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January 7,2022

Andrew Campbell 

According to the most recent data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), fifty-five journalists and media professionals were killed in 2021. Only two regions accounted for the majority of deaths in 2021: Asia-Pacific (23 deaths) and Latin America and the Caribbean (14 deaths).

Two-thirds of victims perished in countries without armed conflict in 2021, according to the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists. This is a stunning reverse of the scenario in 2013, when two-thirds of all fatalities occurred in war-torn countries.

According to UNESCO, journalists continue to face high rates of incarceration, physical assault, intimidation, and harassment around the world, including when reporting protests. Women journalists, in particular, are subjected to shockingly high levels of online harassment. According to an earlier UNESCO report released in April, over three-quarters of women journalists surveyed had encountered online violence, as a result of their profession, a shocking prevalence.

While the figure for 2021 is the lowest yearly death toll in more than a decade, UNESCO claims that impunity for crimes is still common. Furthermore, eighty-seven percent of all journalist deaths since 2006 have gone unsolved.