A total of 110 reporters were killed in the course of their work in 2009 making the year the most lethal for journalists in the past decade, the International Press Institute said on Thursday.
"This decade is unlike any other, because, in conflict countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Pakistan, it has seen the deliberate targeting of journalists," World Press Freedom Review Managing Editor Anthony Mills said.
"Such a departure has changed the face of conflict reporting, leading to less coverage and therefore a worrying vacuum in the understanding of these complex events," Mills said.
Of the 735 journalists killed worldwide in the past decade, 170 were killed in Iraq, making it the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, the report said.
The Philippines was the second most dangerous country, with 93 killed there between 2000 and 2009. A total of 38 journalists were killed in the Philippines in 2009, including 32 of them in a November 23 massacre of reporters during gubernatorial elections.
The third most dangerous country was Colombia, where 58 journalists were murdered over the last 10 years with six in 2009, many of them victims of violence between government troops, outlawed arms groups and drug cartels, according to the review.
Mexico - where drug cartels are involved in a violent standoff with the security forces - is the fourth most dangerous country, with 38 killed in the last decade. A total of 11 were murdered there in 2009.
Russia occupies a high fifth place, with 35 journalists murdered between 2000 and 2009, five of them last year.
"There has been in Russia a culture of impunity for years now when it comes to the murder of journalists," Mills said. "And in the vast majority of cases, the assailants were never caught, never punished, never prosecuted, and when you have a culture of impunity like that, it simply emboldens other would-be killers, other would-be attackers to do the same thing."
Asia was named at the most dangerous region for journalists this decade, with 238 journalists, or 33% of all the decade's victims, murdered there. Thirty-one journalists were killed in Pakistan. Then comes the Middle East and North Africa. The Americas ranks behind them with 162 journalists killed, including seven in the United States.
Europe ranks fourth, due to the high death toll in Russia, making up 9% of the world total for 2000-2009.
In the Middle East and North Africa, as elsewhere across the world, impunity for those who murder, assault, harass and intimidate journalists remained the unacceptable norm, the organization said.
IPI also issued recommendations to help promote and improve free press, which included recommendations to pass legislative amendments, address arbitrary detention, censorship and political pressure on editors and journalists.
MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti)
