Deadly year for journalists in 2022: CPJ

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: CPJ
25 Jan 2023 13:20
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In several "democratic" states and the Israeli occupation, the press is subject to violence and 2022 records the highest number of deaths.

A mural of murdered Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, is seen on a wall in Gaza City on May 15, 2022. (AP)

The year 2022 recorded the highest number of killings among the press. Almost 70 journalists and media workers were killed during the year-the highest number since 2018 and an almost 50% increase from 2021, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.

A spike in press killings was recorded during the war in Ukraine and Latin America.

CPJ confirms that at least 41 journalists were killed on their job, and is investigating the reasons behind the killings of 26 others to determine whether they were work-related.

More than 50% of the 67 killings were recorded in Ukraine (15), Mexico (13), and Haiti (7), which are the highest yearly numbers CPJ has ever recorded.

On the other hand, reporters in Mexico and Haiti were targets of brutal murders for their work. Mexico continues to feature on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which highlights countries where the killers of journalists get away with murder.

Other journalists were killed during the year for covering brutality inside Occupied Palestine and Myanmar, the environmental disasters in Brazil, and politics in Turkey and the United States. These deaths highlight the extent of threat journalists are under, including from so-called democratic governments.

Journalists covering the Ukraine war

During the war in Ukraine in 2022, at least 15 journlaists were killed. CPJ confirmed that 13 of them were engaged in newsgathering and reporting.

Most were killed during the early stages of the war, and CPJ has not documented any work-related journalist killings in Ukraine since the late May death of French cameraman Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff. However, the situation on the ground remains dangerous: journalists are frequently injured by shelling while covering the war.

It is worth noting that last year in September, the press service of the Kherson regional administration considered the missile strike on a hotel where journalists lived in the center of Kherson is a terrorist attack, for which the military and political leadership of Ukraine is responsible.

Earlier that day, it was reported that Ukrainian troops shelled a hotel in the center of Kherson with US-supplied HIMARS systems, and two people were killed as a result.

"The missile attack on the hotel is a planned terrorist act, the responsibility for which is borne by the military and political leadership of Ukraine," the regional administration said.

Deadliest region to practice journalism

CPJ documented 30 journalists killed in Latin America in 2022, accounting for nearly half of the global total—a reflection of the high risk that journalists in the region face when covering issues such as crime, corruption, gang violence, and the environment. At least 12 journalists have been killed in direct relation to their work in Latin America, and CPJ is still investigating the motives in the deaths of 18 others.

The Committee documented 13 journalists killed in Mexico, the highest number ever in a single year. Journalists were murdered in three of those cases in retaliation for their reporting on crime and politics, and they had received threats prior to their deaths.

Early last year, one of Mexico's well-known newscasters was returning from work at about 11 pm through his peaceful neighborhood in the capital when gunmen on a motorcycle rode up and began firing at him. They repeatedly struck his car before speeding away.

The anchor, Ciro Gómez Leyva, escaped unharmed, apparently saved by bullet-resistant glass windows that withstood several direct shots. “Someone wanted to kill me,” Gómez Leyva said on his newscast the following day. “I don’t know why. I don’t know who.”

Moreover, a month before, a Mexican journalist was assassinated in the central state of Guanajuato while working at his family's bar, the latest fatality in a terrible year for the country's media.

In Haiti, on the other hand, journalists covering gang violence, the political crisis, and civil unrest sparked by President Jovenel Mossé's assassination in July 2021 have faced an alarming increase in violent attacks.

At least five journalists were killed in 2022 in relation to the work, and CPJ is investigating the motive in two other deaths. In two of those cases, the journalists were killed by the police.

Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder highlights Israeli impunity

In May 2022, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, whom the Israeli occupation forces shot in the head with a live bullet. The Israeli occupation aggressed against Jenin refugee camp, north of the occupied West Bank, at a time when journalists covered the storming of the camp.

Abu Akleh, according to the ministry, was hit by a live bullet before being rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

A week before the incident, "Israel" arrested 15 Palestinian journalists on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Abu Akleh’s murder was the latest example of Israeli impunity for crimes against the press.