This was Ukraine’s first time in the top five since INSI began keeping casualty records over a decade ago.

Eastern Ukraine has been gripped by violence after protests in the capital Kiev toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich earlier this year, sparking fighting between nationalists and pro-Russia separatists.

At least five members of the news media have been killed in the country’s east over the past two months. Veteran Russian cameraman Anatoly Klyan was killed when the bus he was travelling in, headed towards a Ukrainian military base, came under attack just north of Donetsk. Russian television journalist Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin died after being hit by mortar fire while they were reporting near Lugansk. Italian journalist Andrea Ronchelli was killed alongside his Russian interpreter Andrey Mironov in May as they covered fighting between government forces and pro-Russian insurgents near Slaviansk.

Countless other journalists in the region have been threatened, attacked and kidnapped.

Six journalists have also died in Iraq where government forces and their allies has been battling an insurgency spearheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Iraq has consistently been among the most dangerous countries for journalists, who are victims of threats and violence from security forces and armed groups. However, the security situation has deteriorated considerably since ISIS began a major offensive in June. Cameraman Khalid Ali of Al-Ahad TV and freelance photographer Kamran Najm Ibrahim both lost their lives in June while covering the fighting between pro-government forces and militants in Diyala province and Kirkuk.

Syria and Pakistan were the third and fourth most dangerous places for journalists, with five members of the news media killed in each country. Syria was the most dangerous country in 2013 and 2012.

Four journalists were killed in Afghanistan in the first six months of the year and three in the Philippines.

The biannual Killing the Messenger report, carried out for INSI by the Cardiff School of Journalism and compiled in cooperation with INSI’s regional contacts, is an analysis of media casualties around the globe. INSI records all deaths, whether deliberate, accidental or health-related, of journalists, media workers and support staff who are killed while on assignment or as a result of an attack on their news organisation.

According to our research, 61 journalists have died carrying out their work so far this year – a worrying rise in the global death toll, as 40 journalists had died by this time in 2013. This latest figure is a conservative estimate as INSI has identified 14 journalists and support staff who also died this year, though it is unclear if their deaths were related to their work in the media.

According to the report, 36 journalists lost their lives in armed conflict situations, with 25 killed in peacetime covering issues such as crime and corruption.

Local journalists bore the brunt of the deadly violence aimed at news media, with 49 killed covering their own country.

Most of the killers of journalists enjoyed complete impunity with suspects identified and arrests made in just seven cases.

INSI calls on all parties in these countries to respect the safety of journalists and allow them to go about their business free from harm or threat of harm.

MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRIES
UKRAINE: 7
IRAQ: 6
SYRIA: 5
PAKISTAN: 5
AFGHANISTAN: 4
PHILIPPINES: 3

EMPLOYER/COMMISSIONER
TV: 23
RADIO: 16
PRESS: 14
NEWS AGENCY: 6
ONLINE: 1
UNKNOWN: 1

STATUS IN COUNTRY
LOCAL: 49
FOREIGN: 12

Other journalist support groups that are members of INSI maintain separate casualty records based on their own criteria including the International Press Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the World Association of Newspapers.

International News Safety Institute

Calling the sentences “unjustifiable”, the IPI Executive Board said that prosecutors failed to provide relevant evidence in court to support accusations that journalists Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed aired false news and aided the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation banned in Egypt.

Reminding Egypt of its constitutional and international obligations to respect the right to freedom of expression, IPI urged El-Sisi to immediately grant a full presidential pardon to all journalists convicted in Egypt in connection with their work.

The full text of the letter appears below.

His Excellency
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Heliopolis Palace
Cairo, Egypt

Vienna, June 26, 2014

Re: Conviction and Sentencing of Al Jazeera Journalists

Your Excellency,

As members of the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of leading publishers, editors and journalists, we are deeply concerned by the recent convictions and sentencing of three Al Jazeera journalists currently imprisoned in Egypt, as well as by six other sentences pronounced against journalists in absentia.

Three well-respected journalists – Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed – have been held in Egyptian custody for the past nine months. On Monday, Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to prison terms of seven years and Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years behind bars. These sentences are unjustifiable, with no real evidence having been presented in court proceedings.

