(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris, 18 July 2001 For immediate release Thirty-three Journalists Killed This Year: WAN A total of 33 journalists and other media workers have been killed in 2001, fueled by an epidemic of killings in Latin America and Asia, the World Association of Newspapers said Wednesday. One […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris, 18 July 2001
For immediate release
Thirty-three Journalists Killed This Year: WAN
A total of 33 journalists and other media workers have been killed in 2001, fueled by an epidemic of killings in Latin America and Asia, the World Association of Newspapers said Wednesday.
One third of the total - 11 journalists were slain in Latin American countries, with eight of them killed in Colombia. The Colombian killings all occurred in the last four months.
In Asia, nine journalists have been killed so far this year, with five of them slain in the Philippines.
“Although the number of journalists killed in warfare has declined from previous years, there is a disturbing increase in what appear to be retributive attacks,” said Timothy Balding, Director General of the Paris-based WAN. “This is true in Colombia, the most dangerous place in the world to practice journalism, and in the Philippines, where separatists may have been responsible for some of the murders this year. But it is also true in the heart of the European Union - in Spain, where Basque terrorists have been targeting journalists.”
Journalists and other media workers have been murdered in 18 other countries two each in Algeria and Mexico and one in Angola, Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, France, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Macedonia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Serbia, Spain, Somalia, Thailand, and Ukraine.
The 33 journalists killed so far this year compares with 30 killed in the same period last year. In all, 53 journalists were killed in 2000. The mid-year total is down subtantially from the 43 killed in the same period in 1999, when wars in Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone fueled the total.
Details of all the slayings can be found on the WAN web site at www.wan-press.org/pf/killed/index.html.
In the Basque region of Spain, an international conference to condemn violence against the media is being organised by WAN, along with two Spanish press associations. The conference, to be held in Bilbao on Friday, 14 September, will focus on violence in the Basque region but will also include reports from journalists working in violent conditions elsewhere in the world.
Information and registration information for the conference, which is co-sponsored by the Spanish Newspaper Publishers Association and the Federation of Spanish Regional Press Associations and will be hosted by the Grupo Correo, can be found on the WAN web-site at www.wan-press.org/pf/europe/basque.report/04.07.01.html.
WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 67 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and eight regional and world-wide press groups.
