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E-mailThe year 2009 yielded the most recorded incidents, so far, of media killings in the Philippines, said New York-based media group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The high number has helped push the death toll of journalists worldwide to its highest level since the CPJ started monitoring deaths, the organization said.
The CPJ, a “non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide,” has been keeping track of worldwide violence against media men and journalists since 1981.
The annual report, which was released Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan, revealed that at least 71 journalists were killed worldwide, the highest recorded number of deaths involving media practitioners in nearly two decades.
The previous highest recorded number of journalist killings was in 2007, during the height of the US war on Iraq.
Of 71 confirmed deaths, 51 were murders – the worst of which was the November 23 Maguindanao massacre where 29 local journalists perished.
“No single event has claimed as many journalists' lives in the 18 years since CPJ began compiling detailed records. The journalists were not directly targeted for their work, but were the victims of a long-running feud between two rival political clans competing for supremacy in the area,” read the CPJ report.
The Philippines also ranked first in the list of deadliest countries for journalists with 33 killed in 2009. Far behind are Somalia and Iraq with 9 and 4, respectively.
Politics proved to be the deadliest beat for journalists, with 68 percent of total deaths in the CPJ report being of reporters assigned to cover political topics. Reporters covering wars came in second (25 percent), while those covering topics on corruption and human rights violations tied at 10 percent.
While the Philippines has the most number of murdered journalists in the CPJ report, China holds the record for the most number of incarcerated journalists, with 24 in 2009. CPJ also reported a total of 136 media practitioners jailed around the world at the close of the year.
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