Fahmy, Greste and Mohamed were charged with broadcasting fabricated news reports and assisting the Muslim Brotherhood in spreading negative propaganda critical of the Egyptian state. It is worth noting that Egypt declared the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization only days before the journalists’ arrest.

Furthermore, when asked to provide evidence in court, the prosecution did not present anything relevant. Instead, they submitted unrelated evidence including personal photos from family vacation and previous news reports filmed in other countries, as well as a news report apparently made when none of the journalists were in Egypt.

We would like to remind Your Excellency that Egypt has signed and ratified international human rights treaties – including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – that include clear provisions requiring states to ensure respect of the right to freedom of expression. The imprisonment and lengthy sentence of Al Jazeera journalists – and any other journalist currently jailed in Egypt for their work – is a clear violation of international commitments.

Furthermore, in January 2014, Egyptian voters approved an amended Constitution which includes strong guarantees for freedom of expression and bans government interference in the news media. This is a clear expression of the will of the people in Egypt to live in a country where their fundamental liberties are respected and their right to know is not limited under the pretext of too-broadly understood anti-state charges.

We believe that the ability of foreign and local news media to freely cover important political developments in Egypt is an essential part of building a more stable and democratic Egypt. A free press, both local and foreign, is an essential safeguard for the protection of the democratic rights of the people. Actions aimed at silencing critical media, such as the egregious sentences handed down on June 23, undercut assertions that Egypt has embraced democracy and they constitute a serious blemish on the country’s record.

Accordingly, we urge you and all authorities in Egypt to abide by the new constitutional protections regarding press freedom and freedom of expression.

With this letter, we join a multitude of voices – including those of governments, human rights groups, journalists and private citizens – in urging Your Excellency to immediately grant a full presidential pardon to all journalists sentenced in Egypt in connection with their work.

Yours sincerely,
IPI Chair
Galina Sidorova, Chairperson, Foundation for Investigative Journalism – Foundation 19/29, Russia
IPI Vice Chairs
Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Editor-in-Chief & CEO, Boishakhi TV, Bangladesh
Ken MacQuarrie, Director, BBC Scotland, UK
John Yearwood, World Editor, The Miami Herald, USA
IPI Executive Board Members
Owais Aslam Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Press International (PPI), Pakistan
George Brock, Professor and Head of Journalism, City University, UK
Carl-Eugen Eberle, Former Director of Legal Affairs, ZDF German Television, Germany
Michael Ehrenreich, Editor, Denmark
Sami El Haj, Head, Human Rights and Public Liberties Desk, Al Jazeera Media Network, Qatar
Linus Gitahi, Group CEO, Nation Media Group, Kenya
Daniel Hadad, CEO, Grupo Infobae, Argentina
Ferial Haffajee, Editor-in-Chief, City Press, South Africa
Tom Hetland, Editor, Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
Daoud Kuttab, Director General, Community Media Network; Founder, AmmanNet, Jordan
Pavol Múdry, Founder and Former General Manager, SITA-Slovak News Agency, Slovakia
Umud Mirzayev, Chairman, International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF), Azerbaijan
Kaius Niemi, Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Sanoma Media, Finland
N. Ravi, Editor-in-Chief and Director, The Hindu, India
Martha Steffens, Professor, SABEW Chair in Business and Financial Reporting, University of Missouri School of Journalism, USA
Dawn Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, One Caribbean Media Ltd., Trinidad & Tobago
Ferai Tinç, Former Foreign Editor and Columnist, Hürriyet, Turkey
Toshihiko Uji, Advisor, Chunichi Shimbun, Japan
Kabiru Yusuf, Chairman, Media Trust Ltd, Nigeria

International Press Institute

Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) suspended Geo TV, Pakistan’s largest television network, on June 6 for a period of 15 days and fined them 10 million rupees (approx. €75,000) after receiving a complaint from the Ministry of Defence. If the fine is not paid before the end of the suspension period, the suspension of the license will continue.

