NEW YORK: The media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in a report released on Wednesday that “Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world” for working journalists.

It said seven reporters lost their lives in the line of duty in 2013 in the country.

The report blamed the government’s “unwillingness to administer justice”. Four of the reporters were killed in Balochistan, which is wracked by militant violence.

Cameraman Imran Shaikh and his colleague Saifur Rehman were among those killed after rushing to cover a bomb blast which hit Quetta in January 2013. Both men died after being hit by a second blast that occurred ten minutes after the first.

The report comes two months after the media monitoring branch of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) reported the number of journalists killed in the country in 2013 stood at 11.

AFP adds: Press freedom was also under increasing threat from abuses by democracies like the United States, the media watchdog group said.

In its annual World Press Freedom Index, the Paris-based body warned of the “growing threat worldwide” from the “tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner”.

The US was singled out for its pursuit of intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the conviction of WikiLeaks informer Bradley Manning and the secret seizure of phone records from the Associated Press.