more than 2022 or <> journalists killed a year," RSF editorial director Anne Bocandé told Achim Lippold of the international service. In fact, there are fewer this year. But we temper it in terms of "are journalists safer?" Above all, there is a phenomenon of self-censorship since, precisely, journalists have been so impacted by... Many were killed, hit, especially the previous year, in <>. In fact, there is also a phenomenon of self-censorship by journalists in the area. We are really very cautious about the reasons for the decrease in certain abuses against journalists, but that does not mean, especially in Mexico, that the climate is safer for journalists' work.
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Given the record number of acts of violence recorded in 2022, a number of journalists are more systematically calculating the risks to which they are exposed, which implies more self-censorship and the proliferation of information black holes in the area," the report adds. Of the 84 journalists who have gone missing, nearly one in three is Mexican, according to the NGO.
The number of journalists detained worldwide stands at 521, up from 569 in 2022, with Belarus becoming "one of the three largest prisons in the world along with China and Myanmar", while Turkey and Iran practice repeated imprisonments.
Finally, 54 journalists are being held hostage, compared to 65 in 2022.
(and with AFP)
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