The complaint related to Geo News’ coverage of an April 19 Opens external link in new window attack on news anchor Hamid Mir. His brother, Amir, told the station on air that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, was responsible for the attack on his brother and that the agency had threatened the journalist in the past.

Following Amir’s statement, Geo TV repeatedly aired the allegations over the following eight hours without providing a clear basis for the accusation against the intelligence agency, Secretary General of Pakistan Press Foundation Owais Aslam Ali told IPI in an interview.

Geo TV and Jang Media Group, a Geo affiliate, subsequently Opens external link in new windowapologised to Pakistan’s armed forces and the ISI, admitting that its coverage of the attack on Mir had been “excessive, distressful and emotional”. Nevertheless, the broadcast not only led to tensions between Geo and the military, but also caused an outcry by other media outlets that believed Geo’s actions were anti-state and anti-army.

“The biggest threat we face right now is that this is the first time for many decades that there has been a split between the media organisations themselves,” Ali, who is also a member of the IPI Executive Board, said. “The internal division in the media is a bigger threat to press freedom than the external threats.”

That challenge joins a host of others that journalists in Pakistan face, Ali told IPI.

Before this instance, he noted, there had never been success in blocking a media outlet to such a heavy degree.

The current sentiment against Geo TV has also led to a rise in physical attacks and threats against journalists working for the station and its affiliates. Several attacks on newspaper delivery trucks have also been reported in recent weeks.

In one incident, journalist Zafar Aheer was returning home from work on June 1 when six armed men attacked and severely injured him. Aheer was quoted in Opens external link in new windowlocal news reports as saying that the attackers had called him a traitor because he works for Jang Media Group.

“The media has not been able to generate support for press freedom,” Ali said. “Now the public support for press freedom has dwindled to an extent not seen in my lifetime.”

To fix the current situation in Pakistan, Ali said, the country needs to return to normalcy and media organisations need to begin to work on healing the wounds.

In the long term, he continued, media outlets need their own code of conduct, as well as professional editors to decide what airs on TV to avoid a situation akin to the current Geo crisis. Ali also suggested the creation of a self-regulatory complaint system for media content, something Pakistan does not yet have in place.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Barbara Trionfi echoed Ali’s comments, adding: “The suspension of a broadcaster as a consequence of an editorial mistake, for which they have publicly apologised, is an entirely disproportionate remedy. Pakistan is failing to keep true not only to its constitutional and international press freedom obligations, but also to the recent promise expressed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on March 19, when, in a meeting with a Committee to Protect Journalists delegation, he Opens external link in new windowpledged to expand press freedom and to speak out in support of the safety of journalists.”

For more information, contact: Barbara Trionfi, IPI Press Freedom Manager, at +43 (1) 512 90 11 or by e-mail Opens window for sending emailbtrionfi[@]freemedia.at

International Press Institute

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on Mir’s car as the journalist was driving on his way from the Karachi airport to the studios of Geo TV. Mir, who was hit by six bullets, was rushed to a local hospital. According to reports, the journalist is currently in stable condition.

Following the attack, Mir’s brother, Amir, a well known investigative journalist with The News International, publicly stated that “elements in the ISI and its chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam should be blamed” for the attack against his brother. But a spokesman for the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, said “that allegations against ISI or [the] head of ISI without any basis is highly regrettable and misleading”, The Express Tribune reported.

Commenting on the attack, International Press Institute (IPI) Executive Board Member Owais Ali told IPI: “Despite high sounding commitments to press freedom, the attempted murder on the life of IPI member Hamid Mir demonstrates the callous attitude of Pakistani government to providing security to media personnel and institutions.”

In March this year, following a meeting with a Committee to Protect Journalists’ delegation, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to take steps to stop attacks against journalists. But journalists across the country have staged demonstrations condemning the attack against Mir and the government’s failure to ensure safety for their colleagues.

“Hamid Mir, who is the anchor of one of Pakistan’s most popular talk show, was shot by an assailant who knew of Mir’s travel plans,” Ali, who is also Chairman of Pakistan Press International (PPI), explained to IPI today, highlighting the failure of police to stop the attackers.

