KARACHI: A total of 45 journalists were killed in connection with their work in the year 2021, research done by the International Press Institute (IPI) revealed on Thursday.

Seven of the killings took place in Mexico, six each in Afghanistan and India and three in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The sombre tally reflects the continued risks of doing journalism and reaffirms journalist safety as a global challenge.

The IPI in a statement called upon the authorities to end impunity for these crimes and to ensure the protection of journalists, who must be able to do their work freely and safely.

The IPI global network published its yearly Death Watch. IPI’s research shows that since the beginning of 2021, a total of 45 journalists were killed in connection with their work, or lost their lives on assignment.

Of these 45 journalists, 40 were male and five were female.

A total of 28 were targeted due to their work, while three were killed while covering conflict, two lost their lives covering civil unrest, and one journalist was killed while on assignment. Eleven cases are still under investigation.

The Death Watch includes names of journalists who were deliberately targeted because of their profession — either because of their reporting or simply because they were journalists — as well as those who lost their lives while covering conflict or while on assignment.

IPI’s list includes journalists, editors and reporters, as well as media workers who directly contribute to news content, such as camerapersons.

IPI’s statistics are based on the organisation’s regular monitoring of attacks on journalists. In addition, IPI works closely together with its network of members and with local journalism organisations to assess whether the killing of a journalist was likely to be work-related or not.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2021