A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work last year, two-thirds of them by Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday.
It was the second consecutive year that press killings set a record and the second year in a row that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them, the CPJ, a New York-based independent organization which documents attacks on the press, said in its annual report.
Israeli fire killed 86 journalists last year, mostly Palestinians in Gaza, but also including 31 workers in an attack on a Houthi media center in Yemen, the second-deadliest attack the CPJ has ever recorded, it said.
Photo: AP)
Israel was also responsible for 81 percent of the 47 killings that the CPJ classified as intentionally targeted, or “murder.”
It said the actual figure was probably higher due to access restrictions that made verification difficult in Gaza.
“Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement. “We are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”
Israel’s military says its troops in Gaza target only combatants, but that operating in combat zones carries inherent risks. Israel acknowledged targeting the media center in Yemen in September last year, describing it at the time as a propaganda arm of the Houthis.
In several cases Israel has acknowledged targeting journalists in Gaza it said had links to Hamas, without providing verifiable evidence. International news organizations have strongly denied that slain reporters had links to militants.
The CPJ called such allegations by Israel “deadly smears.”
A statement from the Israeli Defense Forces said it “strongly rejects” the claims presented in the CPJ report.
At least 104 of the 129 journalists killed died in connection with conflicts, the report said.
Apart from Gaza and Yemen, the deadliest countries for journalists include Sudan, where nine were killed, and Mexico, where six died.
Four Ukrainian journalists were killed by Russian forces and three journalists died in the Philippines, it said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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