Annual review of press freedom in 2014
The annual balance sheet of Reporters Without Borders shows that significantly more media professionals were kidnapped in 2014 than in 2013, and twice as many fled abroad as in the previous year. The number of media workers killed fell slightly, but remains high.
Media professionals must increasingly expect to be kidnapped in the course of their work: Reporters Without Borders (ROG) counted 119 kidnappings of journalists worldwide in 2014 - 37 percent more than in 2013. This is shown in the current ROG annual press freedom report. Compared to 2013, the total number of journalists (139) and citizen journalists (20) who had to flee abroad to escape threats, violence or state reprisals has more than doubled. 66 journalists, slightly fewer than in 2013, were killed because of their work, as were 19 citizen journalists and 11 media employees.
In some regions, a new and frightening type of violence has emerged in the treatment of journalists: Media-effectively staged beheadings by IS and mass attacks against journalists in some countries are evidence of an inhumane attitude and extreme disregard for freedom of information. ROG demands that media professionals must be protected more effectively than before, especially in crisis regions.
As in the previous year, the world's most dangerous country for media professionals in 2014 was Syria: 15 professional journalists and 17 citizen journalists were killed there and 27 media professionals were kidnapped. The most dangerous countries and territories for media professionals this year included the Palestinian territories, particularly the Gaza Strip, as well as eastern Ukraine, Iraq and Libya.
There are currently 178 journalists in prison worldwide because of their work. The number of imprisoned citizen journalists is just as high. In many countries, the latter use social networks to fill the information gaps left by repression, censorship or self-censorship in reporting by the traditional media. The countries with the most imprisoned journalists are China (29), Eritrea (28), Iran (19), Egypt (16) and Syria (13). In addition to China (73), Iran (27) and Syria (17), a particularly large number of citizen journalists are also in prison in Vietnam (27) and Saudi Arabia (9). Reporters Without Borders recorded the highest number of escaped media professionals from Libya (43), Syria (37) and Ethiopia (31).
You can find the complete balance sheet here (PDF).
