(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 22 January 2002 WAN press release: Paris, 22 January 2002 For immediate release Sixty Journalists Killed in 2001: WAN Sixty journalists and other media workers were killed world-wide in 2001, with Latin America remaining the most dangerous region in which to practice journalism, the World Association of Newspapers said […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 22 January 2002 WAN press release:
Paris, 22 January 2002
For immediate release
Sixty Journalists Killed in 2001: WAN
Sixty journalists and other media workers were killed world-wide in 2001, with Latin America remaining the most dangerous region in which to practice journalism, the World Association of Newspapers said Tuesday.
War and terrorism also took a heavy toll.
Sixteen journalists were killed in Latin America in 2001. Ten of them died in Colombia alone, the highest death toll for any single country. Two journalists were killed in Mexico and one each in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Paraguay.
The war in Afghanistan proved a deadly assignment, claiming the lives of eight journalists. Two journalists in the United States were killed as a result of terrorist attacks: photographer William Boggart, who rushed to the World Trade Center to cover the September 11 tragedy and was killed, with thousands of others, in the collapse of the towers; and William Stevens, a photo editor in Florida who died after inhaling anthrax spores mailed to the newspaper where he worked.
The Philippines was also a deadly place to practice journalism: four journalists were killed there in 2001.
Journalists were murdered in 25 other countries and territories: Algeria (2), Angola (1), Bangladesh (2), China (1), France (1), Georgia (1), Haiti (1), India (1), Indonesia (1), Palestinian Territories (2), Iraq (1), Kosovo (1), Kuwait (1), Latvia (1), Macedonia (1), Nigeria (1), Russia (1), Serbia (1), Somalia (1), Spain (1), Swaziland (1), Thailand (2), Uganda (1), Ukraine (2), United Kingdom (1).
The 2001 death toll compares with 53 killed in 2000 and 71 killed in 1999. Twenty-eight journalists died in 1998 and 26 in 1997.
Details on all the deaths (in English) can be found on the WAN web site at www.wan-press.org/pf/killed/2001.html
Colombia has long been the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. Thirty-one have been murdered since 1997, dozens have been kidnapped and over 100 have fled into exile. The country will be the site of a “Media in Danger” conference in March organised by WAN, the World Editors Forum and the Colombian newspaper association Andiarios, in partnership with the Inter American Press Association.
Information about the conference can be found on the WAN web site at http://www.wan-press.org/pf/latin.america/media.in.danger.html.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 14 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.