“After shooting at Mir’s car, the attacker was given a ride on a motorcyclist by an accomplice and was joined by another motorcyclist and car, who chased Mir for many miles as they continued to shoot at his car.

“All this happened in broad daylight in one of the busiest roads of Pakistan’s largest city. The attackers were not challenged by any law enforcement agencies and they easily managed to escape.”

Ali noted: “Those in authority knew of the threats to the life of Mir and yet they did absolutely nothing to provide security to Mir.”

Following the event, which was strongly condemned by Pakistan’s politicians, Prime Minister Sharif ordered a judicial inquiry into the attack and decided to constitute a three-member judicial commission to probe the murder attempt on Mir. On Monday Pakistan’s Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani approved the names of three Supreme Court judges to form the judicial commission.

“The setting up of the judicial commission by the government to investigate the attack is welcome and it is hoped that the commission will be able to fix the responsibility for the attack,” Ali told IPI. “The government also needs to ensure that the report of the commission is released to the public. Furthermore, the government should immediately make public the report of a similar judicial commission that investigated the murder of journalist Hayatullah Khan who was murdered in 2006.

“There is also need to seriously investigate allegations by Mir’s brother that Mir had told his family, employers, government officials and army officials that some officials of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, including ISI’s chief Lt. Gen Zaheerul Islam had prepared a plan to eliminate him.”

Journalists in Pakistan are often targeted because of their coverage and impunity remains a major problem. According to the IPI Death Watch, nine journalists were killed in 2013 in Pakistan, where IPI has recorded some of the highest figures of journalists killed in the past 10 years.

In November 2012, Mir escaped a bid on his life, after an explosive device was found under his car. Local and international news outlets reported that the attack may have been connected with Mir’s coverage of the shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, for which he received open criticism by the Pakistani Taliban. On that occasion, IPI reported that Mir, who does not shy away from covering the sensitive political and security situation, said he could not be sure who was behind the act, as he had received threats from the Taliban as well as from “state actors”.

IPI

“The recent threats to newsman will have chilling effects on media’s functioning. We believe media should be able to report freely on any issues including politics, military, governance and trials without any fear and threat,” said Alison Bethel McKenzie, executive director of IPI in an interview with The News, on the sideline of the 63rd World Congress which began here on Sunday.

She said the state of media in Pakistan is horrible with nine journalist killed in the country during the last year and many receiving threats this year.Several journalists belonging to ‘The News’ have received life threats after reporting and expressing their opinion on the trial of former military dictator General (R) Pervez Musharraf.

The IPI Executive Director also expressed concern over attack on other Pakistani media outlets reportedly by some militant groups.She said the restoration of democracy has slightly improved the status of media freedom in Pakistan but the government must ensure that everyone can report on all kind of issues without any fear.

Earlier the speakers at the IPI World Congress acknowledged that Pakistan has become one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media persons. Nine journalists were killed in the country in 2013 alone.

The IPI has also urged the governments across the globe to abolish anti-media legislation including criminal defamation, protection of secrecy and other laws and stop persecution of journalists.

Around 300 journalists from all over the world have converged here to discuss ways to protect freedom of media around the globe, at a time when journalists around the world are facing grave threats from vested interests for exposing corruption, injustice and violation of human rights.

In her Executive Director’s Report: The State of Press Freedom, McKenzie said so far over 20 journalists have been killed in the year 2014 across the globe while 119 had been killed in 2013.

“Nine journalists were killed last year in Pakistan, 13 in the Philippines, 11 in India … and three in Afghanistan. In many Asian countries, the authorities fail to address threats and crimes against journalists. Violence has become a powerful deterrent to the coverage of certain sensitive issues,” she added.

She said traditional and new media are thriving in many parts of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and might grow even more if freed of the clutches of government control.The International Press Institute is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists founded in 1950.

During the conference participating journalists also held a peaceful demonstration to protest the continued detention of the three Al-Jazeera journalists by the Egyptian government.

Charged with falsifying news and involvement with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, these journalists are under detention since 29 December 2013.

The News