PARIS – India has been ranked among top five most dangerous countries for journalists in 2021 in a ranking issued by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Mexico and Afghanistan are again the two deadliest countries, with seven journalists killed in Mexico and six in Afghanistan. “Yemen and India share third place, with four journalists killed in each country,” it added.
“Nonetheless, despite this remarkable fall, an average of nearly one journalist a week is still being killed in connection with their work. And RSF has established that 65% of the journalists killed in 2021 were deliberately targeted and eliminated,” read the RSF’s annual round-up report.
A record number of journalists – 488, including 60 women – are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage. Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in 2021 – 46 – is at its lowest in 20 years, it added.
The number of journalists detained in connection with their work has never been this high since RSF began publishing its annual round-up in 1995. RSF logged a total of 488 journalists and media workers in prison in mid-December 2021, or 20% more than at the same time last year.
“This exceptional surge in arbitrary detention is due, above all, to three countries – Myanmar, where the military retook power in a coup on 1 February 2021, Belarus, which has seen a major crackdown since Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020, and Xi Jinping’s China, which is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, the special administrative region once seen as a regional model of respect for press freedom.
“RSF has also never previously registered so many female journalists in prison, with a total of 60 currently detained in connection with their work – a third (33%) more than at this time last year. China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the fifth year running, is also the biggest jailer of female journalists, with 19 currently detained,” the report said.
